Understanding the Different Stages of the Sales Funnel
There are times when generating revenue slows down and new work isn’t coming in. How can you fix that? Take a look at your sales funnel.
|
Listen to This Article
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
How It Will Help Your Business
Selling can be hard. There are times when generating revenue slows down and new work isn’t coming in as consistently as you would like. How can you fix that? Take a look at your sales funnel.
In this article, we’ll be talking about what a sales funnel is, the different stages of a sales funnel, and how it will help you understand your business better.
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is the series of stages that a potential customer must go through before finally making a purchase or other conversion action. It is widely referred to as a funnel due to the nature of the process as a large number of potential customers enter the sale funnel, but only a few actually make it to the final stage and make a purchase. As potential customers make it through to the next stage, it usually means their commitment to purchasing your product is growing. It’s important to understand each stage of the funnel in order to understand where your potential customers are falling out of your funnel before they get to buy your product.
The sales funnel that is applied to one business may not exactly be the same one applied for your business, so it is important to develop a clear marketing strategy and have your target audience clearly defined when building your own funnel.
The Different Stages of the Sales Funnel:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Decision
- Action
Awareness
Awareness is the very first stage of the funnel and also the broadest. It is in this stage where your target audience is ‘aware’ of your business and what it does. It is important for your brand to be known when your potential customer is looking for a product or service that your business offers.
Ask yourself, if you are a landscaping company, do people think of your brand when they need landscaping work done? Or if you were a bakery, do people think of your business when they are looking for fresh bread?
In this stage, your potential customers may also become aware of problems they didn’t know they had and the possible ways to solve them.
Potential customers build awareness for your business when they see your brand and learn what it offers. This can be from your website, search results, a tweet, a Facebook post, or anything else entirely.
At this stage, they are not ready to buy just yet, but they know where to go when they are in the market for a service that you offer.
Interest
Interest is the stage in which your potential customers are actively looking for a solution for a problem they have. In this stage they may be doing research, comparing products, or seeing what options are out there for solving their problem.
They may be needing to replace an old computer and are looking for a new computer within their budget. They may be needing a new outfit for the weekend and are looking through a couple of different online stores.
As they are doing research, it is important for your business to offer the information they are looking for to help them make their final decision. Now is the time to make your product shine over the competition. This can be in the form of how-tos, informative videos, or even blog articles just like this one. Make sure the content is attractive and keeps them coming back for more.
In this stage, they may subscribe to your email newsletter, follow you on social media, or add your video channel to their favorites. You don’t want to push the sale on them at this stage just yet, as you are still building their commitment to your product.
Decision
In the decision stage of the sales funnel, your potential customer is ready to buy or book a service. If the information that your business offered was up to par for the customer, your business will be in consideration when they have narrowed their choices to the final two or three options.
At this stage, your product must appear as the best choice for them. Does your product have better reviews and testimonials? Can you offer any bundles or package options? Are there any discount codes or is free shipping available?
Push your potential customers through this stage of the funnel with offers and special packages to your email subscribers or offer a discount code to viewers of your video channel.
Action
At this stage, the potential customer has made their decision to go with your product and make the purchase. The goal at this point is to make it as easy as possible to finalize the payment.
You are very close to completing the sale, but if the method of payment is not something the potential customer is comfortable with, they are still prone to fall out of your sales funnel.
It is important to be flexible in your payment options and offer a method that most of your target audience can pay with.
This is also the stage that you try to retain your new customer by making an offer that will get them to return. Keep them happy by helping them with their new purchase with emails, special offers, accessories, or tech support.
Use the Sales Funnel to Find Weaknesses in Your Sales Process
It’s important to understand the sales funnel for your business in order to see where you can improve in the sales process.
If you have a great product but have trouble getting visitors to your website, you may be lacking enough brand awareness for them to know about your product in the first place. You may need to work on letting people know that your brand or product exists!
There may be plenty of people that know about your product, but you are still having trouble making sales, they may not know exactly what your product does or how it compares to similar competition. You have to show them why your product stands out.
You may be having trouble closing sales after they have decided to go with your product because you don’t have fast enough shipping.
A solid sales funnel should bring in consistent, converting traffic. It is important to build up your relationship with your potential customers and build trust and commitment to your product before you push for the sale.
If you are interested in learning more about how this topic can help your business, please contact our agency on our contact page or call us at 1-888-964-4991. We publish a new article once or twice per month so make sure to follow us on social media and allow for push notifications if you want to stay in the loop with our agency and digital marketing.