Selling is the easiest thing in the world. All you need to build a sales funnel is to grasp the basics, and the buyer is yours.
Among the things you must understand are human psychology, knowing what you’re selling, to whom, why you’re selling it, lead nurturing, mastering email, and, oh, right, all the objections that your buyers throw at you that you weren’t prepared for. And all the other administrator tasks that need to be automated but haven’t yet been.
Yes, selling is easy. If easy meant driving a geared car with a single arm and leg. Sure, it’s a thrill, but something is going to fall apart – or worse, get hit by it.
Yet, many organizations think or believe that sales is about calling, talking, and making the deal. And while salespeople don’t often receive the same criticism as the marketing teams, they are under scrutiny when sales dwindle and quotas are not met.
In Salesforce’s 2024 State of Sales, they report that 84% of salespeople didn’t meet the 2023 target, and 67% weren’t hopeful of meeting the 2024 one either. And that is a problem; sales quotas are down.
Building a B2B sales funnel is complex but not hopeless. B2B sales globally have been increasing at a CAGR of ~18%.
Then what is the problem exactly? Quotas are still dwindling. And yet, sales as a function is accelerating- there is a discrepancy and a huge one.
Why organizations need the sales funnel (Beyond the sell)
The obviousness of this question isn’t lost to us. Why do you need the sales funnel? To generate revenue, of course. But there are a few subtleties of the B2B sales funnel that require clarification.
The first, and foremost, is that the funnel is a reflection of organization-buyer-interaction. It is a very customer-focused idea that visualizes the customers’ journey from their POV.
The second is that this POV informs what the organization should do to reach and engage its potential customers. And the third is to understand that the funnel is not linear, instead, is a conditional map of ifs, buts, and maybes.
An organization needs the funnel to understand just how complex attribution has become, and yet they hold the power to orchestrate user experiences. Everything can be made deliberate, and at the same time, nothing can be exactly attributed.
The question isn’t why organizations need the funnel- the question is: what kind of funnel are they designing?
What is the B2B sales funnel, and what type of sales funnel are the organizations designing?
The B2B sales funnel is a series of touchpoints that your potential buyers explore before deciding whether they will become paying buyers or not. Every touchpoint is part of this funnel, but they are divided into 3 quadrants.
- The first is called Top of the Funnel or TOFU or Awareness.
- The second is called Middle of the Funnel, or MOFU, or Interest
- The third is called Bottom of the Funnel, or BOFU, or Desire
- And the final touch point is called the sale or Action.
Completing the framework known as AIDA.
This was the old model, while the base has remained relatively the same. The execution has changed by a wide margin. No longer reflecting the buyers’ journey.
What type of sales funnel are you building?
Before we dive into how to build a B2B sales funnel, you must know the experience your buyers must have with you, and with the level of sophisticated tools available to marketing and sales managers, the experience can be hyper-personalized and directed with precision- this begins with creating a touchpoint for the buyers to enter from.
From advertising and social to email and organic- this touchpoint can be any one. And you will also find that for different segments, there are varying entry touchpoints.
Now that we have the obvious out of the way, let’s get into the actual argument of why the design is necessary.
With the AIDA framework, sales and marketing managers think that the journey is linear. Even against their better judgment, they treat the buyers as someone who follows a single path. But the B2B buyers, and even B2C to some extent, have a complicated relationship with the touchpoints.
The buyer moves from one touchpoint to the next, abandons it, and then comes back again- because they are deliberating their problem. Once you articulate their problem effectively, they start thinking of you when their problem arises.
And when the buyer can no longer resist the problem, they will make the call- depending on what they feel about you.
This is the psychology of the buyer- a loop of debate with themselves and their peers.
Based on this, we can codify some of the steps to make better sense- remember, just like the buyer, this is not a linear way of doing things. The method is a broad observation.
Know the buyer
While this may seem obvious to the sales folks reading this, marketers must understand that the B2B sales funnel requires a personal understanding of the buyer. Not just their pain points, but who they are as people. This will have you investing in social listening tools, market behavioral analysis, and for teams on budget- sales’ call insights will do wonders for you.
Personalizing for your brand
Okay, while personalization seems like a buzzword, this is not personalization as in marketing messages, but rather knowing the context of the buyer and your product’s role in the larger ecosystem.
The question here is: what does your buyer’s journey look like?
- Are they talking to you first and then considering?
- Do they experience your product or read about it first?
- How are they finding out about you, and where are the drop-offs?
- Are they coming back after you thought they had dropped off?
Knowing the funnel
Based on the behavior and the context of the product/service to the buyer, you must now create your own TOFU, MOFU, AND BOFU.
Perhaps, because of your service or product, your TOFU is not the advertisement or organic material but the discovery call where the buyer goes – “Oh, who are you again?”
Maybe content consumption comes after you have established a relationship with them. Perhaps, that’s when they are most receptive.
That means the funnel is not a funnel- it was a flywheel for a while and then a bow-tie.
But in truth, the sales funnel is the personalized journey your buyer takes to sell. It is dynamic and changes from segment to segment.
How to build the B2B sales funnel? Or building on the non-linearity.
While conducting research, we found two schools of thought- one that says the old marketing and sales playbooks are dead, and the second, which is just a continuation of the same old SEO-friendly advice.
Let’s look at the traditional does work and then move on to customization. Now, this is the funnel part. Moving from the basics to what works for your context.
The traditional B2B sales funnel and what works
Advertising- TOFU
Advertising is booming– most organizations are investing or looking to invest in it. There’s something about the way some creatives grab attention that cannot be replaced by any function of search- AI or otherwise. If not for creative reasons, it will keep on running because it benefits networks and organizations.
Advertising has a life of its own that none of the other functions has. Sales are a byproduct of products/services, and marketing is a byproduct of revenue.
But ads are ecosystems of attention-capture and industries in their own right.
Lead Capturing- TOFU and MOFU
While the buyer’s journey is non-linear, their digital footprint, while dynamic with its contents, is static with identity. Lead capturing and optimization is not going to go out of the window anytime soon; instead, it’s going to be vital and in need of refinement – sales and marketing will need to define lead and lead capture processes beyond forms.
Lead Definition and Capture Processes- MOFU and BOFU
Teams will still have to define what a lead is for them and create a process to capture it. Is the lead being captured through downloads or through clicks on ads?
What are the filtration and priority levels of different types of leads?
Which process are you following to capture them- outbound, inbound, or both?
What is their level of engagement?
Lead Nurturing- MOFU AND BOFU
Nurturing is underrated. And it will never go out of fashion because it is a form of relationship building. Nurturing can be through emails, follow-ups, advertisements, through relationship building, 1:1 conversations, content syndication, and so much more.
It is vital for leads to trust you, and lead nurturing won’t ever be part of the old playbook because it’s based on a timeless principle. Only its method will change.
Sales and Marketing Alignment- TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU
Aligning the two functions is the end goal, traditionally, when ideas and data are exchanged freely. It will become timeless, and as the future goes, sales and marketing will end up fusing together as roles of a larger whole.
Your sales teams will feed data to marketing and vice versa, helping the marketing team refine their messaging, improving sales conversations because of shared insights, and eventually increasing revenue by aligning the two functions to the growth of the entire organization.
Omnichannel Experiences- TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU
These seamless experiences are a bit given nowadays. And whether you like them or not, they are here to stay. Ease of buying and selling won’t go out the window in the coming years. Soon, brands may have to make accommodations for AI buyers and give them an omnichannel experience. Will that be different than a human one? It is yet to be seen.
Customizing the sales funnel
Now, here’s where the non-linearity must be reflected in the funnel.
Observe their buying process.
With the traditional methods, organizations must capture the buyer and observe their interactions with all the touchpoints.
Then observe whether your buyers are buying digitally without talking to your sales reps. Or rather, are there any inbound inquiries, or is the process based on outbound calls? In short, are you sales or marketing-led?
Being either is not bad, but the first touchpoint will be decided by this. Your TOFU or the awareness stage might be a cold call, or it may be an advertisement, blog post, YouTube video, or email. But define this and define it for multiple segments, if possible.
Make room for the buying committee.
The core reason why many sales falter is that organizations still believe there is a singular buyer. Do you make decisions without your C-suites? While some have budgets to make decisions, they need to run it by a committee of peers with vested interests.
The B2B sales funnel, therefore, cannot be about a singular person – it is about how one organization and its people behave with other organizations that they want to buy from. This could be something like a few visits from people in the same organization.
Point of Debate
Your funnel needs to have a healthy amount of waiting time, which is why pipelines and agencies that create this pipeline are necessary. Sales cycles are moving up because of uncertainty across industries and sectors- there is a fear of change, and any tool is seen with skepticism.
But if your product and service solve genuine problems, all you need to do is amplify that. That means consistent marketing messages and letting them brew – this includes why your product is better than your competition and why.
And what it does for the buyers and their context- if uncertainty is the game, then providing security is the benefit.
When the time comes, and it will, your buyer will buy from you.
Building the funnel like a Lego block
Lego blocks are fun. Spend time constructing one with or without the children, and time seems to slip away. And that is your funnel.
The TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU are interchangeable and based on your buyer’s context.
The reason why sales are up but the quotas are not met is that the sales reps are not taking the time to understand their potential buyers. Why would anyone talk if the person is not listening? Self-buy is perfectly fine. But here’s the problem: self-buy isn’t solving problems because buyers don’t know what they want.
Build your funnel to make room for time and conversations- your teams must act as consultants, or if you are a bootstrapped founder and doing sales yourself, you need to understand your buyers’ complex journey.
And that doesn’t begin with spamming them.
