Here’s an interesting one. So, I’ve found that an important measure for us each month is how many folks have become MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Etc. The generic HubSpot report under analytics tools doesn’t seem to be very reliable or accurate for this purpose, so I’ve built some custom reports.
When I pull a report for “entered customer lifecycle stage pipeline” in May, it generates 8 contacts. However, we closed 22 deals last month. I checked, and all of the 22 associated contacts were marked as customers in the month of May, but only 8 are showing up on the customers report. The only difference I can find between the two reports, is that all of the customers showing in the “entered customer lifecycle stage pipeline” report have previously been a Marketing Qualified lead. The rest (in the closed deals report) Have skipped the MQL phase. It seems odd for that to be the issue, but it’s the only commonality I can find. If the contact became a customer in the specified timeline, shouldn’t the “entered customer lifecycle stage pipeline” property account for this?
Should I force my contacts to MQL before they SQL? Is letting them skip this phase a good practice? Do you think the reports should work this way?
The generic HubSpot report under analytics tools doesn’t seem to be very reliable or accurate for this purpose
Can you specify why? I a decade of working with HubSpot, I’ve found these reports to sometimes be up to 15 minutes out of date or very rarely off by 1 contact but never unreliable.
Regarding your reports, can you please share screenshots of the filters of the reports you’re comparing? Without seeing the filters, it’s hard to say.
But yes, if you’re comparing one report that’s a funnel report, contacts will only be shown in the default version of that report if they go through all lifecycle stages. Funnel (legacy) report types
For MQLs, I would simply create two versions of that report: One that includes contacts that have ever been a MQL and also shows that stage. One that excludes contacts which have never been a MQL and does not show the stage. Usually, not all contacts must’ve been a MQL before reaching sales since sales can also generate their own contacts. The only way to reflect that and to still see conversion rates in HubSpot is by building two reports.
+1 from me on the points @karstenkoehler has mentioned. I also want to dig a bit deeper here:
You mentioned “entered customer lifecycle stage pipeline”, so I assume you customised the default lifecycle stages, correct? What is the thinking behind using “entered pipeline” instead of HubSpot’s default “Opportunity” lifecylce stage? Both indicate a deal has been created.
You mentioned 8 contacts “entered customer lifecycle stage pipeline” but that you “closed 22 deals last month”. Are you closing deals in less than 30 days? How many of those deals were created before May. Generally speaking 8 contacts entering a pipeline and 22 deals closing in the same month isn’t unusal or wrong, you are just looking at 2 different sets of data and measurements.
As @karstenkoehler mentioned, sharing some screenshots of your reports and filters would be helpful. If contacts skip certain stages in but you include those stages in reports that can cause a mis-match of numbers.
Also are you automating the setting of lifecycle stages in HubSpot so key conversion points aren’t missed?
@karstenkoehler Ah! I didn’t think about the conversion rates, that makes sense.
In regards to not trusting the contact analytics reports, I get it. In all past instances of HubSpot I’ve worked on thee have been a good source of truth. For some reason with the instance I’m currently working in, they don’t show the full picture. For example, we are getting far more MQLs than the HubSpot contact analytics report is reporting. We have a ton of nuances with our sales cycle as well, making the cycle sometimes upwards of 180 days. That’s just the nature of the business we’re in. I digress.
In the screenshots below, the HubSpot-generated report cuts out roughly 100 contacts that converted on our consideration stage content. Our workflows are set to only set MQL if the contact is unknown, Lead, subscriber, or a former customer (which we use a custom property to identify and will clear the lifecycle stage to set backwards to MQL)
Ive tried to figure out the discrepancy, but it ended up taking me so many hours to unravel, and there’s actual work to be done. The “Entered MQL lifecycle stage pipeline” report has been easier to get a quick view, though last night I had better success changing the measure to “Became a marketing qualified lead date” property produces an even more stable report, but still in the hundreds, compared to HS.
I’ve even considered burning it all down and starting from scratch, but there’s work to be done and I need a reliable source. FOr whatever reason, that’ doesn’t seem to be the HubSpot generated report.
