Flipping the Funnel the Showstopper in Marketing and Sales

Experienced marketers are familiar with the notion of a funnel. For years, corporations have promoted various funnel forms, upside-down funnels, and even the death of the funnel. While the funnel approach may not fully describe the nuances of the B2B buyer’s journey, it does serve as a helpful guide for developing an effective marketing plan.

Having said that, concentrating just on one funnel can frequently result in lost opportunities and inferior results.

Flipping the funnel entails allocating fewer efforts to gaining new consumers and allocating more resources to acknowledging and maintaining current customers. These pleased consumers may then be enabled to share their brand experience with their peers, creating a new customer acquisition channel.

The very first step is Attract, in which anonymous consumers interact with your business for the first time. If they continue to interact, they will progress down the funnel until they become a marketing-qualified lead (MQL), a customer, and, lastly, an advocate for your company.

The Rise Of The Account-Based Marketing Strategy

ABM has evolved as a must-have approach for B2B organizations in recent years. ABM is a focused strategy that concentrates resources on a small number of high-value accounts. This method can undoubtedly assist your organization, but most businesses will discover that it is not the end-all and be-all that it has been promoted to be. As more marketers deploy an ABM program, they’ve learned that ABM, on its own, misses out on the high-intent leads and accounts that used to fill their inbound demand gen funnel.

To have the most impact, B2B marketers must use both ABM and inbound demand generation marketing. These two tactics combine to generate a new funnel known as the “double funnel.” The term “dual funnel” refers to the management of a volume-oriented demand generation funnel and a quality-oriented account-based funnel. The two funnels collaborate to contact the target demographic with high intent and willingness to buy, as well as the accounts you specify as key priorities.

Here’s how inbound demand generation and ABM may work together to offer value:

Inbound Demand Gen Funnel. To recruit accounts with a high propensity to purchase, the conventional demand gen funnel employs inbound strategies such as earned and sponsored media, SEO, and interactions at conferences. It uses advanced modeling to prospect and locate accounts that match your target demographic and show interest.

ABM Funnel. Account-based marketing begins with identifying the important accounts that correspond to your ideal client profile and provide a substantial possibility for your company. ABM then employs coordinated marketing campaigns and sales tactics to close these clients. These accounts are the focal point of any ABM strategy, and they receive more customized touchpoints as they progress down the funnel.

It’s time to flip the B2B funnel.

Let us now refer to our prospects and customers as accounts. Your accounts are what keep your firm running; after all, they are referred to as “accounts receivable” on your accounting records.

ABM requires B2B enterprises to become hyper-focused on their target accounts.

Furthermore, the expanding software choices make it easier and more practical for B2B marketing and sales teams to “flip” the conventional sales B2B funnel and focus their efforts on a smaller number of right-fit clients or a specific list of accounts. This helps to guarantee that resources are given to the correct people who are likely to become paying customers.

How to Implement the Flipped B2B Marketing Funnel

Here are three-pointers to help you flip the marketing funnel right now:

1 – Get buy-in from the entire organization

Effective ABM requires buy-in from the very top all the way down to your most junior personnel. Begin by implementing this account-based strategy in a trial campaign.

Once it has begun to produce results for you, take it to the C-suite and demonstrate the difference it can make. Emphasize the benefits of a flipped marketing funnel for your firm.

2 – Align marketing and sales

The flipped funnel should be part of a larger plan to bring the two teams together. Sharing revenue objectives, incentives, and rewards across sales and marketing is a realistic method to start this process. Encourage both teams to think in terms of revenue rather than leads!

3 – Provide excellent content at each stage of the buyer’s journey

This does not have to take as much time as it appears. If you already have a collection of B2B marketing material, reuse it! You may, for example, change whitepapers and case studies to make them more applicable to other markets or areas. Don’t be scared to be unique and inventive!

Stop wasting marketing resources

The need to shift conventional B2B marketing and sales approaches to an account-based strategy is exacerbated by the reality that B2B organizations must limit resources wasted on clients who aren’t a good match — and then successfully engage those who are.

Boost your results with our services and Modifying strategies to specific accounts for more effective success.

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