Back Population with Funnel Metrics

Funnel Metrics Back Population

Funnel stages are arranged sequentially, but lead behavior? Sometimes that's a little less predictable. That's why Funnel Metrics allows stages to be skipped. For example, in a classic FCI default funnel, a lead might progress straight from Marketing Qualified Lead to Sales Qualified Lead without stopping at the customary Sales Accepted Lead stage at all. When this happens, Funnel Metrics back-populates the skipped stages with the required data. That's why it's so important to consider the funnel as a whole, and to make sure your funnel stages are arranged in the proper order for your company.

In this example, the SAL date has the same value as the SQL date. This often indicates that the SAL stage was skipped, and therefore inherited the same value as SQL:

How It Works

When a funnel stage is skipped (let's call that stage n), it will always be evaluated after the next funnel stage in the sequence (n + 1). Check out our example above: This lead reached the MQL stage on November 4, 2020, but it never met the criteria for SAL. Then, 12 days later on November 16th, the lead reached the SQL stage. Because SAL was skipped, it (stage n) was evaluated after the SQL (n+1) funnel stage - in this case, SQL.

What happens when more than one funnel stage gets skipped? Good question! In this example, two funnel stages get skipped:

In this example, both SAL and SQL were skipped. As a result, SQO (n+2) will be evaluated, then SQL (n+1), and then SAL (n).

Back Population and Dates

The checkbox fields in the "Funnel Fields to Populate" section for skipped funnel stages are pretty simple: If the criteria are met, the checkbox field is checked.

The date and date/time fields in the "Funnel Fields to Populate" section for skipped funnel stages are a bit more complex. Here's the logic Funnel Metrics uses when populating date and date/time fields for skipped funnel stages:

• If there is a Source Field and the Source Field is populated, use that date or date/time value.
• If there is a Source Field and the Source Field is null, then use the funnel date or date/time for the next funnel stage (n+1).
• If there is no Source Field, use the funnel date or date/time for the next funnel stage (n+1).
• If the next (n+1) funnel stage is a formula field, use that date.
• If the next (n+1) funnel stage date or date/time is null, use the subsequent (n+2) funnel date or date/time

Milestones

Unlike funnel stages, milestone stages are standalone, not sequential. Because they are not sequential, by definition, they cannot be skipped.