If you have the funnel report set to ‘all stages’, in order to get conversion data, you need each deal to move linearly through every stage for the data to show up.
That’s all very well, but if you take a backwards step, i.e take a deal from deal stage 1, to 2, to 3, then back to 2 again… things go a bit wrong.
Yes, HubSpot won’t count a deal stage more than once, which is fine… but say you move the deal from stage 1, to 2, to 3, back to 2, then 3, then 4… despite the fact it has not been in deal stage 4 previously, this move to stage 4 will not show on the visualisation.
When you export the data, it will show the deal in stage 4, but the count in your funnel visualisation at stage 4 will not go up.
From what I can gather, the data won’t be displayed in the visualisation until you move it stage 5.
It’s as if the visualisation needs a certain number of linear steps forward in order to display the data… despite the data being there when you export.
Hi @jane2. This a common challenge for Marketing & Sales - how do you approach backwards Deal Stage or Lifecycle Stage movement? Here’s an approach that might help. See what you think!
Deal Stages - treat these as Forward Stage Movement/Success Path only. Create a set of Deal Stages that your Deals/Opportunities will always move through, despite variations in the actual process - the Deal Stages should be chronological and remain the say. This enables us to understand Deal Stage conversion rates as we’re able to calculate the % of Deals that used to be in Stage X that are now in Stage Y.
For “backward” or “divergent” path movement - use a custom Deal Properties and filters to include/exclude Deals from your main Deal Boards/views.
You can for example have a Custom Deal Properties called:
Divergent Path - Postponed (for anyone where timeline is an issue, but it is still an open Deal in the near future 6 months or less) This has also been a common theme during COVID -- budget freeze, but project should restart after things recover, etc.
Divergent Path - Recycling - You can have a Recycling Property on the Deal itself to keep the Deal Open, but out of your main Pipeline views via Filters. Alternatively, some companies choose to mark it Closed Lost, with a Closed Lost Reason of Recycling. As good Sales People know for complex deals -- if you stretch the timeline out too far -- when the Deal resurfaces often the Need will have evolved/changed… in other words, creating a net new Deal makes sense.
You are right that some platforms (eg. Marketo) have the capability to enable divergent/backward stage movement and it would be cool if HubSpot eventually enables the same! Still though in these cases, you have possible Divergent Paths clearly defined, eg. Deal Stage 3 can move back to 2, but it cannot move back to 1., etc. to enable the reporting.