Today, I’ll be speaking on funnels … They all have the same shape and all have the same goal, although as you will see by reading this blog, they all have their own peculiarities.
At Exo B2B, we talk about integrated B2B marketing, sales-marketing integration and conversion. I’ll share a slide with you taken from part of a presentation by Lynda St-Arneault and Pierre Breton, entitled “Business Marketing: a matter of survival for Quebec SMEs” presented in Boucherville, Quebec during the B2B APCM tour.
This is a relatively conventional sales funnel. By looking closely, we learn with astonishment that 70% of leads transferred from marketing to sales do not get followed …
Sales funnel
Funnelling of a B2B web site
In this presentation, another part dealt with web strategy and its objectives. To illustrate this, I took funnel related to a website in the B2B market, specifically that in the field of construction.
The difference here is that we do not end up with a sale. The lead is qualified by marketing and will be transferred to sales. We notice that on average, a ratio of 1 to 5% of web site visitors will be converted into leads, hence the importance of attracting the most qualified visitors to your website. More qualified visits mean more leads, and logically, more sales …
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Funnelling of inbound marketing
Another part of the conference dealt with inbound marketing and, it’s these tools and marketing tactics that attract visitors to your web site, among other things. The blog; a generator of recognized content, is often at the center of the strategy and allows you to begin a process of conversion of the prospect. This has been taken from the website via the blogs’ content, because it represents the target clientele, who is interested in the topics discussed.
It is very important to move towards the maturity of the prospect by feeding it on a regular basis with content that guides them towards a purchase. This is where marketing automation can come into play as the technology permits this essential monitoring to the conversion.
Funnelling through social marketing
To complete this quartet of funnels, I offer one which deals with a sales funnel, via marketing in social media. To attract prospects, it is suggested to place advertisements in various social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube, etc.
In the center of the funnel, in order to push prospects to sales, we see that the name of the company or the brand must be seen several times in order to generate interest, or even the commitment of followers or members through selected channels according to the objectives and target audience.
And at the end of the tunnel; sales… Tactics of outbound marketing and optimization of web pages for conversion, with the ultimate aim of generating sales.
At what level in the funnel is the prospect lost? Are the tracking tools outdated? The company has no CRM? Is there a problem with the structure of the sales force?
When one sees all the efforts made in these funnels, regardless of the tactics or the privileged tools, it is absurd to note that 70% of the transferred leads from marketing to sales are not being tracked… Whatever the reason, there is no valid reason to not implement a process of sales tracking.
Sales-marketing integration is the key to success in B2B. So next time you have a lead on the other end of the line, if you receive an email, if a new visitor has filled out a questionnaire on your website or has asked you a question via your social networks, think of these funnels and pay attention. Think about the next stage of conversion. Who knows, perhaps they are your next customer!
