MSM FULL-FUNNEL CONVERSION GLOSSARY
What is Customer Journey Mapping?
Customer journey mapping is the process of laying out every step a buyer takes with your business, from first impression to closed sale, so you can see exactly where people stop moving forward. It also maps your internal handover process, so you know who does what, when, and which KPIs need to be applied and monitored to keep the whole journey working.
THE SHORT ANSWER
The Definition
Customer journey mapping is the process of laying out every step a buyer takes with your business, from first impression to closed sale, so you can see exactly where people stop moving forward. It also maps your internal handover process, so you know who does what, when, and which KPIs need to be applied and monitored to keep the whole journey working.
Why It Matters Commercially
You can't fix what you can't see. Most businesses know their overall conversion rate but not where inside the journey people are giving up. Mapping turns a vague sense that things could be better into a specific list of stages, each with a number attached. It also settles arguments, because it replaces opinion about where the problem sits with evidence.
How It's Measured
Stage conversion rate = (People who reach the next stage ÷ People who reached this stage) × 100. Map it for every stage and the weakest number tells you where to start.
Who Owns It
Nobody, usually, and that's the problem. Marketing owns the early stages. Sales owns the later ones. The journey itself belongs to the business, which in practice means it belongs to whoever decides to take responsibility for it. Someone senior needs to own the whole map.
HOW IT WORKS
Customer journey mapping does two jobs at once. It lays out what the buyer experiences, and it lays out what your business does in response. Most maps only do the first, which is why they end up as diagrams nobody uses.
For most B2B businesses the buyer side runs across seven stages:
- First impression. An ad, a search result, a referral, a post.
- Research. They land on your website and decide within seconds whether you're worth their time.
- Enquiry. They fill in a form, call, or book something.
- Response. Someone gets back to them, quickly or slowly.
- Qualification. You work out whether they're a fit and they work out whether you are.
- Proposal. You put something in writing.
- Decision. They buy, stall, or go elsewhere.
The internal side of the map
Against every one of those stages you record who in your business owns it, what they're meant to do, how long it should take, and what you'll measure to know it's working. Response time. Stage conversion rate. Follow up attempts. Proposal to close rate.
That's the part that makes a map useful rather than decorative. The drop off usually happens in the gaps between stages, not inside them. Your website does its job. Your salespeople do theirs. The four day wait in between loses the deal, and it belongs to nobody until you write down that it belongs to somebody.
Customer journey mapping versus your sales process
Your sales process describes what your team does. A customer journey map describes what the buyer experiences. They are not the same document and confusing them is why so many maps change nothing.
A sales process might say: qualify on the first call, send a proposal within 48 hours, follow up three times. All sensible. None of it tells you that the buyer waited four days for a reply, or that they visited your pricing page twice before giving up, or that the proposal answered a different question to the one they asked.
Map both side by side and the gaps show up immediately. That's the whole value of the exercise.
Customer journey mapping versus a funnel
A funnel is a counting model. It tells you how many people were at each stage and how many moved on. A journey map is a diagnostic model. It tells you why they didn't.
You need the funnel to know where the losses are, and the map to understand what caused them. A funnel showing 60% drop off between enquiry and qualified lead tells you there's a problem. Only the map tells you it's a two day response time.
We build this as part of our full funnel CRO audit, and we've written more about why every touchpoint should have a purpose.
WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
An engineering firm maps their journey and finds enquiries arrive through a form that only one person monitors. When that person is on site, enquiries sit for two days. Their close rate on enquiries answered within an hour is 34%. On enquiries answered after 24 hours it's 6%.
Nothing about their marketing was wrong. Nothing about their sales team was wrong. The handover between the two was doing the damage, and nobody had looked at it because it belonged to neither department. Fixing it with automated routing and alerts took a fortnight. There's more on this in our piece on why customers hesitate to say yes.
IS THIS COSTING YOU REVENUE RIGHT NOW?
Work through these honestly:
- Could you draw your customer's journey on one page right now, with timings?
- Do you know how long it takes to respond to an enquiry, measured rather than assumed?
- Does anyone own the handover between marketing and sales?
- Do you know which stage loses the most people?
- Have you ever gone through your own enquiry process as a customer would?
- Do marketing and sales describe the buying process the same way?
Two or more no answers means there are stages in your journey nobody is watching.
SEE WHAT YOUR COMPETITORS ARE DOING THAT YOU AREN'T
We'll analyse two of your competitors against your own site and show you where they're winning conversions you should be getting.
WHAT WE SEE IN THE FIELD
Nearly every business we work with can describe their sales process. Very few can describe their customer's buying process, and those are two different things. One is what you do. The other is what they experience.
When we map both side by side, the gaps show up immediately. Enquiries that sit for days. Proposals that arrive without context. Follow up that stops after two attempts. None of it is anyone's fault, because none of it is anyone's job.
Reviewed by Ian Wilson, MSM.
Frequently Asked
What is the difference between customer journey mapping and a sales process?
Your sales process describes what your team does. A journey map describes what the buyer experiences. They're different documents, and confusing them is why so many maps change nothing. A sales process might say follow up three times. Only the map tells you the buyer waited four days for a reply.
What should a customer journey map include?
Against every stage: what the buyer is doing, what they're thinking, what your business does in response, who owns that step, how long it should take, and what you'll measure to know it's working. Anything less is a diagram rather than a diagnostic.
How long does it take to map a customer journey?
A first version takes a day with the right people in the room. Making it accurate takes longer, because you need real data on response times, stage conversion and follow up rather than what everyone assumes happens.
What is the difference between a customer journey map and a funnel?
A funnel is a counting model. It tells you how many people were at each stage and how many moved on. A journey map is a diagnostic model. It tells you why they didn't. You need the funnel to find the losses and the map to understand what caused them.
Where do most businesses lose customers in the journey?
In the gaps between stages rather than inside them. The website does its job, the salespeople do theirs, and the wait in between loses the deal. That gap usually belongs to nobody until somebody writes down that it belongs to somebody.
KEEP EXPLORING
FIND OUT WHERE YOUR MARKETING AND SALES ARE LOSING CONVERSIONS
Book your 45 minute dicovery call where we will discuss and examine your customer journey from attention and website behaviour through lead quality, handover, CRM, pipeline, follow up and close, then tells you what to fix first.