What Is Sales Funnel
What Is Sales Funnel
What Is Sales Funnel
For example: The people at the top of the sales funnel walk by your
store. A certain percentage of them decide to walk in, that’s the next of the
funnel. A customer sees a rack of T-shirts on clearance. He or she thumbs
through the rack, now they’re at the next step of the funnel. Then the
customer selects four t-shirts and walks to the check-out. They’re at the
last step. If all goes well, they finish the purchase and reach the bottom of
the funnel.
Retail store
Sales team
Website
Email
Personal consultation
4 MAIN STAGES OF SALES FUNNEL
t’s easy to remember the four sales funnel stages by the acronym AIDA:
Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. These four stages represent
your prospective customer’s mindset.
Awareness:
This is the moment at which you first catch a consumer’s attention.
It might be a tweet, a Facebook post shared by a friend, a Google
search, or something else entirely. Your prospect becomes aware of
your business and what you offer.
When the chemistry is just right, consumers sometimes buy
immediately. It’s a right-place, right-time scenario. The consumer
has already done research and knows that you’re offering something
desirable and at a reasonable price.
More often, the awareness stage is more of a courtship. You’re
trying to woo the prospect into returning to your site and engaging
more with your business.
Interest:
When consumers reach the interest stage in the sales funnel, they’re
doing research, comparison shopping, and thinking over their
options. This is the time to swoop in with incredible content that
helps them, but doesn’t sell to them.
If you’re pushing your product or service from the beginning, you’ll
turn off prospects and chase them away. The goal here is to establish
your expertise, help the consumer make an informed decision, and
offer to help them in any way you can.
Decision:
The decision stage of the sales funnel is when the customer is ready
to buy. He or she might be considering two or three options —
hopefully, including you.
This is the time to make your best offer. It could be free shipping
when most of your competition charges, a discount code, or a bonus
product. Whatever the case, make it so irresistible that your lead
can’t wait to take advantage of it.
Action:
At the very bottom of the sales funnel, the customer acts. He or she
purchases your product or service and becomes part of your
business’s ecosystem.
Just because a consumer reaches the bottom of the funnel, however,
doesn’t mean your work is done. Action is for the consumer and the
marketer. You want to do your best to turn one purchase into 10, 10
into 100, and so on.
In other words, you’re focusing on customer retention. Express
gratitude for the purchase, invite your customer to reach out with
feedback, and make yourself available for tech support, if applicable.
Once the prospect has stated their objections, repeat back what I have
heard to ensure I am understanding correctly. Not only will this help clarify
their points, but it will also help the prospect feel heard and valued, which is
important for building trust.
When I hear objectives, I want to do all you can to keep the conversation
going in a natural way. If I hear my prospect pulling back, asking follow-up
questions can be a tactful way to keep them talking.
Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".
Make sure you ask open-ended questions that allow your prospect to
continue expressing their thoughts on your product. The more information
they provide, the more you have to work with to potentially turn the sale
around.
If the prospect asks for more time to think things over, give them the time
and space to weigh their options. However, don’t leave them hanging. Set
up a specific time and date to follow-up in the near future so too much time
doesn’t pass, and offer to answer any questions they have in the meantime
as they deliberate.
Now you have leads instead of prospects. They’re moving through the
funnel.
Over the next few weeks, you send out content to educate your subscribers
about vintage signs, to share design inspiration, and to help consumers
figure out how to hang these signs.
At the end of your email blitz, you offer a 10 percent coupon off each
customer’s entire first order. Bang! You’re selling vintage signs like crazy.
Everyone wants what you’re selling.
Next, you add those same customers to a new email list. You start the
process over again, but with different content. Give them ideas for gallery
walls, advise them about how to care for their signs, and suggest signs as
gifts. You’re asking them to come back for more.