The sales funnel is a model that helps businesses understand how customers move through the process of becoming paying customers. It's a journey that starts with awareness and ends with action, and it's divided into four stages: knowledge, consideration, purchase, and loyalty. At each stage, businesses must provide specific information, content, or answers to help potential customers get closer to making a purchase. At the top of the funnel is the knowledge stage, where people become familiar with your business.
If they move into the interest phase, they may be thinking about investing in your product or service. Closer to the bottom we have desire, in which someone wants what you offer. And most importantly, at the bottom, we have the action phase, that is, someone contacts you or makes a purchase. Research and preparation are important for future success.
Once you have these values in view, it's easy to assess where your sales and marketing teams are working well together. The transition between the second and third phases of the sales funnel may not be as clear as from the first to the second. While these markers may scare your sales and marketing teams, there are things you can do to find and correct deficiencies. Paying attention to your sales funnel can improve marketing performance, as it provides an ideal process for the customer lifecycle. From a customer perspective, the sales funnel guides the marketing team on the steps needed to improve the potential customer experience, from considering the product to maintaining brand loyalty.
A sales funnel provides you with a framework focused on the relationships you should follow, which prevents you from making your proposal too soon. Your buyer personality will also make it easier to identify the content needed at each stage of the sales funnel. Commonly divided into early, intermediate and late stages, the sales funnel allows companies to see various aspects of acquiring, converting and retaining new customers. We prefer to think of the funnel in terms of customers because it's simply more effective to align marketing and sales efforts with customers. The traditional sales funnel organizes the customer journey in the form of an inverted pyramid with the highest number of potential customers at the top and the least at the bottom. After properly nourishing your potential customer, you're ready to close the deal and convert your potential customer. When they're more comfortable with your product or service, you can start reintroducing your customers into the sales funnel.
He has held leadership positions in sales and marketing for global brands such as SAP and Nielsen, as well as for thriving startups. Of course, this isn't the end of the road for you and your new customer. It's up to you to win that customer's business over and over again - also known as customer retention - so that they become loyal customers who will continue to purchase from you in future.
