Building the right B2B sales funnel for your company is one of the best ways to generate valuable leads and sales.

Your interest in knowing how to build a B2B sales funnel that converts is not surprising.

A good B2B sales funnel should take your potential clients from their first contact with your brand to purchasing your products or services.

Meanwhile, there are some actionable steps to achieving this result, and you will get them as you read through this piece.

Below, we will discuss building a B2B sales funnel and differentiate between the different stages of the funnel.

What Is a B2B Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel for B2B shows the stages your prospects go through before they decide to make purchases.

It starts when they are captured and ends when they buy from you.

It is not enough to build a website for your business and expect it to generate traffic that converts without taking any action.

You need to deliberate about making sales and stop leaving money on the table.

A B2B sales funnel that converts will ensure that your prospects don’t end up with your competitor after landing on your website.

However, you should be aware that not all of them will convert at the end of the day, but at least a reasonable percentage of them.

So, let’s go on a journey of building a B2B sales funnel that converts.

How Do You Build a B2B Sales Funnel That Converts?

To build a successful B2B sales funnel, you must be creative, observant and updated.

Although these qualities mentioned above are human qualities, technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are also available to help you automate some steps and procedures.

There are four primary stages of a B2B sales funnel. While your prospects pass through these stages, it shows their commitment to buying your products.

Stage 1 – Awareness

This stage begins when a visitor lands on your site. It is where you show them how your products or services can benefit them and why you have what they need.

You must target your awareness campaign for the right business to get the most out of this stage.

Meanwhile, if you get this stage wrong, your business is less likely to generate valuable leads.

This stage invites new prospects and takes them to the next stage of the B2B Sales funnel.

Below are several ways to create awareness for your B2B brand:

• Create a content-rich website with a blog section.
• Get active on social media
• Show up at important industry events.
• Run Google Ads and Social Media ads.
• Practice Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Meanwhile, you should see some things expected to happen in this stage when your potential clients visit your website. They:

1. Watch your pre-recorded videos or read through your website home page.
2. Download your lead magnet ( A helpful eBook or guide)
3. Subscribe to your email newsletter
4. Follow you on social media.

To confirm that you are getting this stage right, you must observe the following performance indicators:

• Website traffic stats.
• Social media growth.
• Email subscribers list.

If the above results show growth, you can move to stage two. If not, you should review what went wrong until you can improve your stats.

Stage Two – Interest

Once prospects reach this stage, you successfully guide them to the next step of your B2B sales funnel.

It is the stage where potential customers will start comparing you with your competitors and considering whether to buy from you.

Since you now have their emails and contacts, below are things you can do to make their decision favor your business.

• Send them an automated email that emphasizes the benefits of your products and services.
• Send product comparisons and detailed pricing information.
• Give them a free trial

Meanwhile, below are the key performance indicators:

• Your email open rate and click-through rate.
• Engagement Stats
• The conversation rate for the free trial

You must get every step in this stage right to get a positive result.

Stage Three – Evaluation

You must have started generating valuable leads at this funnel stage but you still need to evaluate your performance.

Below are some steps to take:

• Go through stage two of the B2B sales funnel again.
• Monitor the conversion rate for the free trial.
• Track the customers’ engagement with the sales rep.

If you notice that your leads didn’t use the free trial, you can create a survey to ask why they didn’t.

Conversely, you can proceed to stage four if you see progress in your free trial.

Stage Four – Action

This is when you convert your leads to sales, and your customer pays for your products or services.

The prospect is convinced they can trust your products in the action stage.

Below are some tips on keeping your new customers satisfied and happy:

1. Send them a welcome email
2. Nurture your new relationships with valuable tips, tricks, and relevant news
3. Keep them engaged with your brand by sending our periodic newsletter with special offers, new product or service announcements, and customer loyalty deals
4. Prepare and send out a customer satisfaction survey to receive valuable feedback and be sure to make necessary changes when possible, applicable, and reasonable

Below are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Conversation rate on first purchases.
• Engagement rate
• The conversion rate for renewals or upsells

Conclusion

Now that you have taken a journey to build a B2B sales funnel, it’s time to give it a shot and try creating your own.

You might want to consider outsourcing some of your needs to experts to help you throughout these stages.

People like digital marketers, email copy experts, blog post writers, SEO experts, and more will contribute to the success of your B2B sales funnel.

Originally published February 3, 2022; republished September 3 to add video.