I am pretty sure you must have heard of the term sales funnel and might be wondering what it is or what it means or how it relates to business. I know right… I was also confused when I first came across that term sales funnel. Don’t worry, I will try my best to explain what it is all about and why it is very important to any business.
What is a sales funnel?
Think of sales funnel as you think of a real world funnel, that is wide on one end and very narrow on the other end… with a similar purpose. A sales funnel does what is sounds like… it is a marketing concept that channels or directs the target customer through a journey before making a purchase. In order words, it is a strategy that guides a target customer’s journey before he or she makes a purchase. Like the real world funnel, a sales funnel, large number of target customers goes into your sales funnel and few numbers come out of the end of your different stages of your sales funnel. We all know that not everyone who enters your sales funnel would buy from you… that is fine… just like a real world funnel with a filter inside of it, your different stages of your sales funnel can also serve as a filter as well. Which means, if 500 persons enter your funnel, about 10% of those might eventually buy from you.
Why is a sales funnel so important to any business?
Now this is the fun part as you are eager to know why the heck you need a sales funnel if you are already making sales in your business. I wouldn’t blame you, most small business owner who haven’t seen the power of having a sales funnel would probably think the same… Before I continue, I will like to say something, if you are making let say about 500 sales per day in your business without utilizing the sales funnel strategy, you will most likely make double of that, if not triple of that, or at least more of that if you are utilizing the sales funnel strategy in your business.
A sales funnel mainly does 4 things for you but can extend to 5 or more, but it does 4 core things for you… Simply put the core 4 stages of a sales funnel.
- Creating awareness
- Interest
- Decision
- Action
From the list above, you can clearly see that they are quite self-explanatory and doesn’t require much talks what each of the steps is all about. However, since this is a post about me talking about #sales funnels and why they are so important to any business, I will be talking about each of the steps…
The Awareness stage is basically when you put out your product or services out there either through ads, social media post, or other mediums, and your leads takes notice of your products or services. At this stage, they are just getting to know about your product or service for the first time, sometimes, they might even be knowing your business for the first time as well. They have a problem and are seeking for solution to their problem.
The interest stage is basically when you have captured the attention of the prospect and he or she is now interested in what you have to offer.
The decision stage is basically your prospects have the thoughts of buying from you. They are already interested in your offerings and are now making the decision whether to buy from you or not. It is normal as whenever it comes to making a buying decision, the brain tries to do various rounds of decision making so as not to make the wrong decision. At this stage while the prospect is still trying to make the decision whether to buy from you or not, he or she, could begin to learn more about your business either by reading or watching more of what you have put out there for free so as to gain enough trust to finally make that buying decision.
The action stage is basically when the prospect have now decided to take action and buy from you. He or she has now become your customer.
You can already begin to see how amazing a sales funnel is by just looking at the different stages. This process can be automated as well which is where the awesomeness is. By automating your sales funnel process, you can basically make sales without your input after the initial setup phase. A lot of business who are utilizing this strategy are already reaping the benefits of increase in sales.