The sales funnel is one of the most important concept in digital marketing. Although it may seem strange at first, this single core idea has the ability to transform a company from practically non-existent and unknown to a multi-million-dollar marketing machine of mass saturation in what appears to be an instant process. In reality, some professional practitioners have made a career out of applying this single business principle.
What is a Sales Funnel?
A Sales Funnel (also known as a Revenue Funnel or Purchase Funnel) is a buying process that businesses take their customers through when they sell something. Selling through a funnel results in high conversion rate and more leads.
Sales Funnel Definition:
It is the process by which a seller discovers, qualifies, and sells its products to customers.
Imagine a real-world funnel if you’re unsure what a sales funnel is. Some material is poured into the funnel at the tip, and it filters down to a single finite destination. Something similar happens in sales. Many visitors arrive at the top, and some of them can reach your funnel. Unlike a real-life funnel, however, not everyone who enters the sales funnel can exit at the other end.
A standard sales funnel is broken down into several stages, each of which differs depending on the business sales model. To get an in-depth understanding of the sales funnels, we divide it into 7 phases:
- Awareness Phase– Customers are made aware of the solution or the product during the awareness phase.
- Interest Phase– Prospects who are interested in a product perform product research or explore information about the product during the interest phase.
- Evaluation Phase– When they near a final purchasing decision, prospects or prospect companies evaluate competitors’ solutions.
- Decision Phase- When the prospect takes the final decision and start negotiating.
- Purchase Phase- when the products or services are sold.
- Reevaluation Phase – contracts that must be renewed are normal in B2B sales. A consumer will enter a reevaluation process as they become more familiar with an offering, and particularly as their subscription or contract expires.
- Repurchase Phase- A consumer repurchases a product or service during the repurchase process.
Read this article for in-depth understanding of the importance of each funnel stages
Importance of Sales Funnel
A sales funnel will help you figure out what potential buyers are thinking and doing at different stages of the buying process. These insights enable you to allocate resources to the most effective marketing activities and platforms, craft the most appropriate messaging at each point, and convert more leads into paying customers.
How to create a Sales Funnel
Before you a build a sales funnel, you must first have an idea of the audience(prospects) that can pass through it. If you have any leads, you can use lead grouping to monitor their actions and interest and figure out where they are in the funnel.
To assist you in creating a sales funnel, follow these five steps:
1. Building a Landing Page
Prospects would most likely learn about your offer or product via a landing page. They’ll land on a landing page if they click on an ad, sign up for a webinar, or download an ebook. The page should clearly state who you are as a business and what makes you stand out (after all, this could be the one and only opportunity you have to wow prospects). Most importantly, make sure the landing page has a form for prospects to fill out — you want to collect their email address so you can connect with them in the future.
2. Make a Valuable Offer
This is the part where you must offer something in return for your prospects’ email addresses. A lead magnet, such as an ebook or whitepaper, is a good way to give your landing page visitors something useful.
3. Keep updating with relevant offer
Your prospects will have progressed from the Awareness stage to the Interest stage at this point. You may also build an email nurturing sequence to share educational content about your offering because you have all of their email addresses from the landing page.
4. Upsell
You want to deliver something that can nudge prospects into making a purchase decision when they step into the Decision stage. This may be in the form of a product demonstration, a longer free trial, or a special discount.
5. Maintain the momentum
You’ll either land new clients or learn why prospects aren’t interested in buying in the Action process. In any case, keep the lines of communication open. Focus on product education, interaction, and retention for new customers. Create a new nurture series for prospects who did not make a purchase and follow up with them every few months.
The Bottom Line
It takes more than being structured to handle a sales funnel. It’s all about providing each and every future customer with the personalised service they need. It all comes down to making sure you follow through at the appropriate times, every time. So you can devote more time to the most satisfying aspect of your job: closing sales.
