B2B growth: The funnel isn’t broken - it was never built!

Why B2B growth problems are more often systemic than tactical

When a company’s pipeline slows down or conversion numbers start to dip, it’s common to point to marketing or sales tactics as the culprit. 

Maybe the messaging isn’t resonating, or sales isn’t following up quickly enough. Maybe the ads aren’t driving the right kind of traffic. Often, someone declares that, “the funnel is broken!” 

And while that might be partially true, there’s a deeper, more uncomfortable reality underneath it. In many cases, the funnel wasn’t broken, it was never fully built in the first place.

What exists in most businesses is not a true funnel, but a collection of disconnected activities loosely stitched together by people, tools, and assumptions. A few automated emails, a CRM, some handoffs between marketing and sales, maybe a handful of reports. 

But when you zoom out, there’s rarely a clear, end-to-end system that has been intentionally designed to guide prospects from first touch to closed deal and beyond. And without that system in place, it’s no wonder results become inconsistent, attribution is unclear, and teams end up working in silos.

Funnels aren’t just concepts, they’re systems

The idea of a funnel is simple: capture interest, nurture it, qualify it, and convert it. Easy!

But in practice, this process is often anything but. For B2B businesses in particular, where sales cycles are longer, touchpoints are more complex, and multiple stakeholders are involved, a functional funnel requires far more than good intentions and a few pieces of automation.

A real funnel is not just a diagram in a slide deck or a metaphor in a strategy session. It is an operational system that reflects how a company actually engages, qualifies, and moves buyers through a defined journey. 

It includes not only the stages themselves, but the triggers, ownership, and data structures that connect them. It aligns teams, informs decisions, and creates consistency at scale.

When that system doesn’t exist, problems compound. Marketing hands off leads that sales doesn’t trust. Sales follows up inconsistently or late. Data becomes unreliable, making it harder to forecast or analyse. And when results fall short, teams are left guessing where the real issues lie.

Common signs the funnel was never built

It’s not always obvious that a business lacks a coherent funnel. From the outside, it may look like everything is in place. There’s a CRM, there are campaigns running, there’s reporting. 

But if you look closer, certain symptoms tend to emerge that indicate the system itself was never properly defined. These might include: 

• Leads enter the system, but there’s no consistent process for what happens next. 
• Lifecycle stages exist in name only. No one can clearly explain what qualifies a lead to move from MQL to SQL, or who is responsible for that transition.
• Sales and marketing operate on separate versions of the truth. Definitions, priorities, and data don’t sync, leading to misalignment and tension.
• Automation exists, but it’s unclear or outdated. Legacy workflows remain in the background, often conflicting with newer processes.
• Reporting isn’t trustworthy. Dashboards exist, but no one’s sure if they reflect reality, so decisions get made based on anecdotes or gut feel instead.
  
  

These issues aren’t tactical, they’re systemic and they can’t be solved by simply increasing spend, generating more leads, or reworking messaging. 

They require a foundational rethinking of how the business organises and activates its go-to-market engine.

What a well-designed funnel actually looks like

A true funnel begins with clarity. That means clearly defined stages, consistent criteria for progression, and mutual understanding across departments. 

It means mapping the actual journey your buyers go through, not just the one you hope they follow. And it requires building processes, automation, and reporting around that journey in a way that is transparent, scalable, and adaptable.

Here’s what that typically involves:

A funnel needs to reflect how people buy from you, not just how you sell to them. That includes agreed-upon definitions of each stage (lead, MQL, SQL, opportunity, closed-won) and the triggers that move someone from one stage to the next. These definitions should be more than internal shorthand they should be baked into systems like your CRM and visible to all relevant teams.

2. Operational alignment across functions

Marketing, sales, and operations must work from the same map. That means shared ownership of the funnel, clear handoffs, and well-documented SLAs. The goal is to reduce friction, clarify accountability, and speed up decision-making.

3. Systems that reflect strategy

A CRM like HubSpot is powerful, but it only works when it’s configured to reflect your actual go-to-market strategy. That includes accurate field mapping, logical workflows, lifecycle automation, lead scoring, and sales enablement triggers. Your tech stack should reinforce your strategy, not obscure it.

4. Visibility and feedback loops

When the funnel is working, data flows cleanly between systems. Dashboards show meaningful progression, not just vanity metrics. And most importantly, feedback loops exist to make the system smarter over time. You can then start to make decisions based on insights, not instinct.

Tools don’t build funnels, people do

It’s easy to assume that with the right tech in place, the rest will follow. 

But the reality is that tools are only as effective as the strategy and systems that underpin them. Without clarity and intentional design, even the best platforms will eventually create noise, not signal.

If your HubSpot, or other CRM, is full of unqualified leads, ambiguous lifecycle stages, and dashboards no one trusts, it’s not because the system failed. It’s because the funnel behind it was never designed to function in the first place.

System design is not a “nice to have” in a modern B2B - it’s a prerequisite for growth.

Fixing the funnel means rebuilding the foundation

If you’re seeing symptoms like misaligned teams, stalled pipeline, or poor conversion visibility, it might be time to zoom out. The problem probably isn’t the leads, or even the performance of your campaigns. The problem is that you’re optimising for a system that doesn’t actually exist.

And that’s not a failure. It’s an opportunity.

Because when you take the time to design the right structure, from lifecycle definitions to workflows to reporting, you don’t just fix a funnel, you build an asset. One that scales with your team, and creates leverage across your entire go-to-market engine.

This is the work we love

At Disruptive Thinking, we help B2B teams move beyond surface-level fixes to build the operational backbone that growth really depends on.

That means replacing scattered tools, siloed processes, and duct-taped systems with a clear, scalable foundation. One built on smart design, aligned teams, and a CRM that mirrors the real buyer journey, rather than forcing your business to fit around the tool.

Disruptive Thinking isn’t a typical audit or workshop. It’s a focused, strategic engagement where we step into your business, uncover what’s really going on beneath the surface, and design a system that your team can use and scale.

We don’t stop at strategy. We help you implement, operationalise, and evolve that system as your business scales.

Email me at yiuwin@hellodisruptive.com if you think we might be able to help you.

Let’s build the system you wish you had six months ago.