Lead funnel

What is the lead funnel?

The lead funnel metric provides an overview of leads in development during the period, presenting the number of leads in each stage. Lead stages such as MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads), SAL (Sales Approved Leads) and SQL (Sales Qualified Leads) are important steps in developing leads into pipeline opportunities. Measuring the number of leads in each stage is a basic requirement of revenue and marketing operations.

Why is the lead funnel important to measure?

Tracking the number and current status of leads is a critical responsibility of revenue and marketing leaders. The lead funnel is one of marketing’s best tools in increasing the number, quality and conversion rate of leads.

Use the lead funnel metric to monitor and improve lead development from the top of the funnel all the way to conversion to pipeline opportunities.

How is the lead funnel calculated?

The lead funnel is calculated by counting the number of leads that are found in each stage during each period. Stage changes are tracked by timestamp fields that indicate when a lead entered and exited each stage.

There are three common variations of the Lead Funnel which are used for different purposes and have their own pros and cons:

• Lead funnel (active - default) - The number of leads that were active in the stage at any point during the period answers the question “what was the total number of leads in each stage during each period?”
• Lead funnel by entry cohort - The number of leads which entered the stage during the period (cohort) answers the question “how many new leads were created and moved into each stage of the lead funnel?”
• Lead funnel snapshot - The number of leads that were active in the stage at the end of the period answers the question “what was the number of leads in each stage of the funnel when the period ended?”

Get all the SaaS metrics you need

The lead funnel is only one of the hundreds of SaaS metrics that are available out-of-the-box to users of the Sightfull revenue analysis and optimization platform. They include all the critical metrics required for SaaS companies - from indicators regarding campaigns and leads, through those that track pipeline, conversion and bookings, and all the way to later signals such as retention and expansion.

These highly precise customizable metrics are automatically calculated based on a large repository of SaaS industry standards, best practices and benchmarks. This saves lots of time for RevOps teams since they don’t have to rely on data analysts for support, waste time on error-prone spreadsheets, or manually create and update dozens of reports.

Sightfull users also receive dozens of pre-built dashboards based on these metrics, enabling them to easily investigate revenue trends at a highly granular level, identify their root causes, and act on proactive insights regarding time-sensitive business issues. 

Related Metrics

• Average lead cycle length

Also known as

• Lead generation funnel
• Lead conversion funnel
• Lead nurturing funnel
• Conversion funnel