The sales funnel is a journey that potential buyers take when they are interested in a product or service. It is a series of steps that sales teams use to convert leads into customers, also known as prospecting. Every interaction with customers should follow the strategic framework of the SaaS sales funnel, if you want to increase conversions. The awareness phase is where buyers first discover your company and begin their journey. When a potential customer expresses interest in what you're selling, they may fill out a form on your website, call you, or send you a message.
At Cognism, we've found that the faster you respond to B2B buyers, the better. This type of demand marketing not only helps you generate more revenue, but it also benefits all future funnels by returning to phase one with more brand awareness.Once you've identified what your buyers are interested in, you can start mapping out their buying itineraries and creating new buyer profiles for potential future customers. Your action plan when creating a sales funnel works in a similar way to your objectives: you should always separate each strategy into BOFU (Bottom of Funnel), MOFU (Middle of Funnel) and TOFU (Top of Funnel). Think about how you want your potential customers to interact at each of these steps of the funnel.
When engaging in the middle of the sales funnel, you'll need to build trust with a more direct approach, but don't just call a potential customer for a call - focus on sharing high-quality content via email or making calls with an educational purpose in mind. One of the most important steps in creating a successful conversion sales funnel is to make sure you include a clear and decisive call to action at the end. With information about your company, potential customers will delve deeper into their pricing and packaging options. Sales pages, webinars, and calls are useful at this stage to help potential customers make a purchase. As potential customers move into the decision phase, you'll want to offer anything that might lead them to make a purchase - this could include a product demo, an extended free trial, or a special discount. Now that the problem or opportunity is clearly defined and all possible solution options have been explored, your potential customer enters the decision phase.
They know exactly what solution they need and they know what method and approach they want to use to achieve it. At this point, they are busy comparing available suppliers and products that match their method and approach, reducing a long list to a short list of options. They are researching supporting documentation, date, reference points, or approvals to make or recommend a final decision. A sales funnel is the process that potential customers go through to become customers. Each stage of the funnel brings them one step closer to making a purchase.
A well-planned sales funnel will define the actions your company should take to take potential customers to the next stage. The first stage of the sales funnel is called the “knowledge level” because it is where people first become aware of your product or service. After weeks of presentations and demonstrations, talks and charm, the potential customer leaves the sales funnel without buying. Every time this happens, you can send them information that seems designed just for them. During the second stage of the sales funnel, the sales team should follow up with the potential customer to learn more about their needs and challenges.
They'll ask qualifying questions to see if your product is right for them. The investment is low on their part and gives them an idea of how your solution will make their lives easier without having to fully commit. Configure your system with the answer you want and you'll be ready to send it immediately to any interested potential customer - even those who contact you on Saturday at 3 in the morning. Once you have those leads, you can track behavior and participation by scoring leads to identify where they are in the funnel. That's why many salespeople refer to “the bottom or top of the sales funnel” when talking about where their potential customers are in their journey. These are the four phases that your potential customers go through once they are interested in a product or service: knowledge level; consideration level; decision level; and action level.
You can execute campaigns on thousands of prospects at once in a personalized way. You must offer this potential customer a solution to their problem and respond in a way that suits their needs by simplifying the sales tunnel and eliminating points of friction. At each stage of the sales funnel, you must offer specific information, content or answers that will help your potential customers get closer to making a purchase.
