Clear the Clog: 3 Types of Bottom-of-the-Sales-Funnel Issues to Fix First

Imagine you’re in the waiting room at your local oil change place, watching the technicians change your oil. The old oil has been drained, and the filter has been changed. Now, as the new oil is being poured into your engine through a funnel, a marble falls in and blocks the bottom of it (we don’t know where the marble came from either, but let’s roll with it). So, with the marble in place and the technician still pouring oil, the oil begins to spill over the top of the funnel, viscously pooling into every nook of your engine! To your surprise, the technician continues to pour until all six quarts of oil have spilled over and made a mess. You, of course, watch in anger and astonishment. Why would anyone continue to pour oil into the funnel when it was clear that the bottom was clogged?

As horrific as this sounds, this same disaster happens daily in marketing. In all sorts of businesses, so much wasted and often destructive effort and money are placed on the mid-and top-of-sales funnel activities when the bottom of the funnel is clearly not flowing. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss a few real-world scenarios of the bottom-of-the-sales-funnel issues in different sales models and then discuss how to best audit, communicate, and fix the problem in each scenario.

• 1. Call Center/Closer Fail
• 2. Website Fails
• 3. Retail Fails
• “Nothing Happens in Business Until a Sale Is Made”
• Facts are Friendly: Auditing Customer Journeys
• Get Expert Help With Your Bottom of the Sales Funnel Issues

1. Call Center/Closer Fail

One of our categories is personal injury law (PIL). In PIL, the “client intake process” (for larger firms, this is a call center) is at the bottom of the funnel. The desired result is for the injured prospect to call, text, or email the law firm and quickly be sorted, processed, and, if appropriate, signed up as a client. There are some facts to consider in how the selection is made.

Facts:

• 44% of (law firm) clients believe they need to shop around and talk to more than one lawyer to find one that’s right for them, and 57% of those who have ever shopped for a lawyer say they contacted more than one law firm. (Clio)
• 42% of consumers surveyed say that if they like the first lawyer they speak with, they won’t need to talk with others. (Clio)
• Clients are nearly as likely to search for a lawyer through their own means first (39%) as they are to seek a referral of any type (45%) – and 16% indicated they couldn’t remember. (Clio)
• Younger (potentially more lucrative) generations are less likely to value referrals from lawyers (47% of Gen Z and 46% of Millennials compared to 56% of Gen X and 60% of Boomers).” (Clio)
• Younger potential clients are more likely to complete online forms than to call. (eMarketer)

Knowing this, in a top 10 DMA, we conducted an audit of the largest PILs. The audit involved submitting identical forms to each firm’s online contact page. We reported an accident with serious injuries between a commercial truck and the individual reaching out. The study measured response times, types of responses, frequency of responses, and total contact attempts over one week. It also measured:

• How many times and when did each firm respond?
• How did each respond? We logged all calls, emails, and texts.
• What did each firm’s response spacing look like?
• Which firms had a lawyer vs. a screener respond?
• Which responding firms left voicemails?
• Which firms had the same person respond each time, thus building a sense of connectivity and obligation to answer?
• And more.

Response time

But for this, let’s just look at response time. We know that many injured people call more than one law firm. Then, they often choose the first firm that confirms they have a case worth reviewing and makes them feel empowered and important.

So, in this winner-take-all environment, if you call them back in six minutes, they likely won’t take your call because they’re three minutes into describing their accident to your faster-responding, sympathetic competitor!

But it’s not just PILs that rely on inbound calls. We once audited a call for a trucking school where a veteran called in with GI Bill dollars wanting to get his CDL. The poorly trained call center rep started the call with a script and continued to work his sales script instead of simply signing the perturbed veteran up. The call ended after 15 minutes, with the veteran politely saying he had to make another call and hanging up. Gone was his initial enthusiasm, and gone was the student sign-up.

In both scenarios, a key issue at the bottom of the funnel was a phone call. This involved either a salesperson or a call center representative. Call center operations and sales often fall outside marketing’s responsibility. However, they can severely impact your success. Before dismissing your up-funnel efforts as off-target, audit the bottom-of-the-funnel operations. This ensures that any mischaracterizations of the facts are properly addressed.

2. Website Fails

In 2024, Bayard found that 26% of online shoppers had abandoned a cart in the past three months because the site wanted them to create an account. Honestly… that number seems low! From the same research, 22% abandoned their carts because the checkout process was too long or complicated.

Further, Sales Cycle found in 2021, that, “Overall 81.08% of website users abandoned their purchase in retail, fashion, travel and utilities. There are many reasons, both known and unknown, as to why this occurs. Using abandonment surveys, we found some users are just browsing (34%) and not ready to buy, some have issues with shipping prices (23%), some users abandon checkouts because they are forced to create an account (34%) and there are many more.”

Also, as eMarketer reported in November 2023 on new e-tailer features for 2024, Find-on-Amazon. If users see a product they like anywhere online, they can tap the “Share” button, choose the Amazon Shopping app, and click “Find products on Amazon.” This will take them directly to the app to find similar products.”

So, if you’re an e-tailer and web operations are forcing customers to create accounts in certain categories, like fashion, there’s a 34% chance they’ll leave. It’s likely not much better for sink parts, either! Further, there’s also a decent likelihood they’ll zap over to Amazon and buy the product your top-of-funnel and mid-funnel efforts drove to your dysfunctional e-commerce fail, only to enrich a slicker-run competitor.

Addressing the issues

As marketers, we must address issues we may not control: fulfillment, logistics, etc. Abandonment is a corporate-wide issue. With the exception of those who were browsing (In the above study, 34% for retail, fashion, travel and utilities), it is safe to assume that the rest of the 66% loaded the cart with the intent of making a purchase, so any argument about up-funnel quality should be quickly squashed and why the remaining at best (81.08% who abandon a cart- 34% who claim to just be browsing = 47.08%) didn’t buy is User Experience (UX) related. Reducing controllable abandonment by just 10% would increase sales by almost 5%.

Additionally, it could be argued that “just browsers” aren’t poison. With a good enough UX and an intelligent approach to handling abandoned carts, a fair percentage of them could also be converted. How often have you or someone you still love visited Target just to browse and left with a full cart? An excellent online user experience can be equally effective at filling and converting a cart.

If your company sells its product through e-tailers, work hard to work with the winners. If you only sell through a small number of e-tailers, and their UX is bad, not only is it hurting your sales and driving up marketing costs per sale, but it might even be damaging your brand. Where struggling e-tailers might be more influenced by your suggestions is in the abandoned cart. They will likely be willing to work with you to provide a discount for your product. They may also adopt your suggestions since the incidents are explicit to your product.

3. Retail Fails

So, let’s assume that everyone knows about your new sundry item, but you have almost no distribution in gas stations or convenience stores. Expect poor sales! Of course, in this scenario, building top-of-tunnel demand and awareness can create short-term demand, but in the long term, if bottom-of-funnel shelf space is not corrected, you’ll fail.

If you’re a retailer, you’ve never been under more pressure to deliver. Morning Consult is now combining retail and e-commerce brands into a single category, and Amazon is considered “Most Trusted,” edging out the home improvement giants. But even these behemoths can improve at the bottom of the sales funnel.

Better Customer Experience: Small Hardware Store vs. Big Box Retailers

For example, not far from our office is a small, highly successful, independent (recently joined ACE) store called Keith’s Hardware. They are always busy. Their floorplan is probably 1/20^th  the size of a Home Depot. They open three hours later and close four hours earlier than Home Depot, plus they’re not even open on Tuesdays. Item-per-item, they can’t compete on price. What they do better is the customer experience. The store is conveniently located (within walking distance) from busy residential neighborhoods. When you walk in, it’s the same couple of highly knowledgeable, friendly people. You can walk in, tell a smart person what you’re doing, and walk out with advice and parts.

You don’t have to walk 250 yards to plumbing only to find out you were misinformed and the part you need might actually be in hardware, which is another 200 yards in the opposite direction.

At Keith’s, you never see countless middle-aged men staring at shelves of parts for the one that might be there but can’t be found in the malaise and perplexity of nearly identical cardboard bins. Instead, the employee at this small store retrieves the part for you. They have essentially taken their smallness and turned it into an experience advantage.

The hardware store sponsors local parades; they are part of the neighborhood/community. That’s all the top-of-funnel work they do. This small hardware store has a Google rating of 4.7 stars compared to its closest Lowes rating of 4.1 and its closest Home Depot rating of 4.2.

Focus on UX

So, while this example isn’t a UX fail, it does highlight how focusing on UX in times of big box and online can allow you to thrive—even if two of the three most trusted e-commerce and retail brands are just a few miles away with better hours, selection and prices. The bottom of this small retailer’s funnel is working so well that regardless of the spending disparity at the top of the funnel between them and the “Big Box” competitors, they’re thriving.

Both big box home improvement giants post-pandemic offer orders for pick-up or same-day delivery. While this greatly improves the user experience for many shoppers, it still isn’t as slick in many scenarios as talking to someone knowledgeable and leaving with the needed parts five minutes later.

Artificial intelligence may compensate for this in the not-too-distant future. Imagine Keith’s experience with Home Depot’s prices, selection, and hours. You provide a phone video of your situation, and AI fills the cart. You approve it, then pick up your parts 10 minutes later. Bots have picked the shelves, and your order is ready for pickup or delivery. Of course, as with everything AI, it will initially seem botched and spotty, but AI capacity doubles every six months, so it will be near perfect in no time.

“Nothing Happens in Business Until a Sale Is Made”

I once knew a VP of Sales who frequently told his CFO this headline. While he made this statement to emphasize his perceived relative importance, the statement does have meaning. Since the sale occurs at the bottom of the funnel, all other business functions should be examined outward from this critical spot.

All sales are made by a person, whether in person or not, online or at retail. And even when a sale is made at retail, it’s either with a person or a UX-dependent sales kiosk/register. Auditing the bottom of the sales funnel is either done through personal shopping or a web UX audit, including heat mapping sessions with Hotjar or one of its competitors to see exactly what users are doing and when/why they’re bailing. Surveying customers and non-customers who abandoned the cart, phone calls, or sales meetings can also provide a layer of understanding to the functionality of the funnel bottom

Facts are Friendly: Auditing Customer Journeys

The truth doesn’t have to hurt. Honest conversations need to occur for success. In auditing customer journeys, we sometimes find bottlenecks at the bottom of the sales funnel. Sometimes, it is something simple, like moving a required element on the website up or down. For a law firm, being best-in-class might mean keeping call-back times under two minutes. On a website we reviewed, two-thirds of users failed to complete the Contact Us form. The designer (not us) prioritized style over function, causing people to think the form was broken. Looking at the process from the consumer’s perspective, obvious failure stands out, particularly at the bottom of the funnel. Still, like the marble blocking the flow of oil, they can be identified and corrected.

Get Expert Help With Your Bottom of the Sales Funnel Issues

Need help with your bottom-of-the-sales-funnel issues or just want to bounce some ideas off our team? Give us a call at 502.499.4209 or drop us a note here, and we’ll get right back to you.