According to Marketing Sherpa data just released, average B2B deal sizes are shrinking. What does this mean for the B2B Marketer? Its implications are highly significant.
So if the average deal size changes, so does your marketing maths; your funnel velocity will now have to be higher to make the same revenue.
Revenue Goal = Deal Size x Leakage x Lag x Buyer's Stage
Where leakage means the number of deals that leak from stage to stage of your go to market funnel and lag is the time it takes for deals to close.
So to achieve your revenue goals you will need to do one or a combination of the following:
- - Attract more website visitors/more contacts into the top of your funnel
- - Run your funnel at a higher rate, ie. run more campaigns
- - Work at improving the efficiency of your funnel ie. reduce lag and leakage
Some ideas we suggest our clients work on:
Apply the principles of inbound marketing to "get found" by your target buyers. Maintain an active on and off page SEO strategy. Off page SEO is especially important. Blog regularly at least once if not twice per week. Use social media, particularly LinkedIn for B2B marketers to contribute to debates your buyers are having.
Focus on your buyer and the problems they have that you solve really well and align your sales and marketing teams around this shared focus.
Use the buyer's problem as the foundation of your content marketing plan. Build content that speaks to the buyer's problem and understand that the buyer needs different content at different stages of the buying cycle. Deliver that content to them when they need it.
Measure, analyse, improve...Rinse and repeat. Continuous improvement, or the Japanese concept of "Kaizen", is central to successful go to market funnel management. You can't improve what you don't measure, so start measuring your conversion ratios at each stage of the funnel, experiment with different email headings, blog post titles, social media posts and updates. What calls to action get the best results on your home page?
Funnel velocity and funnel management are key concepts in developing a lead engine that creates a steady stream of qualified leads for your sales team. Building this engine requires a step by step approach. This free whitepaper outlines the steps you must take to build your own lead engine within your company.
How do you manage your funnel? What tips would you like to share? Please use the comment box below.