How to build a conversion funnel in B2B?

What are the essential building blocks for creating a prospecting funnel and generating regular leads when you are an agency, consultant, coach, trainer, or freelancer? How can you generate sales for your services? In this guide, we will look at the key elements you need to put in place to get results.

What is a conversion funnel?

You've heardof"conversion tunnels," "sales tunnels," "marketing funnels," and "sales funnels," and each time you've been made to understand that your system wasn't right or wasn't optimized properly.

So let's take a few seconds to review some basics:

• There is not just one tunnel that works in the world.
• Every business can succeed in its own way.
• A tunnel does not need to be complex to function.

On the other hand, it is true that as your market evolves(more competition, more difficult access to traffic channels, lower prices on an offer), you need to evolve your funnel.

Just as a craftsman who prepares his estimates on a corner of a table will be left behind if he is now faced with a young person who has digitized his business.

In this changing environment, it is necessary to upgrade your tunnel so that it provides:

1. More opportunities with the same effort or budget.
2. More margin to offset rising marketing costs.

I am talking about an effective conversion funnel in this guide.

A tunnel doesn't have to be complex

However, a conversion funnel does not necessarily have to be complex.

The basis of a sales funnel is simple:

1. A source of traffic (Google SEO, Facebook advertising, Instagram audience, etc.) on digital platforms to feed your pipeline.
2. A source of prospects (networking, referrals, email prospecting, cold calling, etc.) if your focus is more sales-oriented.
3. A clear, scalable, and predictive system for generating "hot leads" who show interest.
4. A process for generating requests or identifying opportunities in this pool.
5. A documented method for selling, closing deals, and signing contracts on a regular basis.
6. A nurturing or farming approach to cultivate or raise your customers in order to retain them (and get them to re-sign).

Nothing more.

In some societies,thiscan translate into ultra-basic patterns:

1. Prospect source: a good Google Maps profile.
2. System for generating opportunities: my customers find me locally on their mobile phones.
3. A process to generate demand: they call to make a reservation or make an appointment via a link.
4. A method for selling: I invite them in for an audit, a consultation, a visit to commercial premises, etc.
5. A nurturing approach: I give them an advantage (commission) if one of their contacts comes to me for business.

Another example:

1. A monthly presence as a speaker at one event attended by my potential clients.
2. I make sure that the audience for my presentation must register or leave a business card in order to attend.
3. I call them back or send them an email to thank them and let them know that I have an offer.
4. They schedule a sales call.
5. At the end of the year, I review my former clients' goals with them to try to identify any new needs.

Or even:

1. I am setting up a Facebook Ads/Instagram Ads campaign that leads to a landing page for a specific offer.
2. I convert as many clicks as possible into email subscribers (or by collecting their phone numbers).
3. Over a period of three weeks, I send a series of emails that may link to additional content or videos.
4. I generate an online sale for my training course or a strategic call for my service.
5. Every six months, I launch complementary workshops on a related topic to generate additional sales.

How should you structure your conversion funnel?

So you see, there's no needtobuild a complicated system as long as you know exactly:

1. Who you are addressing (what customer profile, what need, what motivation).
2. The level of complexity of your offer.

If your offer is a "no-brainer, I see it, I want it, I buy it"("buy a product I love," "repair a broken computer," or "get my baby to sleep"), the intensity of your funnel will be high and its duration short.

If your offer is more complex("adopt a new marketing tool," " change your website ," or "renovate your premises"), your funnel will be less intense (so as not to break your fishing line by tiring out your prospect, who won't make a decision within 24 hours anyway) and longer in duration.

So the first question to ask yourselfis, "What is your customers' journey" from their first contact with your company to the sale?

What is their thought process before reaching the conclusion that they should:

1. Use a service or tool such as yours.
2. Choose you over the competition.

These elements will determine the length and complexity of your tunnel.

Once you are aware of these aspects, you can begin to write down the steps you will want your potential customers to go through to transform them from "suspects" to "prospects," then from "hot prospects" to "buyers."

So as to guide them to the decision-making stage.

An example of a tunnel for a complex service:

1. I produce content on Google or invest in advertising on Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
2. I collect the email address or phone number of potential prospects through a bonus related to my offer.
3. I send a series of emails, possibly with retargeting advertising.
4. I refer them to an in-person event or webinar (during which I can sell).
5. I present them with my offer.
6. I qualify them by scheduling an appointment that requires them to answer a few questions.
7. I call the most motivated people on the phone to sell my services.

For certain services,youwill need to meet in person.

Even though the scalability of a 100% digital tunnel is tempting, you don't necessarily need to limit yourself to marketing activities on social media or online advertising.

You can therefore easily addavisit to the company's premises to a stage in your funnel.

I know a lot of agencies (web agencies!) that are terrible at digital marketing and whose sales approach consists simply of going directly to the offices of the companies they are targeting to talk to the CEO. It works, even if it means getting in the car and driving there.

Before creating your B2B tunnel

Once your (simple) tunnel is working,youcan then consider making it more complex to increase its value.

But don't rush things by doing the opposite (i.e., making things more complex in the hope that this will fix your simple tunnel).

I see so many consultants, coaches, trainers, and agencies building ultra-complicated systems (without results) when the fundamentals are not in place.

If the foundations are not solid, there is no point in adding:

• A qualification questionnaire
• An insane amount of content
• Dozens of pages
• An upsell (additional sale)
• A downsell (cheaper product)
• A webinar...

Make sure your offer is validated by the marketbeforediving into complexity.

Validated by the market?

There are methodological tools (such as growth hacking) that introduce a scientific approach to validating your offering.

But without overthinking it, listen to the subtle signals:

• If your offer is consistently appealing and you sell it often, that's a green flag.
• If you feel little friction when talking to a prospect, that's also a good sign.
• If you have a prospect on the phone, you convert 20 to 30% of your calls.

If you don't sell your offer often,butwhen you do, we're talking about $10,000, $20,000, or $50,000, that can also be positive (your funnel won't convert often, but when it does, you'll see the impact).

So take a good look at your offer and strengthen it as much as possible to best serve your ideal customer.

Set up a simple funnel that will allow you to validate your offer by putting you in touch with your first prospects.

An optimized conversion funnel will never compensate for an average offer and poor targeting.

Especially if you plan to invest in advertising to fuel it. Advertising is a fierce competition for access to prospects.

If you are not competitive with a strong offering, you will never be profitable (because your competitors will be able to bid more for visibility).

So before you spend all day tinkering with your tunnel,keep itsimple.

Once your basic system has proven its effectiveness, you can then work on optimizing it and increasing your margins.

How to increase the value of your tunnel?

Once you feel your system stirring,youcan move on to the next phase.

1. On the one hand, you will be able to optimize each stage of your tunnel to collect more drops at the end.
2. You will also be able to make the system more complex to generate more sales (and margin) in the process.

When it comes to optimization, ask yourself the right questions:

• How can you increase access to prospects at the beginning of the funnel?
• Should you expand your activities or increase your budget?
• How will you do better or more with less?
• How will you free up resources (time, effort, budget) to build on your initial successes?
• How can you increase your conversion rates at each stage (for example, from 15% conversion on the phone to 20%)?
• What are the flaws in your system? Where are the leaks in the bucket?
• How can you add "patches" to your system (by addressing a more specific problem, targeting more precisely, responding better to objections)?

When it comes to complexity, ask yourself the right questions:

• What is the value of your offer? Can you increase your rates without causing your performance to drop?
• Can you integrate complementary offers? At what stage?
• How can you add micro-engagements that will move your prospects forward in your funnel and facilitate the sale?
• Can you offer mini-products that will engage the prospect in the sale (before your main product)?
• If you make a significant number of sales (small or large), can you imagine a product placed after the main sale?

The pricing issue is often the most effective leverfortransforming a "failing funnel" into a machine that generates leads and sales.

Search engine optimization and social media are excellent sales channels,butthe more sales you generate at a high price (or with a very high margin), the more you can invest in advertising.

Advertising is the best way to scale your sales funnel.

If you can invest $1,000, $2,000, or $10,000 per month and still remain profitable, you will never have to prospect again in your life.

I hope you find this guide useful.

The Holy Grail ofthe"perfect sales funnel" does not exist.

Marketing (as well as prospecting and sales) are processes that are improved through iteration.

There is no magic tool, but rather a series of improvements that will allow you to first experiment, then get your first hits, and finally transform your system into a "business machine."

See you soon!

Rudy Viard – Web Marketing Consulting

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