How do I create an SLA when I don’t know conversion rates?

[JonPayne]

Not all of us have access to a complete data set to be able to calculate our conversion rates to set an SLA between marketing and sales. Join the discussion to get advice on how to create your SLA based on industry estimates.

*To learn more about this, check out the Holding Your Teams Accountable With an SLA lesson via HubSpot Academy. 

[Songster]

I would first do a one-time clean-up of the data look at all the closes that are available and make the best estimates on how they closed - align this with market averages/management expectations on the closing rate. Next and equally as important infrastructure and tracking must then be put in place to track this e.g. spreadsheet, CRM.... 

[sambaker]

It sounds like the best thing to do is come up with some guesses around the ideal patterns and lead value, put in the infrastructure, and start measuring. This way you can iterate toward something more sophisticated 

[RBousnane]

I typically begin with an initial educated guess based on my experience and keep the SLA flexible until we have established and stabilized conversion rates.

[03504]

get new leads from outdoor.  

[KFigor]

I usually start with a logical estimate based on my experience and leave the SLA as a living document until conversion rates are known and stablized. 

[ABozhinovski]

Well, I contact the teams to take those data.

Then you must set up a tracking

...and after a while, let's say a month...the first conversion rate a showing up

Quality of data rises as time go by

[JMcDermott6]

No- we are currently working to calculate this.

[nefer]

How do I create an SLA when I don’t know conversion rates?

1. Get feedback from your team to estimate conversion rates
2. Start measuring data and tracking conversion actions that map to business goals
3. When you get enough data, you can start to check your assumptions from step 1 and fill in with real data to start creating more accurate SLA's

[Abs-Machin]

Would start with a prime guess, but give a time space(Half a year) to gather valuable data that can help build the kind of info that would lead us to the conversion rate answers.

As we know that RevOps needs good data to be able to make scaling work, the required systems or platform and the cooperation of the people(Marketing & Sales) as major players here to make the data gathering and analysis a success inline with well defined processes can make us hit the goal of building a conversation rate template that would guide the development of a functional agreeable SLA

[ApoZadeh]

SLA with zero conversion intel! 

Worse case scenario i would set down and crunch numbers.  Gathering data for the last 30 days of customer interaction. Check form fills mailbox, compile all in one place, check the finance department maybe for all invoices issued in the timeframe (i know they might be more than 30 days converted but paid in the last 30),. 

Divide overall form fills/ leads with closed deals (everyone knows the deals you close if your not big enough, since every customer matters for the little guy) 

thats a conversion rate there (better than nothing) 

Now guestimate any adjustments to the ratio itself based on leakage, friction and force. 

secondly, right after im done with this ill make double sure that theres infrastructure for data to exist so there will be no need to guesstimate in the near future. 

Create a prototype SLA and shoot on it, while waiting for the accurate metrics to pile up the coming weeks/months 

[LBJR]

If you don't know conversion rates it would be best to use estimations from whatever important mertrics you already have and its going to suck but volume you need volume to generate enough measurements for your data

[Mahmoodrizvi]

through sales velocity

[ChrGeo_GR]

Well, this is not something totally unknown, especially to those of us who have been dealing with startups that have not enough scalable data concerning conversion rates.

In such a case, what we usually do is to replace the missing data with estimations (others might call them sophisticated guesses). Estimated value(s) should not be considered as substantial parts of the equation, so the SLA is exposed to the minimum possible risk of going to the wrong direction from the very beginning.

[AnandNarasimhan]

How do I create an SLA when I don’t know conversion rates?

Well reviewing the data from Sales and marketing and comparing the data points collected form the date the lead was captured, when the sales connected, reviewing leads properties and content consumption patterns (if any), and then understanding other leads that converted from the content type to define a metric. 

I think analysing conversion sources are also key to understand and define an expected average conversion time and % and set the SLA based on the same. 

[JCampos11]

I'm a start up with 10 months worth of data. I am sales and marketing but I think I can start implementing this and reviewing it the further along I go.

[OEgburonu]

In order to do this as a small company, I will have to make sure that my marketing team and my sales team are not pursuing different goals, as this can be very conflicting for discovering conversion rate.

[LBreytenbach]

I ran a recruitment experiment, while I was looking for a job. Unemployment is quite high in South Africa, and there is a lot of competition for the remaining jobs (especially during the "Great Resignation"). I set up my Hubspot to track all my applications and those I engaged with. I am a senior manager, and to apply for a senior manager position - I knew I had to have 30 active applications, in order to get 1 - 2 interviews. The types of jobs I was applying for were all within my capabilities and previous work experience, so this gave me a good indication of when to fill up the funnel again (if I grew despondent)

[Agentdelaney]

A lot of what this course is offering is fixing exactly what I see gaps in my current company.  We are very broad and less specific and don't have much of a marketing department currently.  Makes it more diffucult to put sales in a position to prospect when we're only throwing out the net to see what we get in return.  Reality is we need an SLA even if it's with the sole person in Marketing to make sure each day our content is review and we are selecting and distributing the right message to clients that visit our site, for starters.  Long way to go but but goals and boundaries need to be in place.

[degreeplus]

We're a small company experimenting with HubSpot, but haven't properly set it up yet. We only collect contacts without moving them through the sales pipeline. Hence, we don't have good enough numbers for conversion rate. That's what I hope to fix after taking this course.

[STripathi4]

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