A whopping 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales
Yet 68% of companies surveyed by Salesforce say that they have not identified a sales funnel

What is a Sales Funnel?

Also referred to as a conversion funnel
A visual representation of the customer buying journey
Represents the conversion rate between each of the stages

Shape of the Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is shaped like an inverted pyramid, which is wider at the top and narrows towards the bottom. More prospective customers moving from the top to reach the bottom of the sales funnel signifies a better conversion rate.

Top: Awareness Stage
- Prospective customers first learn about your brand and/or product
Middle: Consideration Stage
- Marketers try to qualify leads and nurture them
Bottom: Purchase Stage
- Qualified leads become customers

*Tip: A marketer’s job does not end with conversion. This is when they prepare to nurture their customers to increase the retention rate.*

Sales funnels help businesses:

Speed up the sales process
Build stronger relationships with leads
Provide a personalized approach
Generate more sales

The Differences Between the Two Sales Funnels

How different should the strategies and tactics of B2B and B2C marketing really be? The answer is “completely”.

B2B and B2C marketing target completely different buyer personas. This makes it vital for marketers to have different strategies to engage these distinct sets of audiences.

B2B and B2C Buyer Personas

Let’s look at how different B2B and B2C buyers are:

Parameters	B2B Buyers	B2C Customers
Purchase on behalf of	The company	Self, family or friends (individuals)
Focused on	Solving a business problem or achieving a business goal (like increasing productivity)	Meeting personal needs
Decision driven by	Reason, logic	Emotion, single or few objectives
Decision points	ROI, value addition, expertise	Benefits of the product, deals
Time for decision making	Slow, with buyer weighing the offering much more critically	Fast, can even be impulsive
Independence in decision making	May need to confer with other stakeholders and get approvals	Decisions are usually made independently
Timeline for consumption	Usually seeking long-term solutions	Immediate
Length of relationship	Long lasting	Short

Impact of Buyer Personas on the Sales Funnel

B2C marketing targets a much wider range of prospective customers
B2B marketing targets an exclusive group of customers who represent companies within a specific industry

Difference between the B2B and B2C sales funnel – More in depth:

Parameters	B2B Buyers	B2C Customers
Top of funnel	Much narrower	Very wide
Targeting	Much more accurate	Broad-based
Conversion rate	Typically higher	Usually lower
Buyer journey	Customers may spend a considerable time at each stage of the sales funnel	Customers usually move very quickly through the sales funnel
Sales cycle	Lengthy	Short
Marketing material	In-depth, detailed, focused on educating the customer	Crisp, catchy, focused on grabbing attention

B2B vs. B2C – Wrapping It Up

Contrary to popular belief, B2B sales need more online marketing than B2C sales. This is because B2B customers will spend much more time learning about the product or service by reading whitepapers, blogs, reviews, etc. In fact, 70% of B2B buyers watch a video at some point during their buying process.

References

https://www.leadforensics.com/sales-funnel/

https://www.salesforce.com/blog/what-is-a-sales-funnel/

https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/research/reports/State%20of%20Inbound%202018%20Global%20Results.pdf

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/b2b-marketing?gclid=Cj0KCQiA48j9BRC-ARIsAMQu3WT13QMQxgg4BMrSZWDOhQ1sJI1yDsDT7lsofGanvh-DPSADRQh8XoMaApRaEALw_wcB

https://www.ssim.ac.in/blog/difference-between-b2b-and-b2c-marketing/

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-statistics