A B2B sales funnel or pipeline refers to the various stages typical B2B prospects go through during the sales process. The chief goal of a B2B sales funnel is to transform leads into paying customers while increasing ROI is the secondary purpose.
B2B sales funnels are particular for given services or products, but the AIDA (Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action) buyer's journey model forms the basis of its structure.
While it may be enticing to think prospects move linearly through a B2B sales funnel, the reality is very different. Prospects move down and up the sales pipeline either non-linearly or linearly.
Significant B2B sales funnel traffic is required to conduct proper AB testing, meaning prospect and funnel optimization may take longer than expected. If you have the tools and prospect base to test, you should begin doing it immediately and regularly.
This article explores what a b2b sales funnel is, how to create it, the different models and stages, and the challenges involved with building one for your business.
While the basic shape of the sales funnel B2B model is similar to B2C (Business-to-Consumer), the mechanics and duration of the process are fundamentally different. Understanding these differences is key to creating effective B2B sales funnels.
|
Feature |
B2B Funnel |
B2C Funnel |
|
Decision Cycle |
Longer decision cycles (often months or even years). The sale is a complex, strategic investment. |
Shorter and faster (minutes to weeks). The purchase is often transactional and driven by immediate need or emotion. |
|
Stakeholders |
Multiple stakeholders (e.g., procurement, IT, department head, C-level executive) are involved in the buying committee. |
Typically a single decision-maker (the individual consumer). |
|
Sales Approach |
Relationship-driven sales are essential. Trust, long-term value, and detailed ROI justification are required. |
Often product/price-driven. Focus is on mass appeal and convenience. |
|
Purchase Value |
High monetary value and significant impact on the client's business operations. |
Lower monetary value and impact on the individual. |
This longer, more complex process is why developing a detailed B2B sales funnel template and studying B2B sales funnel examples are crucial for success in the business market.
Creating an effective B2B sales funnel requires a structured, multi-step approach that aligns marketing efforts with sales execution, focusing on the unique needs of business buyers.
The modern B2B funnel stages are more granular than the traditional three-stage model, reflecting the complexity of enterprise buying. Each stage requires specific actions and content to move the prospect closer to a sale.
To successfully guide prospects through the B2B marketing funnel stages, the content must match the buyer's mindset. At the Awareness stage, blog posts and foundational guides build trust. In Consideration, prospects need data, so webinars and case studies are effective.
Finally, at Evaluation, nothing is better than a personalized product demo or a detailed proposal to close the deal. Using a comprehensive sales funnel for B2B means ensuring every piece of content has a strategic purpose.
Effective lead management relies on defining key B2B sales funnel metrics.
Here are the key metrics to track for each stage:
|
B2B Funnel Stage |
Key Metric |
Definition |
|
Awareness → Interest |
Click-Through Rate (CTR) |
Percentage of viewers who click on a call-to-action (CTA). |
|
Interest → Consideration |
MQL Conversion Rate |
Percentage of leads who meet marketing qualification criteria. |
|
Evaluation → Purchase |
Win Rate |
Percentage of SQLs that convert into paying customers. |
Implementing a CRM system is non-negotiable for managing the volume and complexity of a B2B sales funnel. Tools like Ringy allow sales teams to automate and track the funnel through features such as:
Using a pre-built B2B sales funnel template within the CRM ensures consistency in the B2B sales process and data tracking across the entire sales organization.
Closing the loop on the B2B sales funnel involves rigorous data analysis. Sales and marketing teams must regularly review dashboards to track:
CRM dashboards allow teams to visualize B2B sales funnel metrics in real-time. If the conversion rate from SQL to closed deals is consistently below the industry average (which typically sits around 15-30%), the sales process needs immediate optimization.
What would a B2B sales funnel article be without some examples of the different types of models companies implement? Here we look at the basics behind each method so you'll have a better idea of how they work.
|
Model Name |
Core Focus and Primary Stages/Elements |
|
The AIDA Model |
Focus: Buyer's psychological journey. Stages: Attention $\rightarrow$ Interest $\rightarrow$ Desire $\rightarrow$ Action (Purchase). |
|
The Forrester Model |
Focus: Structuring outreach based on prospect engagement level. 5Is: Involvement, Interaction, Intimacy, Influence, Impact. |
|
McKinsey’s Loyalty Loop |
Focus: Driving customer retention and advocacy by mapping the post-purchase journey. Stages: Consider $\rightarrow$ Evaluate $\rightarrow$ Buy $\rightarrow$ Enjoy $\rightarrow$ Advocate $\rightarrow$ Bond. |
|
Heinz Marketing’s Bowtie |
Focus: Extends the funnel to include post-sale advocacy and loyalty; focused on metrics like Churn Rate, CLV, and Retention Rate. |
|
The Conversion Funnel |
Focus: Digital marketing strategy for generating sales by monitoring awareness to conversion (e.g., sign-up, form completion, purchase). Often based on AIDA. |
|
JB Media Group’s Sales Funnel |
Focus: Action-oriented, four-stage framework for content and sales efforts. Stages: Awareness $\rightarrow$ Consideration $\rightarrow$ Decision $\rightarrow$ Retention. |
|
RAIN Group's Buying Process |
Focus: Salespeople using questioning techniques to influence the buyer’s agenda and articulate value, building trust and relationships. |
The four-stage AIDA model utilizes these attributes to move the client through the B2B sales pipeline:
During interactions with each phase, content generally attracts prospects' attention to your brand, builds interest in your service or product, stimulates a desire for it, and promotes actions to test or purchase it.
Forrester developed the 5Is marketing model to help businesses structure their outreach efforts.
The 5Is stand for the level of:
These engagement actions are based on the prospects' interactions with a brand over a specific period. Metrics for the 5Is are measured via web analytics, customer interactions, qualitative client feedback, market sentiment, and more.
Mckinsey's Loyalty Loop recognizes that once a client buys a product, they rethink whether purchasing the item was the correct thing to do if they would recommend it to friends or family, and wonder if they would repurchase the same item.
This method involves looking at the customer journey through six stages. The loyalty loop shows how prospects decide what they want to buy and whether they wish to stay with their choice. Here are the six phases to examine during the customer journey:
Using these stages to track a client's journey in and out of business is an excellent way to gather invaluable insights into customer behavior. Mckingsley's Loyalty Loop is a system that promises to show a lot of positive results because it focuses on the customer first.
The Heinz Marketing Bowtie stretches past conventional B2B sales funnels by including both customer advocacy and loyalty phases. Customers are captivated by the brand due to its concentration on building trust, strengthening its reputation, and maintaining long-term relations with its clients.
This strategy allows marketers to monitor revenue-impacting factors and track customer growth rates. Utilizing the Heinz Marketing Bowtie strategy, you can follow these metrics:
Besides the above insights, this strategy creates a competitive advantage because it's focused on keeping the clients satisfied and ardent after the sale.
The primary task of The Conversion Funnel is to generate sales. These strategies monitor the customer journey from awareness to conversion, which could mean signing up for a monthly email, completing a form, or purchasing a product.
Conversion funnels are the cornerstone of all e-Commerce business models, influencing prospects as soon as they notice a brand to the second they buy a product from it. Most e-Commerce conversion funnels utilize the AIDA model while using marketing triggers during stages to reach out to customers.
The JB Media Group promotes a sales funnel built around four stages in the customer journey.
The table below showcases each phase with an example of what to do during each one:
|
JB Media Group Sales Funnel Stage |
Actionable Steps |
|
Awareness stage |
Offer prospects educational information to grow their awareness of a solution. |
|
Consideration stage |
Help the customer understand the product better by including buyer’s guides, videos, case studies, and more on your website |
|
Decision stage |
Once the customer is ready to purchase a product, you could offer them a free consultation, trial, or demo to bring them closer to sealing the deal |
|
Retention stage |
Continue to provide the customer with valuable information about the service or product sold. Increase customer lifetime value by nurturing clients after sales. |
The RAIN Group's Buying Process utilizes questioning techniques to unravel in-depth information concerning the buyer's requirements and desires. Sales representatives sell perspectives, insights, and ideas that impact the purchaser's decision-making. With a complete understanding of the target market, salespeople can close more deals while overcoming hurdles in concluding a sale.
The following elements are included in the Rain Group's Buying Process:
These areas are the most important to concentrate on when achieving success with this strategy.
B2B sales representatives need to be more systematic and strategic than business to consumer (B2C) organizations when approaching customers. Knowing the right moment to pitch a client or what to talk about next is vital to the outreach effort.
Understanding that the customer journey isn't a straight line can help you determine where they are in the B2B sales funnel. Follow these six stages of a B2B sales funnel to know where your prospects are.
This phase involves creating awareness around your product or services through various inbound marketing channels, such as TikTok videos or blog posts. Sales and marketing teams promote the brand, share solutions or advice to common client issues, and collect leads.
During this stage, you need to concentrate on building the buyer-brand relationship through informative content. This could also involve retargeting prospects with a blog post or article explaining how your solution can help their problem.
At this stage, prospects are considered qualified and think your solution can assist them. This is when sales and marketing efforts focus on the product or service. Case studies, free trials, and email marketing campaigns are excellent instruments to move the buyer along during this phase.
Intent shows the buyer's possible interest in your brand or product because it demonstrates buying signals, such as responding to an email or booking a demo. These buyers need to decide which solution to go with, so include product-focused videos or whitepapers in your marketing collateral that can support demonstration conversions or sales activity qualifications.
When the final buying decision occurs, the evaluation stage commences. Now that the people have researched and weighed up their options, it's time for them to choose a solution.
Sales teams should leverage urgency in their pitches to get the customer to sign off the deal faster. You can also discuss service level agreements, discounts, or other negotiable points here.
Finally, the customer has purchased the product or service and has become your client. Now comes the most critical part, building a relationship so that retention rates improve and customer satisfaction levels increase.
Building and maintaining a successful sales funnel for B2B is complex due to the nature of business transactions. Several common challenges can disrupt the flow and efficiency of the B2B sales pipeline.
The extended timeline (often six to eighteen months) and the involvement of up to six to ten stakeholders in the buying process make maintaining momentum difficult.
Often referred to as the "silo effect," this misalignment occurs when Marketing generates leads that Sales deems unqualified, leading to wasted effort and friction.
If data resides in disparate systems (e.g., separate spreadsheets, email platforms, and ad trackers), it's impossible to get a clear, end-to-end view of the B2B funnel.
A significant challenge is treating all leads the same, resulting in generic communication that fails to resonate. This causes high lead decay and low conversion rates.
Monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for assessing the health and efficiency of any B2B sales funnel. These metrics provide the data necessary to identify bottlenecks, forecast revenue, and ensure the entire B2B sales pipeline is delivering a strong ROI.
|
Metric |
Definition |
Why It Matters |
|
MQL to SQL Conversion |
% of marketing leads becoming qualified sales leads |
Measures lead quality |
|
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) |
Cost per new client |
Determines ROI efficiency |
|
CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) |
Revenue from each customer over time |
Reveals long-term profitability |
|
Funnel Velocity |
Average time from lead to close |
Indicates sales efficiency |
These B2B sales funnel metrics move beyond simple vanity measures to provide a comprehensive view of business performance. By tracking the quality of leads (MQL to SQL), the speed of the process (Funnel Velocity), and the ultimate financial health (CAC and CLV), businesses can systematically optimize their entire B2B funnel for maximum profitability.
B2B sales funnels are integral to any online or e-Commerce business model. Whether managing the customer through their journey or monitoring behavior insights with your sales team, B2B sales funnels provide a wealth of information.
Combining your B2B sales funnel with a CRM platform is a great way to achieve results. A CRM solution like Ringy is perfect for storing and tracking customer data while keeping sales teams on top of outreach efforts.
Request a demo to see how Ringy has been helping organizations in the insurance, remote sales, finance, and recruiting sectors boost overall business productivity and sales.