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The double funnel 26.12.12 (final version)
- 1. The Double Funnel:
7 step strategy for better B2B sales and marketing
performance
11/9/2012
Market Transformations
Benny Placido
©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 2. The Double Funnel: A Seven Step Strategy for B2B Sales and
Marketing
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3
What’s wrong with the Sales Funnel? .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Step 1: Market Verification ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Step 2: Messaging & Positioning ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Step 3: Your Website & the Visitor Journey ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Step 4: Inbound Marketing..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Step 5: Marketing Funnel ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Step 6: Sales Funnel ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 21
Step 7: Measurement & Analytics........................................................................................................................................................................................ 23
Three points to take away ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24
About Market Transformations: ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 26
2 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 3. Introduction
During the last 5 years, the average sales cycle has
become 22% longer, typically with three more decision
makers participating in the buying process. (Sirius
Decisions)
The B2B market has its own characteristics which define both the
challenges faced by marketers and the strategies they subsequently
decide to employ. The strategy we employ is called the Double
Funnel strategy and it is based on the following 7 areas:
Understanding your customers, pricing and competition
Building strong messaging and positioning
Reviewing your website and visitor journey
Inbound marketing
Nurture marketing process
Converting leads into customers
Measurement and analysis
This is a comprehensive look at a B2B marketing approach designed
to generate more qualified leads and sales opportunities.
3 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 4. What’s wrong with the Sales Funnel?
The traditional Sales Funnel has been around for many years and has lost a lot of
relevance. The problem is that the buyer has changed. More precisely the buying cycle
has changed and large parts of it simply don’t involve any salespeople. As a result, the
sales funnel on its own gives us an incomplete picture of what is really happening.
What’s missing is marketing and specifically how and when marketing is able to add value
to the sales process. Now more than ever, marketing has a vital role to play before,
during and after contact with the Sales Team.
“Although it varies greatly with product complexity and market maturity, today’s buyers might be anywhere from two-
thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out to the vendor.” (Lori Wizdo, Forrester Blogs)
4 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 5. Why the Double Funnel works
The double funnel works because it recognises that Marketing and
Sales are two parts of the same mechanism.
A lot of qualified leads can slip through the cracks. This is because
for reasons outside of your control, the majority of leads are simply
not ready to buy. What happens then?
The double funnel approach gives you a process for recycling these
leads back into the system, until such time as they are ready to buy.
When we work with clients we speak about the customer journey
in the context of both Sales and Marketing activities. We map out
the stages, roles, responsibilities and actions and define how these
actions should be measured so that each part of the process is
meaningful.
5 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 6. Step 1: Market Verification
A lot of businesses have an excellent grasp of their market and its requirements as they
stand today. Other businesses feel they have become a little out of touch, perhaps relying on
models that have been developed some years in the past. The purpose of the Market
Information and Intelligence process (Market Verification) is to bring this knowledge up to
date.
Objectives:
The aim here is to replace all guesswork and assumptions made about the market with facts.
The answers to the following questions are important because they act as a kind of
barometer of what is happening in the market.
What is the product or service? What trigger events cause the product/service to be
What are the market demographics, segments and people purchased?
(who will buy)? What business drivers are in place to ensure this
Is this market growing, standing still or going backwards? product/service will continue to be purchased?
Is this product/service category growing? What is the competition like – are they growing, who is the
Is the stage of development new, mature, old age etc? gorilla etc?
Why will they buy this product or service – what problems What are the messages?
does it solve? How is the product/service positioned?
Is the product/service part of a bigger purchase by the What external data is available?
customer, (i.e. full or partial solution)? What channels to market are available?
6 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 7. Method:
We gather this information using a variety of methods. These include interviews, both face to face and over the phone, online surveys,
industry reports, customer testimonials and secret shopper research.
Outcome:
At the end of this stage the client will receive a detailed report showing:
Market Opportunity
Key business problems uncovered
Recommended changes to existing strategy
Desirable client actions
Recommendations for further actions
Many of our clients find this stage to be one of the most rewarding as it often serves to blow away cobwebs and bring a new focus to the
business. More importantly, it means that subsequent decisions made on marketing and sales are well informed and backed up by research.
“We developed an excellent relationship with Market Transformations who helped shape the general direction of our
current growth plans. Without the market research and their valuable input, we potentially could have gone down the
wrong track, spending hundreds of thousands of pounds in a market place that didn’t actually need our solution.”
Roy Hawes, Commercial Director, Beat Systems
Useful Online Tools and Resources:
Left to Right – FluidSurvey, Google Docs – Survey Tool, Survey Monkey, Survey Shaker, LinkedIn Groups, Companies House
7 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 8. Step 2: Messaging & Positioning
The B2B market is driven by a primal urge to do one of two things – make money or save money
– and this provides the nucleus for building a B2B proposition. Nevertheless, there are additional
elements, specific to each market, which can also drive a purchase, (e.g. the need to be
compliant). Using the data from Step 1 – Market Verification, we develop and refine the
messaging and positioning of the product/service as it relates to the market.
Objectives:
The focus here is to create solid messaging and positioning by zeroing in on customer outcomes,
the value proposition and the return on investment. Where appropriate, replace feature-based messaging with a more solution oriented
approach. This is to ensure the messaging speaks about the market’s issues, rather than simply hyping up the product/service. Answering the
following 7 questions is a good way to get this process started:
What’s the idea behind the product/service – how did it come about?
What problems does it solve?
Who buys the product, how and why – Business drivers/Trigger events/Channels?
Category – Into what category does the product/service fall?
What are its key differentiators – how does it make or save money?
What is the competitive/industry positioning for this product that assists differentiation?
Is there a ‘blue water’ market for the product or service?
Method:
For this stage we recommend gathering information using a combination of face to face interviews, phone interviews and online surveys in
addition to industry reports.
8 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 9. Outcomes:
Messaging and positioning that is built around the market needs, Market
business drivers, key differentiators and competitive analysis. Segment
In conjunction with the messaging background we work
with you to build a 60 second pitch to allow sales employees
Differentiator Market Pain Category
to quickly position the company’s offerings to an individual,
when asked the question ‘What do you do?’
A portion of the research involves speaking directly to the
market. As a result, these up-to-date findings can be used Product Service
immediately to create compelling marketing collateral in the
shape of original articles, whitepapers, emails and survey
reports. Benefit Position
A list of keywords, both long-tail and short-tail, that can be
used when optimising the site. (see Step 4)
Messaging
Sales Pitch Marketing
Collateral
9 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 10. Sales and Marketing Activities
At the TFMA trade show 2012, a client of ours launched their
software solution. Stats from day 1 of the show:
153 business cards were collected.
29 webinar sign-ups, and 18 demo sign-ups.
106 individuals subscribed to receive emails.
The website received over 500 new visits.
Some of the 29 webinar and 18 demo sign-ups went on to have
further discussions, receive quotes etc. Others were not quite sales
ready and so they went back into the Marketing Funnel to be
nurtured with the 106 subscribers.
Online vs. Offline: Because the typical B2B buying cycle is more
removed from sales, online presence is becoming more and more
important. Nevertheless, as the stats from the trade show prove,
offline activities are great for driving online traffic.
Offline: Telemarketing, trade shows, seminars, breakfast briefings,
direct mail, print advertising, PR, and networking are all activities
that take place offline, yet they can each have a huge effect on your
ability to acquire visitors.
Online: Blogs, PDF downloads, organic search, landing pages, PPC,
video, webinars, email marketing, SEO and social media.
10 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 11. What’s the right ratio?
Online Offline
Offline Online
Each market is different. For example, in the B2B software market it is commonplace to hold webinars. The buyers are comfortable with the
medium and it works well. For digital agencies, webinars are less common because their market prefers email, social media and video. The
right ratio is less important than ensuring the online and offline channels feed off each other. As proved by our client’s experience at the trade
show, an offline channel can generate a lot of the initial momentum for an online nurturing campaign.
11 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 12. Step 3: Your Website & the Visitor Journey
Factors such as design, build, content and optimisation impact your
Sales and Marketing efforts. For this reason we conduct a review of
the website to identify areas where adjustments can be made that
will add value to the business.
Objectives:
We need to ensure that visitors can do two things as easily as
possible; find the page/s on your website relevant to their need,
engage with your company once they’ve found what they want. In
order to do this, we examine the following:
Navigation, calls to action, content and landing pages to
ensure that every element of the web-site is working as it
should be.
Using data from your analytics software we build a picture
of how visitors navigate your site, where they are going,
where they aren’t going and why.
Establishing baselines for visitor traffic and visitor flow.
Setting targets for downloads, sign-ups and web-based
enquiries.
Method:
Use analytics tools to record the source of visits, the volume of
traffic and to follow the visitor flow through the website.
12 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 13. Outcomes:
At the end of this stage the client will be have a document establishing baselines for visitor traffic, visitor flow, downloads, sign-ups and
enquiries as well as recommendations for targets going forward. The Website Review runs parallel to Step 4 – Inbound Marketing.
Useful online tools and resources:
Left to right – SEO SERP, Mixpanel , Google Analytics, Fox Metrics, Clicky Web Analytics, KissMetrics, Piwik
13 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 14. Step 4: Inbound Marketing
Making the case for Inbound Marketing is easy. When was the last time you purchased a
laptop, TV or phone by walking into the shop and talking to the salesperson having done
no prior research at all about the product? Chances are you never have.
Buyers in today’s B2B market initiate and then subsequently conduct a large part of their
buying journey online, in a galaxy far, far away from any Sales personnel. If the buyer
can’t find the information they need on your site, they’ll find it somewhere else.
Inbound Marketing is about using digital marketing channels in a structured way so that
people searching for your product/service can find you. Because of the way search
engines evaluate and rank websites, good content and its dispersal is at the heart of
Inbound Marketing.
Objectives:
This stage is all about reaching the targets that specifically relate to visitor traffic:
Increase the volume of new and return visits
Reduce the number of bounces
Increase the flow of traffic to the site’s sweet-spots
Method:
There are three primary areas where we build the strategy and the programmes to drive new visitors:
Search Engine Optimisation
Social Media Marketing
14 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 15. Blogging
Note: (Email marketing can also drive visitors, although this depends on different factors including the quality of the marketing list)
Search Engine Optimisation Process
There are 3 main phases to Search Engine Optimisation
Keyword Development, Research & Analysis (informed by the findings from Stage 2 – Messaging and Positioning)
On-Page Optimisation
Off-Page Optimisation
These 3 actions are all done with one aim in mind; get as many relevant visitors coming to your site and spending time there.
SEO is a highly specialised and technical set of skills. So far this year, Google has released over 20 updates to its algorithms that affect the way
search engines assess your site. These have seen the emphasis shift towards social integration and fresh content that is rich in keywords.
Normally our customers outsource their SEO requirements to Market Transformations. Where customers want to learn these skills we are
happy to pass them over during the course of the outsource.
Useful Tools:
Left to right – Google Analytics, Google Webmaster, Google Adwords (specifically the Keywords tool), SEO SERP, Fox Metrics, Clicky Web
Analytics, KissMetrics, Piwik
15 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 16. Social Media Marketing Process
Typically there are two scenarios. The first scenario involves companies already engaged in Social Media Marketing and so we would
concentrate on auditing the process, setting targets and then making adjustments to achieve those numbers. The second involves companies
that are relative newcomers. In this scenario we would create a process for the client, then set up and manage a campaign for an agreed
period before handing it over. In our experience, the return from social media campaigns increases as clients take a more hands-on approach.
The reason for this is simple: their industry knowledge and expertise significantly adds credibility and value to any interactions.
We therefore work together with our clients to develop a social media strategy and assist with the implementation. Using Twitter as an
example, we would create a profile for the client and then create a list of influencers and followers to target. We would also train the client on
useful tools such as Buffer, Topsy and TweetDeck etc. which make it really easy run social media campaigns without having to spend a lot of
time.
Useful Tools:
Left to Right: Bufferapp, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Gwibber, Sprout Social, Topsy
Blogging Process
In a lot of cases, a company blog delivers a better SEO return if it is part of the company website. Whatever the starting point, the approach is
the same as with all Social Media channels – Build the strategy and the process, execute and then handover. If no Blog exists, we would
provide advice on which blogging platform to use as well as simple methods for getting engagement from your following.
16 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 17. Useful Tools:
Left to right: WordPress, SquareSpace, Blogger, Moveable Type, TypePad
Outcomes:
At the end of this stage the client has 5 inbound marketing processes in place to achieve and maintain the required volume of visitor traffic.
Online optimisation process
Offline optimisation process
Social Media process
Blogging process
Content strategy
Notes: The content strategy we develop here overlaps in places with the content strategy needed for the Marketing Funnel. The important
thing to consider is whether the content that brings a customer to your web-site as a new visitor is also effective at getting them to come back
as repeat visitors and potential leads.
17 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 18. Step 5: Marketing Funnel
The focus at this stage is all about producing higher volumes of
qualified leads and higher conversion rates. This is the stage at
which leads are nurtured and qualified as they progress through
the funnel using an approach called nurture marketing.
Objectives
The objective at this stage is passing the required volume of
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), over to sales. What do we mean
by a marketing qualified lead? An MQL is a nurtured lead that is
now ready to be contacted by a salesperson.
18 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 19. Method
Nurture marketing focuses on matching relevant offers and information to a lead’s level
of interest. Chances are a buyer at the start of his journey won’t respond to the offer of a
demo or a call from a salesperson. However, the same offer made to a prospective buyer
at a later stage can often result in a conversation. We work with the client to create a
nurture marketing plan that will do the following 4 things:
Inform – make the prospect aware of your solutions.
Educate – provide educational and useful content.
Enable – make it as easy as possible for the prospect to engage with your
company and evaluate your product/service.
Qualify – establish the Budget, Authority, Need and Timescale.
The key ingredients at this stage are:
A lead nurture plan that aligns content and calls-to-action with the buying cycle
A lead scoring plan that qualifies leads and records their level of interest
An email marketing system with analytics
Marketing lists/database of customers with email addresses
Email templates
Landing pages and capture forms
Marketing Collateral – (Any/all of the following), whitepapers, videos, info-graphics, presentations, webinars, demos, slide-shares,
reports, survey findings, how-to-guides, business case guides, case studies, original research.
CRM/Marketing Automation
19 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 20. The main deliverable is a step-by-step nurture marketing plan aligning content and calls-to-action with the buying cycle. The following is very basic example
of a template we use to start the process.
Buying Cycle Marketing Channel Objectives Content CTAs
Stage
Step 1 - Blog Articles, LinkedIn Site visits, downloads and mailing list Premium content or article. Visit Site
Awareness Posts, Trade Shows, sign-ups. Download
Website
Step 2 - All of the above and Engagement with any one of the CTAs. Premium Content Demo
Education targeted email. Main focus on downloadable content How to Guide- Creating Risk Webinar
and webinar sign-ups. Assessment Workflows Download
Event
Step 3 - Targeted Email Engagement with any one of the CTAs. Premium Content Building a business Webinar
Evaluation Main focus on getting them to register case for HSE Management Software Sales Call
for a demo, webinar or event. Demo
Useful Tools:
Left to Right: Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, DotMailer, Contactology, Twitter, Slideshare, Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Disqus, Pardot, Eloqua,
Marketo, MS Dynamics CRM, Hubspot, Silverpop, Sugar CRM
20 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 21. Step 6: Sales Funnel
Converting Leads into Customers
When we start working with clients, we often discover that the
relationship between Sales and Marketing has a slightly
dysfunctional edge to it. Sometimes it can be a case of the left hand
not knowing what the right hand is doing; sometimes it’s a lot
worse. The problem with this scenario is that it leads to missed
opportunities.
Objectives:
The main objective is to ensure the alignment between Sales and
Marketing. This means each department is aware of, and in
agreement with, the different processes involved. The first aspect
of the Sales Funnel is to develop a common language within sales
and also between sales and marketing.
21 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 22. Method:
Define terms such as Visitor, Lead, Enquiry, Prospect, Suspect, Marketing Qualified
Lead etc.
Define the typical buying cycle for a customer. Ultimately that is what defines the
length of the sales cycle.
Define the sections of the Sales Cycle from qualification to signed contract.
Map out the different areas of the sales cycle to see where they overlap with
marketing– e.g. if a lead is qualified out, because of timescale or budget etc., how
is it placed back in the marketing funnel to be re-nurtured until it is ready?
Outcomes:
Defined set of sales processes based on the buying cycle
Increased alignment with Marketing
Reduced leakage through leads being recycled back to Marketing
22 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 23. Step 7: Measurement & Analytics
Your basic metrics will come from your campaigns. Any campaign, There are also many integrated systems that combine web
whether online or offline will have a measurable objective. Most of analytics, social media, email and CRM. Although these can have
the tools we have mentioned in this guide have in-built metrics and the added benefits you would expect from having all your data in
these are useful when it comes to evaluating a specific campaign. one place, they can be very complicated and time consuming to
use. For this reason it depends on a company’s resources as to
whether this is the correct route.
Basic Metrics
Marketing and
Website Email Social Media
Sales Funnel
Visitor
Traffic, Opens Shares Engagement
Search terms
Referral
Clicks, Referring Campaign
Sources, Page
Bounces Traffic ROI
Visits,
Tools like Google Analytics are great for assessing your website
Bounces,
Size of Conversion
traffic and visitor journey. A CRM solution is great for getting a Landing Unsubsribes
Community Rates
Pages
view of how your leads progress through the marketing and sales
funnels.
23 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 24. Three points to take away
1 - Roles & Responsibilities
Sales and marketing are two very different disciplines, performing very different roles within the business. When one team doesn’t understand the
other’s role, there can be conflict. Once roles and responsibilities are defined, any subsequent alignment of sales and marketing goals becomes a
more straightforward process. In the Double Funnel approach, qualifying a lead as "sales-ready" is not the job of marketing. Today, the role of
marketing in B2B companies is to achieve set objectives like generating subscribers, webinar signups and ultimately new business enquiries.
Similarly, nurturing leads and running campaigns are not tasks for sales. The role of sales is to take opportunities through the sales cycle,
qualifying and closing in order to meet their own set of objectives, namely sales targets.
2 - Sales and Marketing Interface
At some point there has to be a handover of leads, enquiries, or opportunities , (call them what you will), from marketing to sales. We
recommend to our clients that sales and marketing together define what is meant by a marketing qualified lead. The definition of a marketing
qualified lead, as opposed to a sales qualified lead, needs a little explanation. A sales qualified lead is usually defined as a lead that meets the
following ‘BANT’criteria:
B: Budget – A budget has been agreed.
A: Authority – Your contact has the authority to make a decision
N: Need – A need has been established and agreed
T: Timescales – A timescale has been agreed for the sales cycle.
We suggest that a marketing qualified lead need only meet one or two of the criteria, and then gets passed to sales. The point here is that
sales is better equipped and better placed to verify most of this information, so why not let them do it ? Doing the handover at this stage
means that sales can see much earlier which leads need fast-tracking and which need to be returned to marketing to be nurtured.
24 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 25. 3 - Measurement
Traditionally, measuring the performance of sales is fairly straightforward. Not always the case with marketing. However, there are ways in
which marketing can and should be measured. Part of the Double Funnel approach is upfront benchmarking in order to be able to judge
success or failure. For example, if improvement of brand recognition was a key objective, there would have to be measures showing where it
presently stands in order to measure its improvement. Context is also important. For example, solely measuring website visitors would be a
mistake, because they can easily be driven with the use of keyword phrases that may or may not be relevant. This would result in a high
bounce rate, so a combination of measures is needed to drive the right kind of behaviour.
Setting a target of "marketing qualified leads" is a good measure because it isn’t just about getting leads and enquiries - it’s also about making
sure those leads and enquiries are relevant.
A side issue here is the use of measurements. Some marketing departments are measured on the number of visitors or the number of
enquiries; sales teams are measured on sales, and often the two don’t meet in the middle.
Wrapping it all up
The whole point of the Double Funnel approach is to create a more complete and effective process for generating and managing leads. Getting
this right takes a great deal of the strain out of the relationship between sales and marketing and makes it easier for clients to get their sales
and marketing moving in the right direction. We have developed this approach over the years and hope you find it useful.
Thanks for reading and good luck reaching your Sales and Marketing goals!
25 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com
- 26. About Market Transformations:
Market Transformations is a Sales and Marketing Consultancy dedicated to the needs of B2B companies. We help companies make sense of
the world of modern marketing and adapt their current processes to take full advantage of Digital and Offline marketing channels. We work
with businesses to improve their sales and marketing functions using our Double Funnel Approach.
Clients:
We specialise in the technology and manufacturing sectors and our Double Funnel Approach has helped these companies to generate
exceptional performance from both their sales and marketing departments.
Contact Details:
Market Transformations, 2nd floor, Mercantile Chambers, 53 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 6TS
T: 0845 371 0998
E: Enquiries@markettransformations.com
For more information, articles and resources on B2B marketing, visit our website or get in touch.
26 |©2012 Market Transformations Ltd www.markettransformations.com