Toptal Lost Leads Re-Engagement

Project Overview

Background

Toptal is a global network that connects companies with rigorously vetted freelance talent for their most critical projects in software development, design, finance, and more. In this project, I reviewed the user journeys of lost sales opportunities (leads who didn’t convert) to understand the root cause of them not converting, and determine what Toptal could change to increase conversion. 

This study was conducted because of signals we had identified over more than a year of research studies speaking with and observing leads who never converted.

My Role: Lead Researcher and Strategy Collaborator

The Problem: A large number of the leads who enter Toptal’s sales funnel end up marked as “bad leads,” which limits re-engagement strategies. However, past research suggested that many of these leads may represent great revenue opportunities which weren’t converted for some reason. Toptal needed to find out why this was the case, and what could be done about it.

Objectives

• Determine reasons why leads didn’t convert to customers

• Identify ways to improve the sales funnel to increase conversion

Research Strategy

Several of my previous studies had found insights suggesting there was a sizable group of leads wrongly categorized as “bad leads” which could be a loss of potential revenue. However, these studies were very qualitative in nature and only focused on a specific point in time (e.g. an interview after a certain journey milestone). What Toptal needed for this study was a holistic view of the entire user journey, not a snapshot. We decided to use Toptal’s internal records of customer interactions to observe and map out the entire journey.

Research Methods

We picked 24 leads who had completed at least 1 sales call but never converted to review their customer journeys. I worked with a team of product managers and designers to gather all the available data for each journey, including sales calls, website interactions, emails, etc. I then analyzed the journeys to understand what happened, what went wrong, and what could have been improved. The entire process from planning to readout took about 1 month.

I used Miro to collect screenshots, links, and observations. While I was reviewing the journeys,  I was looking for: 

• How did they find Toptal’s website? What interactions lead them to schedule a phone call with Toptal?

• What conversations were they having with different Toptal representatives?

• What needs and motivations were they expressing, and how effectively did Toptal representatives respond to those needs?

• Was this lead a good fit as a Toptal client or not?

• Why did they ultimately not convert? Was it something Toptal could have done differently?

Findings

As you can imagine, the in-depth analysis of 24 entire customer journeys produced quite a hefty insights report, and along with that came the sparking of many different initiatives across teams in the company. 

Somewhat surprisingly, we found that many of these lost leads would have been a good fit as clients, but something along the way caused them to churn. For some, it was related to their experience with Toptal or our ability to service their particular need. For others, it may have been an internal reason (lost budget, changed headcount needs), but Toptal may not have had an optimal process for re-engaging with these leads.

Many areas were identified where Toptal may be losing revenue from great clients through: 

• Lack of ability to handle certain common customer needs

• Communication styles which could be improved to be more customer-centric and enticing

• Mismatch of expectations between customers and Toptal about key milestones in the sales and onboarding flow

• Mislabeling of unconverted leads as “bad leads” when they are really more like “lost opportunities”

Outcomes

I collaborated primarily with the Growth and Customer teams to turn these insights into action. One of the major outcomes of this project was an initiative to reorganize how Toptal classifies different unconverted leads. In my research, I found a ton of variability in the types of leads which ended up being marked as “bad leads”. Some leads were obviously not a great fit as Toptal clients, but many others would have been if the stars had aligned. But since they are all being labeled the same, the handling and follow-up for these leads are not optimal to encourage later conversion.

My research helped determine which types of new categories to create for unconverted leads so Toptal could have more optimized strategies for re-engaging those leads. For example, if a lead didn’t convert due losing their headcount for the hire vs if they went unresponsive after seeing their first candidate, those two cases can now be approached with distinct playbooks made to address their specific needs and objections.

Here are a few other selected outcomes from this project:

• Writing up email sequences and engagement strategies per new lead categorization

• Reworking the first few steps of the sales process to better align with customer expectations and provide value earlier in their journey

• Exploring the addition of new modes of communication to better match customers’ preferences (i.e. chat, texting, etc.)

Overall, this project was a massive success, not just with the outcomes, but with the collaboration across teams and departments. Relationships and connections were formed between teams which were historically more siloed from each other. Many initiatives were drafted with detailed plans to increase revenue.

The outcomes of this comprehensive study provided Toptal with critical insights into why leads were not converting and how to better tailor the sales process to meet customer needs. By categorizing unconverted leads more effectively, Toptal can now implement targeted re-engagement strategies, enhancing the chances of converting potential clients who were previously overlooked. Additionally, the research led to the development of more customer-centric communication styles, improved alignment of sales processes with customer expectations, and exploration of new communication modes. Although I departed from Toptal before these changes could be fully implemented, the foundational work and strategic recommendations I provided are poised to drive significant improvements in conversion rates and client retention.