Simply put sales funnels are a multi-step process that moves cold prospects into buyers
You could also say that it’s something that marketers use in order to track their potential customers. Tracing potential customers and onboarding them into revenue-generating customers is one of the biggest responsibilities that a marketing team has to do. The sales funnels are in a position to provide excellent assistance with this very task. I will come back to this more in detail further down, and I hope you want to watch a quick video explanation too.
Low sales is a massive pain for any kind of business. The businesses spend a considerable amount of time and effort on the demos and pitchers, charm, and chatter. If the prospects drop out after all those efforts, the company will be putting all their efforts in vain. This is completely a natural phenomenon, which takes place in the world that we live in. However, a sales funnel has got the ability to reduce the chances of that taking place.
So what exactly is a sales funnel anyway?
With the background information that you have as of now, it will be possible for you to understand what a sales funnel is. Hence, let’s take a quick look at the definition of a sales funnel.
A sales funnel can be considered as a marketing term, which is being used to define the journey, which all the potential customers of your business will go through. All the customers will go through this process before a sale is initiated. Usually, the marketing teams start the sales funnel with a lot of potential customers, who are familiar with the product or service offered.
You are beginning to pitch your products or services to a large audience. When you go down in the sales funnel, you will notice that you are speaking only to a few selected people, who are more interested in the services that you offer. This will eventually end up with the people, who will actually become customers of your business.
What are the stages of a sales funnel?
There are a few stages in a sales funnel. To get a clear picture of what a sales funnel is, you need to have a solid understanding of these stages.
- Awareness level can be considered as the very first stage of a sales funnel. This is the phase where people get to know about the services and products that you offer. You can reach out to the customers through social media, advertising, and even through word of mouth.
Leads and sales are the key objectives for sales funnels
- Leads will get hold of the second phase of your sales funnel. The leads are the people who show an interest in the products or services that you offer. This entirely depends on the marketing abilities that you have. If your marketing campaigns are not that good, you will struggle hard to get the leads that you want. When you have leads with the marketing efforts, you need to try your best in order to push them down in the sales funnel and then convert them into sales. It is one of the key objectives of a sales funnel as well.
- Sales are at the bottom level of the sales funnel. When you transform the lead to a paying customer, you will be able to convert the lead. With that, you are pushing that customer into the last stage of the sales funnel. If you had 100 people in the first stage, you will notice that you only have a handful number of individuals in the last stage. That’s completely natural. The sales funnel concept will make sure that you are not missing out on the sales-generating customers, just because you are distracted by the others.
What are the benefits of sales funnels?
Sales funnels is a concept that marketing teams all around the world have adopted. With that in mind, you should also have a clear understanding of the benefits that sales funnels can deliver to you. Here is a list of some of the most prominent benefits that a sales funnel can deliver to you. If you are convinced, you can also think about integrating a sales funnel with your marketing efforts.
You can reject low quality leads quickly
The low-quality leads are not in a position to create a major impact on your business revenue. Hence, it would be worthless to spend your time and effort on them. It is always recommended for you to get rid of them as soon as possible. That’s where a sales funnel can assist you with. You can properly analyze the customers with the help of sales funnel and then check whom you are going to move to the next stage. This will help you to get the most out of your marketing efforts as well.
You can improve the follow-up process
You must be sending a lot of emails on a daily basis to follow up on your prospects. However, it is not enough to get the best possible results out of your leads. You should focus even more attention on the follow-ups. A sales funnel can provide excellent assistance to you with that.
According to recent statistics, it has been identified that around 50% of the sales representatives are not following up with the prospects in an effective manner. You will be able to eliminate all sorts of failures that can take place in the follow-up stage with the assistance of a sales funnel. Therefore, you will be able to end up with the best possible results at the end of the day.
You can accelerate customer onboarding process
When you get your first lead, you have just about 5 minutes to transform that lead into a sale. If you fail to do it, you will be missing out on the excellent opportunity that you have right in front of you. This is another prominent reason why you need to make sure that you are using a sales funnel in the best way possible. This can help you to accelerate the customer onboarding process in an effective manner as well. Always remember that the best practice is to follow-up with your leads and try and get them to come back to the next stage in your funnel. Your ultimate goal is to get every visitor to go through your entire sales funnel! Very important.
Final words
Now you have a solid understanding of what a sales funnel is. With that understanding, you can go ahead and start using sales funnels for the future growth of your business. In my honest opinion using Clickfunnels is the best way to get started for this purpose.
