Why the Relationship Funnel Matters: A 4-Step Playbook for Generating Multiple Leads per Account

Summary

The relationship funnel vs the sales funnel

The sales funnel

The relationship funnel

Key focus

Revenue-focused

The sales funnel is designed to target key decision makers within buying groups, with generating sales being the priority.

Relationship-focused

While revenue remains a crucial goal, the key focus is to establish relationships with buying groups and committee members to drive the buying process.

Sales cycle length

Shorter sales cycles

Although B2B buying decisions are always subject to change from shifts in buying behavior, the sales funnel has a lower average time for purchases out of the two models.

Longer sales cycles

Sales cycles with the relationship funnel are generally longer to allow time for relationship building—with the idea that this will lead to higher ROI and CLTV from increased client loyalty.

Client relationship
duration

Shorter client
relationships

The traditional sales funnel usually does not prioritize longer relationships with prospects (since it is focused on conversions). However, this all depends on the strength of lead nurturing, personalization strategies, and brand evangelism campaigns.

Longer client
relationships

The relationship funnel places the relationship at the center of the entire process with the goal of motivating conversions and clients to repeat business—as well as become brand evangelists at the end of the sales cycle.

Priority metrics

Traditional KPIs

  • null

    Lead cycle time

  • null

    Conversion rates

  • null

    Cost per lead (CPL)

  • null

    Sales opportunities

  • null

    Closed won

  • null

    Average deal size

  • null

    ROI

  • null

    Client lifetime value (CLTV)

Long-term, relationship-focused KPIs

  • null

    Renewals, up-sells, and cross-sells

  • null

    Brand evangelism

  • null

    Return on relationship (ROR)

  • null

    Client acquisition costs (CAC)

  • null

    Client lifetime value (CLTV)

Key focus

The sales funnel

Revenue-focused

The sales funnel is designed to target key decision makers within buying groups, with generating sales being the priority.

The relationship funnel

Relationship-focused

While revenue remains a crucial goal, the key focus is to establish relationships with buying groups and committee members to drive the buying process.

Sales cycle length

The sales funnel

Shorter sales cycles

Although B2B buying decisions are always subject to change from shifts in buying behavior, the sales funnel has a lower average time for purchases out of the two models.

The relationship funnel

Longer sales cycles

Sales cycles with the relationship funnel are generally longer to allow time for relationship building—with the idea that this will lead to higher ROI and CLTV from increased client loyalty.

Client relationship
duration

The sales funnel

Shorter client
relationships

The traditional sales funnel usually does not prioritize longer relationships with prospects (since it is focused on conversions). However, this all depends on the strength of lead nurturing, personalization strategies, and brand evangelism campaigns.

The relationship funnel

Longer client
relationships

The relationship funnel places the relationship at the center of the entire process with the goal of motivating conversions and clients to repeat business—as well as become brand evangelists at the end of the sales cycle.

Priority metrics

The sales funnel

Traditional KPIs

  • null

    Lead cycle time

  • null

    Conversion rates

  • null

    Cost per lead (CPL)

  • null

    Sales opportunities

  • null

    Closed won

  • null

    Average deal size

  • null

    ROI

  • null

    Client lifetime value (CLTV)

The relationship funnel

Long-term, relationship-focused KPIs

  • null

    Renewals, up-sells, and cross-sells

  • null

    Brand evangelism

  • null

    Return on relationship (ROR)

  • null

    Client acquisition costs (CAC)

  • null

    Client lifetime value (CLTV)

Relationship funnel KPIs explained

The KPIs of the relationship funnel are more qualitative than those of the traditional sales or marketing funnel, which are usually more quantitative. This hinges on the fact that the relationship funnel focuses more on lead experience, satisfaction, and engagement than their propensity to convert.

Here is a detailed breakdown of relationship funnel KPIs:

Relationship funnel benefits

Enhanced revenue & client retention

Increased brand equity

Higher quantities of quality data

To establish relationships and create personal connections, brands must closely understand the needs and pain points of their leads and clients. While this initially requires large quantities of information in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, it also provides a great deal of quality data as leads and clients interact with the brand more directly.

This data gleaned from close relationships with leads and clients can be used to craft messaging for similar leads in the awareness stage—reducing the need for less generalized data from Client Relationship Management solutions (CRMs), as well as third-party data sources. According to Salesforce’s 2022 State of the Connected Customer, 77% of clients expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, so gaining quality data directly from leads and clients themselves will be extremely valuable.

More precise targeting

3 best practices for leveraging
the relationship funnel

The relationship funnel can be adopted into current sales and marketing processes to drive higher value opportunities and renewals. However, in order to drive the best outcomes for your strategies, it is recommended that the following three best practices are implemented:

Account based Marketing (ABM)
and the relationship funnel

Account based marketing (ABM) is a strategy characterized by targeting individual members of the buying group or committee within target accounts as well as an approach that emphasizes personalization and client experience. These characteristics make ABM a fine complement to any relationship funnel strategy.

Nurturing relationships with B2B leads is made much easier with a more focused approach to targeting specific key decision makers within priority accounts.
This is due to the fact that gathering detailed data on an individual level is easier than doing so at scale. This includes inferring conclusions and overall trends from a larger data pool.

ABM also encourages the alignment of the sales and marketing departments, which (as mentioned earlier), lends itself well to relationship funnel marketing as it optimizes the entire buyer and client journey from the start to their conversion.

Overall, ABM helps to narrow down the focus of the relationship funnel strategy by identifying and prioritizing the most valuable accounts and providing a more personalized approach to engagement. This can lead to more efficient marketing and sales efforts, driving greater revenue and growth.

Playbook for generating multiple B2B
leads from each account

The relationship funnel, when combined with ABM, allows for the generation and nurturing of multiple high-value relationships with B2B leads from target accounts.

Below is a playbook with actionable steps for each stage of the buyer’s journey to establish relationships and drive ROI.

Building relationships
(TOFU - Awareness Stage)

At this point of the relationship funnel, leads are in the awareness stage of their buyer’s journey and will either be aware but uneducated about their problem (or completely unaware that they have one).

Useful educational content here will therefore be important to start the process of building relationships. In order to do this, a thorough understanding of leads’ pain points, needs, and goals is essential.

Nurturing relationships
(MOFU - Interest Stage)

While it might seem counterintuitive, lead nurturing within a relationship funnel strategy should not be placing the sale as a first priority. The goal of nurturing relationships should always be to provide value to the lead in order to increase trust and familiarity. This means that content or interactions should be adding value by assisting leads with their pain points —developing skills, improving their knowledge, increasing opportunities, or decreasing their effort or workload. At this point, this should be done without mentioning the brand’s solutions.

Below are some of the best approaches to nurturing that will allow companies to generate multiple leads per account:

Relational Experience
(BOFU - Desire Stage)

This stage of the relationship funnel also relates to the “desire” stage of the buyer's journey.

This will be the point at which relational experience (as opposed to transactional experience or “transactional selling”) and loyalty of leads are enhanced through personalized BOFU content, including:

  • null

    Live demonstrations

  • null

    Newsletters

  • null

    Case studies and testimonials

  • null

    Webinars

  • null

    Sales emails

These content assets should provide positive experiences that encourage trust and loyalty. This means all touchpoints should provide value, be easy to access and understand, and allow easy follow-up for leads who have questions.

Social selling is also a helpful method that can be used to improve leads’ brand experience. This sales technique involves the sales department contacting leads directly through social media to assist them with questions, provide explanations, and suggest further reading (or watching) material to improve their understanding.

The positive experiences that leads enjoy when interacting with the brand also mean that a business is more likely to generate multiple leads from a single account because of the value gained by leads individually with this strategy. This is where relationship selling techniques tend to differ from traditional sales methods as the focus of the sales process moves from trying to fill the sales pipeline to assisting leads and improving their overall experience.

Relational Performance
(BOFU - Action Stage)

Key takeaways

  • null

    The relationship funnel is a beneficial lead experience-orientated strategy that can be used in conjunction with the traditional sales and marketing funnel to build relationships with leads, improve conversion rates, reduce churn, and grow your business.

  • null

    The implementation of H2H, lead nurturing, and sales and marketing alignment will aid in implementing the relationship funnel effectively.

  • null

    ABM complements the relationship funnel due to a more account-targeted focus, high levels of personalization, and the need for sales and marketing alignment.

  • null

    Increased quality and quantity of data, mapping lead relationship journeys, and auditing layouts for email and web are essential for building relationships.

  • null

    Email marketing, client orientation, and ABX are useful strategies for building trust and loyalty in the relationship funnel.

  • null

    Ensuring that all touchpoints are a positive experience for leads will garner trust and loyalty resulting in a positive relational experience.

  • null

    Judging the success of the relationship funnel requires a qualitative approach gained through direct feedback from leads and clients.

Get in touch with our demand experts at [email protected]
to build lead-orientated, experience-driven demand programs that
exceed your ROI expectations

Latest Insights