Ultimate Guide to B2B Sales & Lead Generation

If you’re serious about running your B2B business sustainably, growing it, and future-proofing it, you must take control of your lead generation and sales. 

To do that successfully, you first need to understand their phases and how they tie into each other… and we get it: there’s A LOT of fragmented and conflicting advice online.

No need to feel overwhelmed or keep jumping from one article to another, though.

We put together a comprehensive but simple guide on B2B sales and lead generation, including the key steps to building a full funnel that keeps working in the background for you. 

What exactly do we mean by B2B lead generation and sales funnel?

Your funnel is the entire journey your B2B customers go through to eventually buy from you, covering both lead generation and sales… and everything in between!

Fret not: it doesn’t have to be complicated or involve dozens of tools. However, you do need to take full control of this journey. Otherwise, you’re going to keep relying on unpredictable referrals, wondering where the next customer is coming from, or losing leads and prospects along the way.

For example, a simple yet hard-working funnel can start with a valuable ScoreApp quiz lead magnet, like “What’s wasting your team’s time?” for a productivity SaaS company or “Sales Skills Scorecard” for sales coaches. 

It’ll help you reach more of the right people, ask them strategic questions, and segment them based on their answers. It’ll also add them to your CRM and email marketing platform, all automatically. Then, you can trigger personalised email sequences that nurture those segments for you, moving them down the funnel until they’re ready to buy. 

Much better than relying on guesswork or following up with everyone manually, right?

B2B sales funnel best practices

Before showing you some key phases and tactics, let’s make sure you’re approaching your lead generation and sales cycle with the right mindset and expectations. Overall, some B2B marketing sales funnel best practices are:

• Getting clear on your target customers first – Don’t fall into this common trap: thinking that, by making your messaging more generic and targeting EVERYONE, you’re going to get more customers. The opposite is true! To cut through the noise, especially online, you must make a specific audience feel like you’re speaking to THEM. So, nail your Ideal Client Profile before building your funnel (not quite there yet? Start with a market research quiz)
• Making data-informed decisions – In a fully functioning B2B sales funnel, there’s no room for guesswork. So, get input from your audience to understand their needs and preferences, collect data, measure it, and use aaaaall this to guide your marketing and sales. For example, you can gather those insights through your ScoreApp quiz questions 
• Having a holistic approach – To create a smooth funnel, you need tactics that feed into the same overall strategy, tools that communicate with each other, and alignment between your marketing and sales teams. Nothing should work as a standalone cog! For example, a ScoreApp quiz will connect with other tools (like your CRM and email marketing platform) and collect data that’ll also help your sales team close more deals
• Collecting contact details as soon as possible – Brand awareness and reach matter, too. However, without turning those eyeballs and traffic into proper leads (that you can contact directly)? You’d end up losing them along the way. So, harness a strategic lead magnet, like a compelling ScoreApp quiz (we’ll share some ideas soon)
• Personalising your messages and touchpoints – B2B customers are becoming more and more selective, especially with what they interact with online. So, don’t use the same generic wording or calls to action for everyone. Instead, boost your chances of success by making your messaging, marketing, and offers super targeted for each lead. For example, if you start with a ScoreApp quiz lead magnet, you can personalise your entire email nurturing sequences for each segment
• Automating your funnel – From human error to slow follow-ups and an unsustainable workload: you can’t keep doing everything manually. Instead, save time and improve your process with automation, especially for the most repetitive tasks (we’ll show you some examples later)

B2B sales funnel mistakes to avoid

If you follow those best practices, you are going to start on the right foot. Just make sure you bypass these common B2B sales funnel mistakes, too:

• Rushing it – B2B sales involve multiple decision-makers (with different priorities and concerns), a higher emphasis on ROI, and +100 days on average. So, for example, you can’t expect people to commit to a yearly plan of your SaaS after seeing one of your social media posts! It’s your funnel’s job to keep them engaged while showing them everything they NEED to hear in order to get there
• Not pre-qualifying your prospects – Still trying to get everyone on a call? That’s a huge waste of your sales team’s time (and, consequently, your money) because they’re forced to talk with lots of prospects who just aren’t committed, haven’t got the budget, or wouldn’t be a good fit, anyway. Instead, your funnel should separate them from your warmest perfect-fit leads so that your salespeople only speak to the latter on a 1:1 basis. For example, you can pre-qualify them with your ScoreApp quiz questions
• Not following up – Remember: in B2B, you’re dealing with multiple busy stakeholders, and 80% of sales require 5 follow-ups. So, if you don’t touch base? You’re going to lose most of your leads. Even better: increase your chances of success with a personalised follow-up (for example, referencing their ScoreApp quiz answers)
• Not monitoring and optimising your funnel – Having the right strategy makes for a great start. However, you must also check that your funnel is working as smoothly as it should and that your leads are moving through it as planned. Without knowing what’s working and what isn’t? You wouldn’t be able to fix it and optimise it
• Ignoring post-sale engagement – This guide is all about your lead generation and sales funnel, but don’t forget: what happens after that initial purchase matters, too! So, continue to serve your customers, get feedback to understand what they liked and disliked about their experience with you (for example, through a separate ScoreApp quiz), upsell and cross-sell based on their actual needs, surprise them with bonuses, create a referral or loyalty programme… In a nutshell, build long-term B2B relationships!

Understanding B2B sales funnel stages for better conversions

We’re almost ready to start planning your B2B lead generation and sales cycle (exciting!). 

Before we do that, though, let’s walk you through the main funnel stages. That way, you’ll be crystal clear on their goals and how your customers can move from one to the other, which will help you design your ideal path.

Awareness stage

Your target customers start becoming aware of their biggest challenge or need, and they might find out about your company for the first time, too.

So, your goal here is to put yourself in front of them and help them understand that problem, both by educating and entertaining them.

For example, this can include thought-leadership content, SEO-friendly blog posts, social media content and videos, podcasts, paid ads, and collaborations with relevant people in your industry.

By creating a shareable ScoreApp quiz lead magnet (like “Why is your website not ranking on Google?” or “Discover your entrepreneur profile”), you can grab the attention of more of your target customers and help them identify that problem. A win-win!

Interest stage

Now, you have your target customers’ attention. So, the goal is to retain it, start positioning your business as the obvious solution to their problem, and stay in touch (otherwise, as teased before, your leads could forget about you and even go straight to your competitors).

For example, you can keep educating and engaging them with blog posts that talk about potential solutions, whitepapers, guest posts, webinars, and emails, and you could attend industry-specific events, too. 

As for staying in touch, that’s exactly where a lead magnet comes into play: a valuable and relevant free resource that you offer to them in exchange for their contact details, like a ScoreApp quiz (we’ll share more ideas soon!).

Consideration stage

Your target customers are now getting serious about solving that problem. 

So, your goal is to help the right-fit prospect see your products or services as the best solution… but also push the wrong-fit ones away (you don’t want to waste time on calls that lead to nothing or deal with tyre-kickers who haven’t even got the budget to work with you, do you?).

In the middle of the funnel, you can do this with your emails, product-centric and comparison blog posts, product pages, case studies, testimonials, and social proof. Even better?

In your email sequences, include the most relevant messages and resources for each lead based on their ScoreApp quiz results.

Intent stage

Time to strike while the iron—or lead—is hot. Your prospects might not be ready to purchase just yet, but now that they’re getting warmer, you can invite them to take the most logical and realistic next step, like signing up for a free trial or scheduling a call with you.

During this phase, continue to focus on email marketing and share more sales-enablement content, but you can also consider offering free trials and demos, webinars, and free calls.

And when you start with a ScoreApp quiz? You can make all this tailored to each prospect’s situation, from the bottom-of-the-funnel content included in your emails to the call to action you offer them.

Decision stage

It all builds up to THIS. Now that they’ve reached the very bottom of the funnel, your prospects have a strong buying intent. So, offer them the right next steps, and make it a no-brainer to say “HECK, YES!”

For example, harness more sales-enablement content, maintain communication between your marketing and sales team to ensure a smooth lead hand-off process, send personalised follow-ups, and offer relevant discounts and incentives.

Also, when your B2B funnel begins with a ScoreApp quiz, your sales team NEVER has to start from scratch. If you give them access to each lead’s answers, they’ll get to tailor their approach accordingly, leading with what that prospect is struggling with or aiming for. Super effective!

Building a funnel to automate and boost your B2B lead generation and sales

You know all the best tactics, common mistakes, and key funnel stages. Now, it’s time to put it all into practice and plan your B2B sales and lead generation funnel.

Step 1: Create a valuable lead magnet with ScoreApp 

As seen before, a lead magnet is a free resource that you offer to your target audience in exchange for their contact details. For it to work well and kickstart your funnel with a bang, it must:

• Be something your target customers actually want or that’s relevant to a problem they’re experiencing
• Feed into your B2B products or services, positioning them as the logical next step
• Be so good you almost feel bad giving it away for free

Unfortunately, many B2B companies make this common lead magnet mistake: they churn out a generic PDF and eventually wonder why it’s not bringing them many sign-ups. 

Spoiler alert… It’s because these lead magnets are overused, static, and generic, literally the same for everyone. So, their landing pages only convert at 3-10%, and the lead magnet itself ends up gathering dust in someone’s Downloads folder (be honest: how many free PDFs are in yours?).

Instead, give yourself the best chances of success by picking one of the most effective B2B lead magnets, like quizzes.

They’re more sought-after and dynamic, offering a personalised experience that happens in real-time. No wonder they convert at a whopping 30-50%!

For example, a marketing agency could create a “Content Marketing Scorecard for Accountants” and an event management company could lead with “What’s the right corporate event for your employees?”

Create your B2B quiz lead magnet with ScoreAp today and for FREE

Step 2: Automate your marketing 

If you remember, this is an important B2B sales and lead generation best practice because… you can’t build and optimise a smooth funnel by continuing to do everything manually!

Think about it: do you want your employees to write an email whenever someone signs up for your lead magnet (and what happens if it’s outside working hours?), and then add them to your CRM, and then create a reminder to nurture them, and so on?

Realistically, you NEED marketing automation for your most repetitive and time-sensitive tasks. So, when planning your funnel, look for tools that offer it and that can communicate with each other.

For example, with ScoreApp, automation is a breeze. Whenever someone completes your quiz, they’ll receive their personalised results immediately. Thanks to its direct integrations, you can connect your lead magnet with your CRM and email marketing platform, deciding exactly what quiz data it’s going to share with them. 

So, you won’t just collect a new name and email address: you’ll get a valuable CRM contact with notes on their biggest struggles, goals, preferences, their role within that company, and so on. You’ll also get to trigger the right email sequence based on their quiz answers (more on that soon!).

Step 3: Nurture your audience with personalised marketing 

Not that you got your target customers’ attention and collected their contact details, your automated email sequences can nurture them for you. 

These emails will help the right-fit prospects move down the rest of the funnel, building trust, making you stay top of mind, and positioning your products or services as the obvious next step… until it’s time to make the right offer for each of them!

To boost your chances of success? Personalise these email sequences, making them super relevant for each lead (instead of sending the same generic messages to everyone and expecting them to care).

That’s one of the many reasons why starting with a quiz lead magnet can make ALL the difference.

You get to ask strategic questions to your target customers (like “Have you worked with a financial advisor before?”, “What’s your budget for a new website?” or “If you had a magic wand, which of these problems would you get rid of first?”) and segment them based on their answers. This means they’ll be tagged or divided into groups depending on their biggest problem, goal, preferences, company role, or whatever is most relevant for you. Then? 

Set up different automated sequences, or personalise certain elements within your emails to make them targeted, getting each lead to feel like you’re speaking to them (or even reading their mind).

As for what to include in these email sequences, it’ll really depend on your business model and audience, but to give you an idea, you could:

• Welcome your new leads into your world: reference the quiz they just took, and set the right expectations regarding your upcoming emails
• Share some simple tips to offer them a quick win
• Talk about their biggest problem
• Tackle their main misconceptions about your industry
• Showcase the benefits of your solutions
• Link to case studies and client stories that demonstrate the ROI of working with you and what difference it made in practice 
• Send the most relevant call to action for each of them, like buying a specific product, scheduling a demo, or booking a call to discuss the challenges that came up with their quiz

Step 4: Track your B2B sales funnel metrics

Planning your funnel meticulously and starting with a strong strategy can give you high chances of success. How are your leads actually interacting with your funnel, though? You can’t afford to rely on assumptions!

So, once it’s all set up, keep monitoring your B2B lead generation and sales, measuring your results.

For example, some key B2B sales funnel metrics to track during each stage are

• Traffic volume and reach on social media (awareness)
• Lead generation rate and cost per lead (interest)
• Email engagement and lead qualification rate (consideration)
• The conversion rate of your first CTA, like how many people book a call or demo (intent)
• Win rate, customer acquisition cost, and sales cycle length (decision)

To monitor your results successfully and make data-driven decisions, choose funnel tools with strong built-in analytics. 

ScoreApp gives you in-depth reporting features that are easy to review and analyse, from your landing page conversion rate to how many people complete your quiz and where most of them drop off.

Step 5: Continually improve your B2B sales funnel 

As well as monitoring your analytics, you must take action based on those insights (if you remember, making data-informed decisions is an important best practice).

So, we recommend:

• Conducting some A/B testing – Show different versions of the same funnel element (like a landing page or email) to different people: what gets you the most views and clicks? Then, lead with that
• Finding patterns and taking action accordingly – For example, do most people tend to leave your quiz after a specific question? Change it, or make the whole thing shorter. Does an email nurturing sequence bring you more customers than others? Edit the rest accordingly
• Getting direct input from your customers – Send a separate ScoreApp quiz for feedback, asking your new customers what they liked and disliked the most about their journey with your brand. Psst: this won’t just give you a chance to improve it. It’ll show them you genuinely care about their opinion 

Doing all this regularly will allow you to optimise your entire B2B lead generation and sales cycle, taking more people from unaware to customers—faster and more smoothly, too.

Boost your B2B sales and lead generation with a ScoreApp quiz funnel

Time to take full control of your B2B lead generation and sales! When you start with a ScoreApp quiz, you get to:

• Reach and convert more people thanks to an engaging and dynamic lead magnet 
• Ask them strategic questions, collecting a tonne of valuable data
• Automatically add them to your CRM and email marketing platform
• Segment them based on their answers
• Trigger tailored email sequences, nurturing your leads in a more effective way
• Make the right offer to the right prospects at the right time
• Share your data with your sales team, giving them the best chances of turning these right-fit prospects into customers 

No more relying on referrals, wondering where the next customer is coming from, or losing leads along the way. Create a full quiz funnel with ScoreApp today and for FREE.