To make your establishment's sales process even more profitable, it is necessary to implement a well-structured sales funnel. This way, it is capable of converting more and more customers to your company, resulting in good results.
But have you ever considered having a sales funnel in your company to boost results? If so, have you checked whether the proposal of your funnel is in line with the customer's purchasing stages in your company?
In this article, you will understand and learn how to apply everything you need to know about the sales funnel, considering its concept, how it works, its stages, advantages and how it can be applied in a company.
sales funnel what is it
What is the sales funnel?
This is an extremely useful tool used by companies to better visualize a customer's purchasing journey . In other words, it helps the sales team know what stage of the negotiation the customer is at to complete a sale.
This customer journey is made up of different stages, with strategic and assertive triggers that serve to provide greater support for this process within a company's sales teams.
It is worth remembering that for this strategy architects email lists to work well, the sales and marketing teams need to work together. In this way, while one develops the strategies, the other identifies, based on the customer's journey, the right moment to make a proposal and finalize the sale.
How does this tool work?
The tool provides salespeople with a comprehensive view of the entire process that led to a sale, starting with the first contact with a potential customer until the moment they were converted. In addition, these purchase stages are also viewed by the consumer.
In this way, the sales funnel works as a monitoring tool that allows a sales team to check everything that was done with a customer up until the moment of purchase, also helping to segment customers — what stages they are in, what they need — and develop new assertive strategies to convert this consumer, after all, each customer and each case is unique.
With this well-founded tool, it is still possible to measure the number of customers converted during a given period and organize new arguments and approaches to complete these missing sales.
What are the stages of the sales funnel?
In order to identify the entire customer journey and the moment of purchase, it is necessary to divide this process into stages. In each stage, the salesperson must present the consumer with advantages and benefits, making them advance to a new level of the funnel, until the sale is completed.
Top of the Funnel: Discovery
The first step is to discover a problem or need that needs to be met and that, until that moment, was completely unknown to the consumer.
The company's role is to offer content related to this discovered problem , such as infographics, free e-books, among others, by collecting some data such as email, telephone, name, because in this way this consumer becomes a lead and will be worked on to advance to the next stage of the process, until the closing of the same.
Middle of the funnel: Problem recognition
At this stage, the customer already understands that they need to solve their problem, but how? The company's mission is to offer this lead different ways to solve this problem. It is worth remembering that here the company should not push what it wants onto the customer, but rather offer options that can help them in this process.
Bottom of the funnel: Purchase decision
At this stage, the consumer already knows how to solve their problem, and at this point, your company should offer them the solution. It is important to emphasize that, once each stage of the sales funnel is well worked, the customer begins to establish a relationship of trust with the salesperson, as they begin to see the company as an authority and experience in solving their issue.
This is the moment to show this consumer that you have the best option for them, so invest in arguments and strategies to close the sale, as this is the moment when the journey is concluded.
Considering a customer's purchasing journey in your company allows you to visualize the sales made and the customers who are still at different stages of this process , meaning that new strategies and approaches are developed and applied to these potential customers so that they can close the sale.
Read also: The importance of customer success in your sales strategy .
How is the marketing funnel applied in practice?
Some tips can help your company build a qualified and efficient sales funnel to convert customers, see how to do it:
Establish what to offer: This way, at the beginning of the funnel, the sales team will already know what will be offered to their customer, considering what they need to resolve.
Choose the ideal persona for this funnel: Even if your company has several people, it is important that, for this tool, only one of them is chosen, as this filters customers more assertively and facilitates the process of developing sales strategies.
Create your offer: Consider your competitors, the needs presented by the market and always consider the persona. A well-structured offer increases the chances of the customer making a purchase.
Automate processes: When registering your data to access material that can help the customer solve their problem, the ideal is for them to receive messages and information about your company and what it offers, as well as content to attract the customer's attention, encouraging them to make the first contact.
Invest in a powerful landing page: Create an attractive title of what you offer after collecting the necessary information such as phone number, email, full name and WhatsApp, so that the seller can already make contact. It is worth remembering that your landing page tool must align with the customer's means of contact so that the messages reach them.
Direct customers: Yes, they need to be directed somewhere and your company can do this for free. Social media content, blog posts, short videos and sponsored ads are some of the options.
Create a relationship of trust with the customer: A good funnel is one that conveys trust. There is no point in establishing all the stages if, in each of them, the relationship of trust between the consumer and the company is not generated. Remember that the consumer needs to recognize your brand as a reference ready to solve their problem.
Once all the steps have been properly implemented, it is time to put them into practice with customers. Remember that the sales and marketing departments need to be properly aligned for the result to be positive.
What are the advantages of using a sales funnel?
There are many advantages to investing in a sales funnel. Even though it is a more elaborate strategy with many steps, each of which must be worked on strategically, it is worth investing in the tool. Here's why:
Greater opportunities: By monitoring each stage, it is possible to see where the opportunities for new sales lie, developing even more powerful strategies for conversion.
Increased productivity: With the right strategies, the salesperson can analyze what can bring a positive result, through approaches designed for different customers at different levels of the funnel.
Time optimization: If time means money, then nothing is fairer than optimizing processes and with the funnel this is fully possible, since you can monitor the results closely and develop assertive strategies for each stage with the aim of converting prospects.
With well-defined approaches and strategies, it becomes easier to offer the customer what they need, increasing the chances of a sale being completed successfully.
sales funnel step by step
Step by step: how to build your company's sales funnel
Time to build a sales funnel for your company, check out what you need to do to do this with the step-by-step guide to creating the tool.
Choose the top of the funnel
This is where the customer's first contact with your company takes place, so pay close attention to choosing when they will enter the journey, that is, what content you will offer them so they can get to know your company.
Choose where to focus your efforts
Is it at the top or the bottom that you want to focus on? Knowing where you will fit in is important to assertively offer what the customer wants, consider the pros and cons and invest in what is best for the company.
Optimize results
A well-trained sales team needs to know the right moment to approach the consumer to close the sale. To do this, they need to establish a relationship of trust with the consumer. They need to know the customer to identify this moment.