Sales funnels refer to the process that includes the initial action from the first contact between the business and client until the last step that results in sales. We can say that the funnel is the timeline that narrows every stage of the sales process, so the seller can see how every stage is affecting the final experience.
We can imagine that the funnel is a kind of a cone or tube, with the peak downwards, and it’s used to describe the buying process that the company is doing to narrow the customer when they’re on their site, to buy some product or service. It’s a visualization of the process named B2B sales. The factors that directly affect this model are the marketing strategies, building trust between the brand and the client, and educating them on the purpose of the product.
This tube has a few stages that are used to keep the clients informed, but also for you to get feedback if you do it properly. By doing this, you will see if your strategy is good enough, or you need to change something so you can increase the number of purchases on your website.
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Through this process, they will learn a lot about you and the products, so they can get more interested in it. It also helps you to analyze your model and strategy, to identify the critical points, target the right audience, and turning your potential customers into happy and satisfied clients.
There are four basic funnel stages including awareness, interest, decision, and action. Every stage describes what the seller and buyer need to do, so they can successfully finish this process. That means the seller needs to provide all the needed information about the product, so the potential client will get interested in it, decide that he or she really needs it, and then deliver the final action, the purchase. In some cases, there are more stages, such as reevaluation and repurchase, when the client is highly satisfied with the product and decides it’s worth of buying it again. Every brand must appreciate the customer’s happiness and experience, so they can turn it into a successful story.
What is the difference between funnel and pipeline?
The simplest way to explain this difference is the fact that the first ones are dedicated to the customer and their behavior, and the pipeline’s focus is on the revenue. When the seller is making a plan to sell something for money, they are focused on the earnings, and how the whole process is affecting their business.
Every seller primarily needs to be dedicated to the customer, because the satisfied customer will bring more sales later, by adopting some of these practices:
- Maintain your marketing plan carefully, fix every visible problem, and then try to reach to your customers.
- Try to find any possible leaks in your funnel. That can be some important step you missed in the initial plan, which may lead to losing your clients.
- Approach to your potential clients directly and use an engaging voice when creating your sales content.
- Every now and then run some monitoring on your campaigns, check if they are effective, and optimize the ad if needed.
- Try to reach to your customers who decided not to buy your product and offer them a better deal.
- Establish a strong and trustworthy brand, that people will respect, and always will come back to you.
- Use the tools and technologies the modern times offer to you. Standardize your strategy and follow every reaction, so you can plan your next step.
How to create your funnel?
You can follow some basic tips, but there is no manual that tells you exactly what to do. You should follow your clients’ behavior and focus on the target group and try to predict what they want.
You should provide a deep understanding of their needs, by creating a basic profile of your potential buyer, thinking about all the possible questions they may have, and then use all the tools you have to tailor your offer, and call them to action. When you try to sell something, you also need to provide a valid email, contacts for customer service, social media content, legit reviews, promotional events if possible, and then include all your resources that will result in a successful sale.
Every customer will appreciate if you provide all the information they are looking for about the product in one place, instead of searching it on the Internet and comparing the different description. That means you must have an optimized website and suitable descriptive content, explaining every benefit and positive side of the product. So, pay attention to your website design, because every potential client will stay on it if you provide everything they are looking for within just a click.
There are some useful tools that you can use to maintain your funnel, including email marketing automation, lead generation software, content management platforms, and so on. Maintaining is an important part because sometimes you will need to “troubleshoot” when a problem occurs, and it’s a lot easier when you know exactly where that problem is coming from.
This article covers only the basic things every marketer should know about this type of sales strategy. It’s on you to tailor it following your products, services, and general needs as a company. And remember, you work for the customer because your future depends on these people.
