When trying to figure out how digital marketing works and how to target the right audience, you are coming to one of the most used terms – the b2b sales funnel. And yes, it’s practically a visual interpretation of the process of finding the right audience, attracting them to offer your service, and converting the leads into sales. Sounds like an easy thing to do, but there are many details you need to understand in the meantime, so you can close the sale process successfully.
How to Understand the Purpose of B2B Marketing and Sales Funnel?
It’s a model we use to represent the ideal customer journey or the path the prospects take to find and recognize our business as a relevant one. We need to understand the potential customers and help them make a decision, i.e., choosing our product or service.
This representation may vary from one company to another, but there are four main stages that every B2B sales funnel should have:
1. Awareness
The initial stage is when the prospect has a problem and looks for a solution. We are here to help them define the exact issue, so we can offer a specific solution to it. They are looking for an explanation online and accessing many websites, blogs, forums, and communities.
2. Consideration
In this phase, they can recognize their problem, and now it’s time to gather more information. That leads to the eventual solution. The goal is to invite the buyer to our business or store and encourage them to sign up, subscribe, or contact us.
3. Decision
In the decision phase, they are completely aware of their problem and the potential solutions. They may even have a few in mind, but it’s time to decide which one is the best for them.
4. Action
At this point, they either buy the product, sign up for a service, or deny it, no matter the reasons for that decision.
Since we are talking about business convincing another business to join its mission, we realize how challenging it can be. B2B sales is the process of one company offering a product or service to another to help them grow while they are growing too. It seems like a lot of work to do, so many emails, calls, and exchanged messages, sometimes resulting in nothing. That’s why the funnel model is relevant even today, in the healing period after the COVID-19 outbreak destroyed many businesses already.
Why do you Need a B2B Sales Funnel?
Many marketing and sales teams are trying to detect if direct and traditional marketing works better than digital approaches. The truth is that nowadays, they have almost equal importance when trying to close a sales deal. Also, we can’t even separate marketing and sales funnels because they work together perfectly.
So, when the marketing strategy is on point, and you have a B2B sales funnel model, you can expect:
Brand Awareness and Recognizability
When people recognize you, they associate you with quality. Ensure you offer quality and well-researched content, a digestible message, and a recognizable name and logo. That’s how you maintain your authority in the market.
Demand and Lead Generation
In the demand generation, you help the B2B buyer businesses to recognize their issue and look for a solution. During the lead generation phase, you offer a specific solution and wait for them to accept it.
You Understand the Customers Better
This is a very important step because that will help you target the right audience without spending your resources on businesses that don’t need your help. Also, learn which communication channels they use and who they target too. That will help you attract their attention as a crucial part of the B2B sales funnel creation.
Adjust the Funnel According to the Market
It’s important to keep your current clients. But, you need to think about attracting new ones for sure. The marketing and sales funnels can help you understand every implementation phase, making you even more aware of the potential solutions you can offer.
Building a B2B Sales Funnel
To use a sales funnel, you have to know how to build it. So, here are the main steps you need to take to make the whole thing work:
1. Make a Sketch
Take a piece of paper and literally write down who is your target audience, how the ideal buyer persona (or company in this case) behaves, and what they need from you. If you do this, you can avoid many mistakes affecting the later stages.
2. Assemble the Team
At this point, you need to decide who will work on this sales funnel and define their roles. That may end up in new tasks for the current team or even open an option to hire a new employee.
3. The Research Phase
This is the longest phase because you need to define who is your ideal buyer and detect those companies on the market. Make sure you write down every result you come up with.
4. Work Closely With the Marketing Department
Their opinions matter because they see the whole funnel from another perspective. When the changes are made, we are going to the next phase.
5. Launch the Sales Funnel
The best thing is that you can still test if the current version works well or if it needs improvements. You can implement changes as needed, making sure you don’t lose a customer.
6. Enjoy the Accomplished Results
But don’t forget to review it all over again and implement the new relevant updates. That helps you stay relevant and still attract valuable customers by your side.
Conclusion
Now you have your almost perfect B2B sales funnel to bring you more customers. The ultimate goal is to create long-term relationships and collaborations by offering quality products and services. But even when you think you’ve got most of the market, we are sure there are many other challenges out there. An effective sales funnel will surely help you gain more business customers in the future.