Discover the characteristics of the B2B sales funnel
A very useful tool for commercial management, which can also be integrated into marketing for greater gains for your company, is the sales funnel. Especially for B2B companies, those that sell their product or service to another company.
Characteristics of the B2B model, such as negotiations with high values, a longer sales cycle and contracts with extended periods, mean that buyers' decision-making takes longer, where different points of view are considered. This makes this tool of great importance in the success of a business.
Furthermore, by implementing the B2B sales funnel, your company will achieve greater predictability of results, a clear visualization of the steps and possibilities for improvement, among other advantages that increase the use of business opportunities.
And to help you better understand this tool that is so important in an organization's strategies, we have prepared a text with valuable information.
Good reading!
What is a sales funnel?
The sales funnel is a strategic model that demonstrates the customer's trajectory during their purchasing journey.
The visual representation in the form of a funnel (wide top and a narrow base) symbolizes the attraction and entry of users, which is always greater than the conversion made.
The idea is to provide a view of the cycle that a potential customer goes through from the first contact with the company to the completion of the acquisition.
It is worth remembering that at each stage of the funnel, the potential consumer has a different mindset and behavior. Therefore, even though many people have initial contact with your company, only a portion of them will be your consumer audience. Therefore, your content production needs to be oriented towards each stage of the funnel.
Therefore, this tool allows you to monitor the buyer's evolution and understand their purchasing behavior, and thus create strategies that encourage them to decide to close the deal more quickly.
B2B Sales Funnel Stages
A simple sales funnel model is usually divided into three stages consisting of the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel. These steps can be divided into stages that deepen the analysis, configuring a more complete model composed of the stages of awareness, interest, consideration, intention, evaluation and purchase.
The steps begin with raising awareness of the potential customer, providing relevant information, advice and solutions to their common pain points and end with the moment of closing the deal, also known as the purchasing decision. However, it is worth remembering that the customer experience does not end at that moment. Therefore, it is important to work with after-sales services to build and retain relationships.
Read our article about sales funnel stages and understand more about how it works!
How to create a B2B sales funnel?
The main point here is to create a personalized sales funnel according to your company's needs. In other words, it respects your business model, customer profile and sales process. You must adapt it so that the steps fit perfectly into your customer's purchasing journey.
With that in mind, follow the steps we will show you below:
1 - Analyze the current sales funnel
You should design your current funnel based on the number of visitors, leads and sales for your company in a given period.
The first step is to identify the percentage of consumers who show interest in your products, in order to be aware of the conversion rate of visitors into leads.
The next step is to identify the percentage of these people who are approached by the sales team; this will be your lead-to-opportunity conversion rate.
Finally, calculate the rate of potential customers who saw business for the company during the analyzed period.
2 – Know your target audience and map their journey
You will hardly be able to put together a good sales strategy if you are not aware of the needs, pains and expectations of those your brand wants to reach.
By knowing your target audience well, you can define assertive strategies and make your company stand out in the market, reduce costs with strategies that don't work for an audience that isn't yours, and facilitate approaching customers through communication channels. .
Likewise, keep in mind that understanding your audience's behavior is important to know how to direct them to the last stage of the sales funnel, where they will make the purchasing decision.
Know that, although there is a standard for classifying the stages of the purchasing journey, each business has its own sales process. Therefore, try to design this journey and understand its particularities according to your business.
3 – Create relevant and valuable content
Use your posts as a way to educate your customers, with quality content to guarantee your company more authority on the subject. At this moment, you nurture potential buyers, gaining their trust and interest in closing a deal with your company.
In this sense, content needs to be relevant and generate value, in addition to being ways of capturing important data for the sales team, such as name and email, for example.
Also remember to create personalized materials for each stage of the sales funnel and use the content marketing in your favor.
4 – Track the B2B sales funnel and your customers’ journey
Winning customers is a great achievement from a strategic and financial point of view. After all, they are truly responsible for the production of anything, representing the demand for that product or service that your company is intended to produce.
However, you need to retain the customers you have acquired in order to achieve real results. Therefore, it is important to know that the relationship with the customer goes beyond the acquisition of any product.
Therefore, after implementing the B2B sales funnel, it is important to follow up with these customers with good after-sales actions. This makes it possible to detect bottlenecks and propose improvements more quickly.
Furthermore, these consumers still have the power to reduce the time in the sales process for their business by recommending the brand to other potential customers. This way, new leads arrive better prepared and with a reduced decision-making journey.
You can use some automation tools to help monitor the customer journey and identify their needs. Thus, the result will be optimized marketing and sales campaigns, as well as satisfied customers.
Main advantages of having a B2B sales funnel
1 - Greater sales predictability
Mapping interactions with customers will help you understand their behavior at each stage of the sales funnel. With this, you will identify patterns that will allow greater predictability, that is, more accuracy when predicting how much your company will sell in a given period.
This way, it is possible to have an estimate of the number of people you need to have at the top of the funnel to generate a specific amount of sales at the bottom.
In other words, in addition to allowing you to establish a realistic perspective on the number of potential buyers, a well-structured B2B sales funnel contributes to defining actions that are in line with the company's goals and that make achieving them possible.
2 – Improvement of products and services
With real-time monitoring, you can understand the intensity of customer transitions at each stage. Likewise, identify gaps and flaws that need to be corrected in the process. This brings a great opportunity to improve your products or services. It allows you to analyze what is working and what needs to be improved.
This way, each of the bottlenecks can be worked on, increasing the chances of converting leads and strategically contributing to eliminating current problems.
3 – Streamline and enhance the sales cycle
With data collected through analysis of the B2B sales funnel, the sales team has a complete view of the process and a greater understanding of it. This way, you can provide approaches compatible with demands and personalize the sales pitch.
This increases the chances of closing a deal and promoting customer satisfaction, making the conversion process more agile.
Bet on an agency that applies this strategy!
Counting on a specialized marketing team to help you implement a good B2B sales funnel in your business is something that will make all the difference in the results of your strategy.
Beatz Digital is ready to help you in this mission, through work that uses the best marketing strategies, according to the reality of each company, and which is focused on extracting all the benefits of digital marketing.
Do you want to start optimizing your company’s processes right now? Access Our site and talk to us. We are ready to help you achieve the best results!
