Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Excel File I Need To Interpret. Help!

Posted by kennyholmes on 6/7/2015 at 6:02 PM ET 500 Points
I just got a very large data file, excel, I need to interpret and come back with what I think of it and what I think it means we should do. There are only 5 columns. Title of Lead, State, Lead Source, Lead Status and inquiry.

Lead source has Web Research, Outsourced Lead, Tradeshow, Company Website ... Almost all leads are from Web Research which I think means sales team independently finding the lead.

Lead Status has Contacted, attempted to contact, out of business, demoed, work with partner, contact in future, ... most of them are not contacted.

State is obviously just whatever state it is from.

So basically I think I need to turn the data into a pivot table, and report my findings. This is where I'm stuck. I am not sure what I should be looking for or what the data tells me? Just a quick glance is telling me that almost all the leads have been from web research and almost all of them are attempted to contact or not contacted. Very few demos, sales, etc ....

What do you look for when you get a large file of data?
What could I possibly gleam from such, imo, vague data?

I would be willing to send the file to someone to let them have a look at it if anyone would be kind enough to take a few minutes out of their day to help me.

This site is great, I love picking the brains of those way more experienced and smarter than me. Any help or thoughts are appreciated.

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 6/7/2015 at 6:10 PM Accepted
    I'd look for commonalities of the few that have progressed to the demo or sales stage. Anything that distinguishes them from the others?

    Do you have dates of initial contact? How about name of person assigned to contact?
  • Posted by kennyholmes on 6/7/2015 at 6:13 PM Author
    Most of the dates are just being read as ##### for some reason. Not really any info on who contacted them. Like I said its a huge file, 15,000 rows but its just kind of generic data.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 6/7/2015 at 7:53 PM Accepted
    Kenny - If you want to send me a link to the file, I'd be willing to spend a few minutes looking at your problem.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 6/7/2015 at 8:54 PM Member
    Email response sent.
  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 6/8/2015 at 3:31 AM Accepted
    looks like Jay is on the case! My answer to your general questions:
    What do you look for when you get a large file of data?
    What could I possibly gleam from such, imo, vague data?

    Key is what objectives you and your company have. How about calculating funnel conversion ratios? You say that almost all the leads have been from web research, but fewer were contacted, and very few requested demos or purchase. You can quantify these ratios to identify strong and weak points in the funnel conversion

    All the best!

    Koen
  • Posted by saul.dobney on 6/9/2015 at 3:53 AM Accepted
    The ###s for the date mean you need to expand the column width to see the data.

    I'd start with Lead Status. Where are the leads in your sales pipeline? Unused leads need to be contacted. Leads that have been contacted need a follow up. Demos need converting into sales, or at least have an outcome report. What's the overall conversion rate from one stage to the next. Leads that are out of business should be dropped.

    Once you have conversion rates can you see variances by sales person (assuming each lead is allocated to a sales person), state or type of lead? If you have say 50% conversion from trade leads, you want to ensure all those leads are followed up. If you have leading performers by sales person can those sales staff help uplift the performance of everyone else?

    If you're looking at demos, these presumably work based on location. Are you able to group leads into clusters to make the sales processes more efficient? Can you use this knowledge about where potential customers are to develop events, reference sites/customers, sales bases.

    And finally, if you have dates can you track trends by month (eg a buying cycle). Can you look at how quickly you move people through the sales pipeline? Can you spot leads that are not being followed up promptly enough?
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 6/9/2015 at 8:25 PM Accepted
    If you're correct in your assessment that almost all the leads are from Web Research which you think means sales team independently finding the lead from their efforts with Google, and that most of them are not contacted, then what you've got is a long list of unqualified contacts. It doesn't even sound like you have personalised contact details. One questions the value of anything in the file (sight unseen, obviously).

    What was the client's objective in getting this list compiled? Could this list possibly deliver on that objective? (Doesn't sound like it).

    How many leads HAVE been contacted? What's happening with them?

    As others have said, you need a sales funnel that puts unqualified prospects in the top and eventually cranks out sales at the bottom. But you had better work out the buyer's journey between the top and bottom of the funnel if you are going to make this a productive process.

    You might want to read this book: https://www.mathmarketing.com/leaky-funnel if you are new to the sales funnel analogy. It's a quick read but a good introduction. The author was a very active forum member here some time and having met him and read the book, I can definitely vouch for it.

    Good luck.
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 7/2/2015 at 6:26 PM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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