What is a sales funnel?
The sales funnel (also known as a revenue funnel or sales process) refers to the buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products. The definition also refers to the process through which a company finds, qualifies, and sells its products to buyers.
A sales funnel is directly connected to the customer journey phases, which can be sorted into three parts: top, middle, and bottom.
Understanding your sales funnel can help you understand where you’re going wrong with prospecting, exactly where leads drop off, and what led existing customers to follow the sales funnel all the way through. Optimizing your sales funnel can have an immediate, lasting impact on your sales goals.
WHY ARE THE SALES FUNNEL IMPORTANT?
A sales funnel helps you understand what potential customers are thinking and doing at each stage of the purchasing journey. These insights allow you to invest in the right marketing activities and channels, create the most relevant messaging during each stage, and turn more prospects into paying customers.
If you don’t understand your sales funnel, you can’t optimize it.
SALES FUNNEL STAGES
Sales funnel stages will vary by company, but they are generally divided into four sections.
Awareness
This stage includes the largest amount of customer prospects. At this stage in which customers have determined a problem, begun searching for a solution, and become aware of an organization via content marketing, an email campaign, social media marketing, or other avenues.
Interest
At this stage, the number of customer prospects begins to decrease, but the possibility of a sales conversion increases. This is generally when the customer will engage with the organization, request more information, and ask questions.
Decision
Once the customer has become aware of the organization, reached out, and sought answers to questions, it's time for the decision. This stage of the process may include sales offers and further research into the different options presented by the organization.
Action
All of the previously mentioned stages funnel down into the final step action. At this point, the customer has decided to purchase the product.
HOW TO BUILD A SALES FUNNEL FOR YOUR BUSINESS
For a properly built sales funnel to exist, you first need potential customers who can move through that funnel. Once you have those prospects, you can track behavior and engagement using lead scoring to identify where they are in the funnel.
Let’s delve into the steps to help you create a sales funnel :
Gather Data and Understand Your Customers
Capture Your Audience’s Attention
Build a landing page
Create an Email Drip Campaign
Keep the communication going