Companies have to consider the sales funnel or commercial pipeline in stages as a way to maximize their income. But for this funnel to be optimized – that we get the most out of it – we must act with intelligence and determination in each of its stages. In this article, we explain how you should successfully track each phase in the B2B sales funnel.
Tips at each stage of the B2B sales funnel
The sales funnel or funnel is identified with the processes that a company sets since the customer has knowledge of our product or service until, in fact, he buys or leaves it. This is why knowing each stage in detail is so important. If there is a problem, it is convenient to address it to avoid leaks to the competition. In order to provide some advice on this, we will now see each of the main phases of the sales funnel specifically. For more information click here
- Identification of the opportunity
This is the first phase, also called the wide funnel zone. In digital businesses, it is identified with the moment in which the user visits our website or uses an application and adds Google extension of this application. It is possible that many people do not go further because they do not fit the target, but in any case, if they have reached this point, your marketing policy has done something right.
What is a Google Chrome extension?
The benefit of Chrome is that its structure allows you to add extensions to make the internet browsing experience more complete, whether you’re having fun or working. Unlike applications that work autonomously, extensions are additional tools that you can add to the browser.
You can add one or more Google extensions to your browser also from the Chrome Web Store, its offer is smaller than that of the applications, but surely you could find one that is useful to you among its 12 different categories.
- Connection call or Connect Call
Once we have identified the opportunity, the next phase of the Inbound Sales methodology is called Connect Call or connection call. In this case, as fundamental advice, you must obtain all the necessary information so that, as a company, you can assess whether there may be a fit. Do not waste time going to the next phase to leads that, for whatever reason, you see that they do not suit you.
- In-depth exploratory call or Explore Call
In this phase, we have already collected the necessary business information to determine that it is a leader of a certain quality at the level of fit with what interests our company and in terms of what it can offer you.
- Goal setting call
This is the narrowest phase of the funnel and in which the person will decide to purchase the product or service. When both you – on behalf of the company – and the potential client have reached this stage, it is because you both see clearly that you can move towards a proposal.
How to analyze the marketing and sales funnel
Once all the phases are known, it is good to apply metrics to see if we are doing things well, especially with regard to time management.
We will not get tired of saying it, together with the excessive dedication to contacts that objectively will never progress in the process, delays are the main enemy we encounter to generate a conversion to the customer. We can use the following control metrics to analyze the operation of the marketing and sales funnel:
- Conversion rate per response time
This metric can be used from the beginning or applied to a specific phase of the funnel. The general principle is that the longer it takes to offer an answer, the lower the conversion rate. Knowing with exact figures what the economic damage is and, above all, in which phases it occurs to a greater extent, it is essential to invest resources in those critical moments.
- Response time per sales opportunity
It is especially important to analyze the productivity of the worker who is in charge of the company’s sales area. As a general principle, the longer it takes, the lower the productivity, although to have a complete vision it is convenient to compare it with the other workers and take into account the figure of each conversion.
- Conversion rate related to response time
This measure is especially important to optimize the use we make of time because conversions are related to the time spent in each response. In this way, we will know what the optimal period is and we can transfer this guideline to our sales team.
- Tracking Rate
This value is interesting to check if the sales staff is performing the due monitoring process. Therefore, it is useful to know how many calls or contacts by email have been made.
