If you are into digital marketing and sales, the term “sales funnel” must be familiar to you. However, for new marketers, it might take a little while to grasp the concept.
Nevertheless, a sales funnel is actually a fundamental concept that relates to all types of action-based persuasions (not just sales) that occur in the digital realm.
Hence as we referred to in the title of this blog, we as one of the most popular vendors of easy-to-use CRM software, will go over the five main elements of the sales funnel and illustrate even further to show how they relate to the sales journey while digitally marketing and selling an offering.
In other words, it is a marketing strategy that helps businesses visualize the customer journey from initial interest to final purchase. In simple terms, this is how a complete stranger who is searching for a solution to his pain points is converted into leads, turns those leads into prospects, and finally converts them into customers.
The sales funnel consists of three sections:
• The Top of the Funnel
• The Middle of the Funnel
• The Bottom of the Funnel
Now the goal of the funnel is to push prospects up the path and make it to the top of the funnel. That is how the sales process gets completed resulting in a closed deal. This is what exactly you would want for the growth of your business. Let’s move on to learn the difference between two buzzwords in the sales world – sales funnel and sales pipeline.
Difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel?
While most find confusion between the two terms, the primary difference lies in the fact that the pipeline indicates the sales process from the perspective of a salesperson, while the funnel represents a buyer’s perspective. This is when the customers are actively looking for solutions to meet their needs in the marketplace.
Therefore, similar to an upside-down pyramid, the funnel helps to identify the stage of the buyer’s journey and thereafter break it down helping businesses to perceive where the actions have been taken by the customers. Further, it also helps to understand at which stage of the funnel the opportunity lies for lead engagement. The stages of the funnel include:
• AWARENESS
• INTEREST
• EVALUATION
• ENGAGEMENT
• PURCHASE
Hence now that we have a brief idea about what is a sales funnel, let us take a deep dive into the five stages of the funnel and try to understand how reps should get them engaged during each of these five stages with leads for closing their deals and finding business growth.
AWARENESS
The awareness stage in the funnel is where the consumers find a new product or service in the marketplace.
Therefore, sales reps can effectively spread awareness for their product or services at this stage. This is done by using promotional tactics like cold calling, outreach through emails, or even by offering free trials on their business websites.
INTEREST
In the second stage of the funnel i.e. the “interest” stage, the leads show genuine interest in a brand’s products or services available in the marketplace.
Hence, this is the right time for the sales reps to capitalize on this opportunity to educate these prospective leads on the brand’s offerings. It can be easily done by sending the prospects (over email drip sequence) case studies and testimonials. This in turn can be used for building a positive impression on the prospective leads and boost their trust in the brand.
EVALUATION
Now as the prospects move further down and enter the third stage of the funnel, it shows that the prospective lead is further ready to evaluate and know more about the desired product or service.
Therefore over here, the sales reps can find an opportunity to fill any gap in the prospect’s knowledge about their offering and illustrate more on the solutions for the challenges of the prospective leads.
ENGAGEMENT
As the prospective leads move now to the engagement stage of the funnel, it shows that the prospect has ultimately reached the stage in their buyer’s journey where they are ready to finally decide and buy the offering.
Hence at this stage salespersons working with these leads continue to assist the lead and send them additional content to keep up the engagement, so that it can help the prospects to pass through the final few yards of the funnel and close the deal.
PURCHASE
This is the final stage where it shows that the lead has purchased your brand offerings and has finally become a customer of your business.
Now, it must be remembered that even though the prospect got converted and has come out of the funnel, it is mandatory for the sales reps to continue building a relationship with the customers after the close, to identify further opportunities for cross-selling and upselling to the existing customer and thereby boost their brand’s customer retention rate.
Conclusion
As one of the most popular vendors of Salesforce Alternative CRM tools, we have often found several people asking us- Why should I use a funnel to showcase a sales process?
The answer to this question is- Because the sales funnel represents the number-game dynamic of the sales. It can be safely said that only a very small number of your total leads turn into sales-ready prospects, and even fewer are going to turn into a sale.
Hence, the funnel shape which is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom makes complete sense. The more you feed the top of the funnel, the more business comes out of the bottom. In a nutshell, the sales funnel is a visual representation that provides reps with a visual roadmap of the customer journey.
