I still remember one of my first marketing jobs.
We had this beautiful funnel. So many steps. So many emails. So many things to download.
It looked like a perfect journey on paper.
But every month, the same drama: “Why are we not getting enough leads?”

We tried changing the ads. We blamed the economy. We even thought, maybe, people just didn’t like our product anymore. (Spoiler: the product was fine.)

The real problem? Our customer journey was killing our leads without us even noticing.

In B2B, it’s easy to believe that more steps = better qualification. Or that more information = smarter prospects.


But actually, every small friction, every confusing moment, every boring email… it adds up.
And when it does, your best prospects simply disappear — quietly, without drama, without a goodbye.

The hidden cost of a flawed customer journey

When you think about a “bad customer journey”, you probably imagine something dramatic.
Like a website that crashes or a sales rep who never answers. But in real life, it’s much more sneaky than that.

A broken customer journey doesn’t always explode in your face.Most of the time, it just slowly bleeds your leads away — like a little leak in a boat you don’t see.

Here’s how it usually hurts you without even making noise:

Longer sales cycles = fewer deals

In B2B, we already have long buying processes.
(We’re not selling socks, we’re selling serious things.)
But every extra click, every unclear step, makes your prospects think:
“Maybe not today. Maybe later. Maybe… never.”

And with each week that passes, your chance to close the deal gets smaller.

Higher drop-off rates you don’t notice

Prospects are polite. They don’t send you an angry email saying “Your form was too annoying!”
They just leave. Quietly. If you see a lot of “ghost traffic” on your landing pages or your emails get no replies — it’s not bad luck. It’s friction.

Lost opportunities you can’t measure

Some leads disappear so early that they don’t even become “official leads”.
You can’t track them. You can’t fix them. You just sit there wondering why the CRM is so empty.

Three silent killers in most B2B journeys

If losing leads was like a crime scene, these would be your three main suspects:

1. Too many steps, not enough guidance

Imagine you walk into a store.
Nobody says hello. No signs. No idea where to go.

So you wander a bit… then you leave.

That’s exactly what happens when your customer journey has too many steps and no clear direction. In B2B, we love to “educate” (whitepapers! webinars! forms! surveys!) but if you ask your prospects to work too hard too early, they won’t stay to see how smart you are.

2. One-size-fits-all messaging

Not every buyer is the same:

  • A CEO doesn’t care about the same things as the IT manager.
  • A finance guy is worrying about budgets.
  • An user just wants something easy to use.

If you talk to everyone with the same message, you talk to no one.
(And people don’t feel “understood.” They feel “sold to.” Big difference.)

3. Gaps between marketing and sales

This is the classic one.
Marketing says: “We’re fast! We’re friendly! We personalize everything!”
And then Sales reaches out three days later with a boring template email:
“Hello Sir/Madam, I would like to schedule a call.”

That small gap between the brand promise and the real experience kills trust — and trust is everything in B2B.

5 quick fixes to save your B2B leads

Good news: you don’t need to burn everything down and start over.
A few smart moves can already change the game.

Here are 5 fixes I’m using nearly every day (or at least when starting a new project), you can use today. See it as a sort of guideline:

  • Cut the number of steps by 30%: If a page, a form, or an email doesn’t push the lead forward — delete it. Less is often more (especially when people are busy). 
  • Make the “next step” stupidly clear: At every stage, ask yourself: “Would a 10-year-old understand what to do now?” If not, rewrite it.
  • Personalize early, even just a little: Use simple things: their industry, their job title, their company size. Small personalization makes a big difference in trust.
  • Respond like a human, not a system: When a lead raises their hand, answer fast and friendly. Not “Dear Sir or Madam.” Not “Thank you for your interest.” More like: “Hi Julia! Saw you checked out [XXXXX] — happy to help you figure things out.”
  • Align Marketing and Sales around one single goal: Forget who owns the lead. Forget who gets the bonus. The only question that matters: Are we making it easier for the buyer to say yes?

A good customer journey feels almost invisible.

It’s natural, simple, human. 

When you fix the small things, you don’t just get more leads — you create a buying experience people actually enjoy.

Categorized in:

Customer Experience