What Is A Sales Funnel?

You've likely come across the term sales funnel being used often in marketing.

Have you ever wondered what it means?

A sales funnel refers to the progression of steps that customers take from discovering your business and products to making the final purchase.

Here's an example.

Let's say you have a brick-and-mortar store. Many potential customers will walk past the door, but a percentage of them will decide to walk in.

Of those that walk in, a percentage of these will see products that they like and decide to have a look at them.

A percentage of those who decided to view the products will pick those that they like and proceed to the checkout, where they will make a purchase.

The steps customers take to buy will be similar, more or less, whether you run a brick and mortar store or an online store.

But why is understanding the sales funnel important?

Good question!

Why is a sales funnel important?

So here’s the deal.

Understanding the sales funnel helps you know what potential customers think when they are at different stages of the sales funnel.

Why is this important?

Because now you can develop marketing strategies geared towards pushing the customers towards the next stage until they finally make a purchase.

This also means developing personalized messages tailored towards a client based on which stage they are in the sales funnel.

The stages of the sales funnel

When prospects first hear of your business, products, or services, they will go through several stages of decision-making until they can finally make a purchase.

Granted, the process may not be the same for every customer. However, they will make their choice sooner or later based on their interest.

That said, there are four main stages of the sales funnel.

Are you ready?

The awareness stage

Here customers are first learning about your products and services.

This can be through social media ads, through your sales team, or through various other marketing campaigns that your business has developed.

I’ll be honest with you.

The number of leads who move down the sales funnel will depend on how effective your marketing efforts are.

Okay fine.

Sometimes customers may go straight into buying a product.

Most times, however, you will need to woo the customer at the awareness stage to encourage them through the next stages.

The interest stage

Now that customers are aware of your products or services, they will then enter the interest stage.

Here they will make competitive research comparisons and weigh the options available to them.

So here’s what you do.

Offer your customers valuable content and information.

However, make sure that the content helps your customers make the right choice BUT doesn't try to sell. Doing this would likely scare them away.

What happens next?

You establish your business as an expert in the minds of customers.

This then helps build brand trust, which helps them move over to the next step.

The decision stage

At this stage in the buying process, the customer is ready to make a purchase.

Keep in mind that they could be interested in a competitor's products as well.

So what do you do about it?

Add in deals, discount codes, and promos. The goal is to make your products so attractive that customers can't wait to purchase them.

The action stage

The customer finally buys your product.

Not bad, right?

It may be the final step in the sales funnel. However, it doesn't mean that it's all over.

Yes, there’s more!

Always make sure you have a customer retention strategy in place for them to keep coming back for more.

This may include building customer relations by offering after-sales support, for instance.

Categories: : Marketing