Best B2B Sales Funnel Metrics to Track & How To Improve Them
Many business owners fail to review and track the right metrics because they think it’d be too much effort.
On the contrary, NOT doing that is probably causing you to waste a lot MORE time, energy, and money… because your funnel isn’t as effective as it could be!
So, we’ll show you exactly what B2B sales funnel metrics you should focus on (without getting overwhelmed by trying to monitor everything) and how to improve them.
What is a B2B sales funnel?
Your B2B sales funnel is the full journey your target customers go through to eventually buy your products or services.
By planning it, taking control of it, and optimising it, you’ll get to understand exactly how your audience moves through it, boosting your lead generation and sales.
This is even more important in B2B because this sector comes with additional challenges, like multiple stakeholders and longer sales cycles.
But before showing you the top metrics for each stage of your funnel, let’s go through the latter to make sure we’re on the same page:
- Top of the funnel – Your target customers become aware of their problem and its possible solutions. So, your goal is to reach them with your marketing, grab their attention, and educate them. You’ll also want to capture their details (for example, through a compelling ScoreApp quiz lead magnet) to then contact them directly
- Middle of the funnel – During the consideration stage, your leads go more in-depth and start comparing various solutions. So, make this easier for them: educate them, answer their questions, and tackle their objections, especially through strategic sales-enablement content
- Bottom of the funnel – Your prospects are almost ready to take action, usually through a smaller initial commitment (like a free trial or a call with you) and then by purchasing your products or services. So, ensure a smooth transition from your marketing team to your salespeople, and help the latter close more deals with a tailored approach (for example, by giving them access to each prospect’s ScoreApp quiz answers)
- Post funnel – Longer relationships are key in the B2B world. So, focus on maintaining them, retaining your customers for longer, and turning them into fans and ambassadors
Each stage has different key B2B sales funnel metrics to measure your success and improve your results.
And guess what? ScoreApp, our quiz-building platform, can help with all of them.
What are your B2B sales goals?
We will show you the best B2B sales funnel metrics, but the most important thing is to focus on your goals.
For example, are you prioritising brand awareness or increasing your revenue? Are you pushing a specific service or collection? And what’s your income target this year?
So, start by getting clear on those to then work your way backwards and identify the most relevant metrics.
Key B2B sales funnel metrics to track at each stage
Instead of trying to measure too much (and ending up with a tonne of random data you wouldn’t know WHAT to do with), it’s better to pick the most relevant metrics for each stage.
Here’s what we recommend.
Top of the funnel – Awareness and interest stage
- Traffic volume – Keep track of how many people are visiting your business website or engaging with your content. You can boost that number by offering high-quality content and distributing it across different platforms or by using paid ads
- Lead generation rate – What percentage of that traffic turns into leads? For example, this could be how many website visitors sign up for your lead magnet after visiting its landing page.
So, increase it by creating valuable resources for your specific ideal clients. While traditional lead magnets (like static PDFs) only convert at 3-10%, ScoreApp quizzes average a whopping 30-50% (like “FREE SEO Scorecard” or “What’s your entrepreneur profile?”) - Cost per lead (CPL) – How much does it cost you to acquire each lead? Your formula is: marketing and lead generation spend ÷ number of new leads over a set period of time or with a specific campaign.
You can lower this cost with the right tools and strategy and by running some A/B testing to see what brings you the highest ROI.
For example, when you use your marketing to drive traffic to your attractive ScoreApp quiz lead magnet, you’ll get to convert more leads more easily, and you can even create a full funnel for FREE
Middle of the funnel – Consideration stage
- Engagement – Once someone finds your content, how do they interact with it? For example, this could be the time spent on your website, your email open rates, and how many people like, save, or comment on your Instagram posts.
You can improve your engagement rates by experimenting with various content formats, running some A/B testing (for example, showing different versions of the same email to different people), and personalising your interactions.
When you start with a ScoreApp quiz, that’s a piece of cake: you can literally tailor your entire email sequence based on someone’s quiz answers! - Conversion rate – How many leads move to the next stage or follow through with a specific action (like booking a sales call or signing up for the free webinar you promoted in your emails)?
To improve this percentage, write compelling copy that leads with the benefit of taking that action, and simplify the steps required to complete it. You can also remove friction through sales-enablement content, such as blog posts tackling your audience’s objections and case studies showing them the results they can expect.
With ScoreApp, you get to personalise this content, emails, and calls to action depending on each lead’s answers. Much more effective than saying the same things to everyone! - Lead qualification rate – More isn’t always better! To avoid wasting time talking to wrong-fit prospects, aim for a high percentage of leads that meet your ideal customer profile.
You can measure it and improve it through CRMs offering lead scoring features. Your ScoreApp quiz can also pre-qualify your leads automatically based on their answers (for example, through strategic questions like “What’s your budget for X?”)
Bottom of the funnel – Decision stage
- Win rate – Now that it’s time for your prospects to take action, how many of them turn into customers? For example, this could be the percentage of people who bought from you after a sales call.
Improve it by fostering communication between your marketing and sales team (so that your salespeople never have to start from scratch), sharing sales enablement content with the latter, and following up consistently.
Use your ScoreApp quiz data to personalise those touchpoints and to improve your sales calls by focusing on what each prospect values the most - Customer acquisition cost (CAC) – This is similar to your cost per lead, but you’re now looking at the percentage of people who became paying customers (so, your total marketing and sales spend ÷ number of customers acquired over a set period of time).
You can improve this B2B sales funnel metric by automating the most repetitive tasks (= saving your team’s time and speeding up the process), nurturing your leads strategically, and personalising your touchpoints.
Your ScoreApp quiz funnel will allow you to do all this consistently! - Sales cycle length – How long does it take for someone to go from “aware of your brand” to “paying customer”?
B2B has longer sales cycles (+100 days on average), but you can shorten yours by collecting your audience’s contact details as soon as possible, pre-qualifying them, nurturing them automatically and in a tailored way, and making them the perfect offer at the right time.
How? With a ScoreApp quiz funnel, of course!
Post-sale metrics – Retention and advocacy stages
- Customer lifetime value (CLV) – Whether that’s through repeat purchases or by sticking with your services or SaaS for months (or even years): how much profit do you generate from one customer through your entire relationship, on average?
Boost this number through a smooth and clear onboarding, by providing helpful customer support, by getting feedback to improve your customer experience, by upselling the right options for each customer (more on that soon), and by introducing valuable loyalty programmes or incentives - Upsell/cross-sell rates – This is the percentage of customers who bought additional products or services during/after their initial purchase. Increase it by making them personalised offers based on their preferences and past behaviours (for example, their ScoreApp quiz answers or how they interacted with your email sequence)
- Net promoter score (NPS) – How likely are your customers to recommend your products or services to others, on a scale of 1 to 10? Ask them!
You can do that through a post-purchase feedback survey with ScoreApp (psst. Use your other questions to understand what they liked and disliked the most, so that you can improve your products or experience accordingly)
Improve your B2B sales funnel metrics with ScoreApp
By tracking the right B2B sales metrics regularly, you get to optimise your entire cycle, increasing your lead generation, conversions, and revenue.
A ScoreApp quiz funnel makes this a breeze! You’ll reach more people with a valuable lead magnet, take full control of your funnel, and nurture your leads in a personalised and more effective way.
