The sales funnel demonstrates the sales process. B2B marketing and sales team seek to fill their
sales funnel, and then to track and predict sales. These are critical functions and metrics given the
typically long and complex sales cycle for B2B relationships.
The funnel is shaped like a funnel (was that too obvious). At the top of the funnel, there are
millions of prospective customers. But, really there aren't many real prospective customers in
there. So, as these people fall through this funnel, you find that there are fewer and fewer and
fewer real potential customers. At the end of the of the sales process very few prospects become real
customers.
Depending on the funnel you look to, you will find different stages and different numbers of stages. The Marketing team is responsible for the "top half" of the funnel - i.e. attracting qualified leads - while the sales team takes the relationship from there and closes the deal. A good B2B organization tracks the funnel and customers at each stage to know how much potential business they have in their funnel. This helps a business to accurately predict sales.
A B2B sales organization uses Marketing Automation software like SalesForce.com to help track the funnel.
Next up ... a discussion of a more complex B2B sales funnel which shows some additional dynamics.
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IT service organization (IT services or ITSM) is a discipline for managing IT (information technology) systems.
ReplyDeleteJob well done guys, quality information.
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Very helpful post! Thank you for introducing us to the sales funnel. It was very well-discussed and can easily be understood. I'll be looking forward to your article about the more complex B2B sales funnel. Thanks for sharing.
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