FAQs: Account Journey Stages

How many Stages should be in a Journey?

The exact number of Stages of a Journey varies by an organization's needs in tracking the progression of accounts in the marketing-to-sales funnel. Only implement Stages that represent meaningful milestones (sort of a "less is more" approach). A loose rule-of-thumb is to have no more than nine Stages to include in the Analytics view of Journeys.

Are there Stages that Demandbase recommends that I add to the Journey funnel?

We want to stress that Stages primarily be included and configured based on your business needs. That said, we have a few tips about particular Stages that you might want to include:

• A level between MQA Stage and Opportunity Stage can be useful, especially for enterprises that want to identify Sales Development Representative activity. (MQA = Marketing Qualified Account.) Configure this additional Stage so that you get insight to accounts that are transitioning between the Marketing and Sales phases of the Journey funnel.
• We recommend that you add at least one Stage after the Customer Stage. Consider setting up the criteria for the Stage(s) so that activities like customer up-sells and renewals are captured.

See Best Practices for Customizing the Account Journey to learn about other guidelines for developing the Journey funnel in Demandbase.

How does Demandbase decide which Stage an account should be in?

When accounts are updated, uploaded, or imported, Demandbase calculates which Journey Selector criteria that each account meets. Rather than the the top-to-bottom movement of the marketing-to-sales funnel, Demandbase assesses accounts in a a bottom-to-top direction of the Journeys funnel. Demandbase compares the account's latest information to the Selector criteria of the last Journey Stage. If any activity on the account matches the criteria of the Stage, then it's assigned that Stage. If not, then Demandbase compares the account to the next-to-last Stage, and so on upwards, until there is a match.

For example, if you have the out-of-the-box Journey Stages, Demandbase first calculates if the account shows any traits that match the Selector criteria of Customer to determine if this is the account's Stage. If not, then the account is compared to the Opportunity Stage criteria. In effect, Demandbase filters the account through the Journey Stage backwards. If no match is made along the way, the account lands in the All Other bucket.

How does Demandbase define the All Other Accounts Stage in the out-of-the-box version?

If the account doesn't qualify for Stages 2 through 7, it will be pushed to the All Other Stage.

Why can't I change the Selector criteria for the All Other Stage?

All accounts that don't meet the Selector criteria for any of the other Journey Stages land in the All Other Stage. If we allowed you to edit the Selector criteria, your restrictions could potentially prevent accounts that don't fit into other Stages from landing in All Other.

Is it a good practice to align my Demandbase Journey Stages with Salesforce Opportunity Stages?

Generally no. We've found that CRM Opportunity Stages tend to be more granular than how Journey Stages should be, which potentially confuses your analysis of account progression through the funnel.

• Volume: The volume for a Journey Stage represents the number accounts that entered that stage in a selected time period.

• Velocity: The average number of days accounts spent in that Stage before moving to a forward Stage in the selected time period.

• Conversion: Conversion refers to the percentage of accounts that reflect account progression through the Journey in relation to a specific Stage. Conversion is calculated from the total number of accounts that meet these conditions:

• Accounts that moved into the particular Stage during the selected time period, and moved to a forward Stage

• Accounts that skipped the Stage (that is, they moved from a previous Stage to a forward Stage)

Why should a Demandbase Admin hide some Stages from appearing in the Journeys view of Analytics?

A Demandbase Admin can "hide” selected Journey Stages from display in the Analytics view of Journeys. The reason to do this is to reduce clutter on the page for easier analysis. Most people don’t need account data for every single Stage on the Analytics page. For example, it's reasonable to hide a Stage like Recycled or any other Stage where users aren’t tracking Journey progression.

If any Journey Stages are hidden from display in Analytics, is there a way to make them appear on the page?

Yes. When you are on the Journeys page of Analytics, change the Hidden Stages field on the top right from Hide to Show.

Can accounts go from All Other Stage to the Aware Stage if they have a Qualification Score of 30?

Accounts can skip stages depending on how the Selector logic is set up. For example, if the Aware Stage has logic to include any accounts with a Qualification Score greater than or equal to 30, that account would qualify for that Stage first.

Do accounts always progress through the Journey Stages funnel in a linear path?

No, accounts can skip Stages or even go backwards. For example, an account might initially show interest in your product, then become disengaged, and later exhibit their interest by jumping to a Stage that's more than one level away from the Stage they originally reached (or put in the Recycled Stage).

Can there be different Journey Stages set up for different lists?

Not at this time. Journey Stages are platform-wide, so all Journey Stage logic will be applied to every account and account list.

Can I use Demandbase Analytics to gain insights to how my Journey Stages are performing?

Yes, you can view data about most of your Journey Stages. See Understanding the Journey Summary.

How often should I update Journey Stages?

You’ll probably want to adjust Selector criteria of one or more Journey Stages periodically–maybe once per quarter on average. For example, you might need to change the threshold for an account to become a Marketing Qualified Account (i.e., enter the MQA Stage) based on changing market conditions. Perform major rework of Journey Stages less frequently, in conjunction with a re-examination of how prospects and customers are segmented when going to market.

When should I rebuild the account Journey History?

Rarely and with caution because rebuilding the history irreversibly overwrites the Journey Stages and the records of account progression through the funnel. See Rebuild Account Journey History for important information about this feature.