What is a Sales Funnel and Why Do I Need One?

They’re the cream of the marketing society and treated with utmost care.  The story behind offering stardom on a platter to the prospects is based on the idea that “people can change.”  As you keep instilling knowledge in them, they start looking at you differently and their attitude towards you changes.

It’s this change that’s depicted through a sales funnel.

Journey Through the Sales Funnel

The process of converting a prospect into a paying customer is called a sales funnel.

A sales funnel shows the first steps your customers take, “from the time they become aware” of your existence to the time they actually become your customer.  Please note that it’s not “from the time they visit your website.”

#1: Awareness

People become aware of you from your marketing campaigns; whether it’s the advertisements or social media engagement or whatever you do to drive traffic to your website. That’s the moment of awareness.

#2: Website Visit

Visitors show up at your website.  They’re visiting you for the first time. They look around and learn more about you. If they like what they see, they proceed to the next level in the funnel.

#3: Sign Up

On your website, you have a form to capture them on their first visit. (Remember, we’ve talked about lead capture pages and forms?).

If they would like to continue their relationship with you, they sign up for your Newsletter, free eBook, video or to receive more information.

Now in this step, they have given you their name, email address and any other information, and joined your list.

 #4: Autoresponder Emails

After a confirmation mail, you send them the first welcome email. This can contain a link to the eBook or report you promised to give them free when they signed up. If you don’t have an email autoresponder to help you send bulk emails then you can currently trial one for a month free and also get $30 credit by clicking this link.

#5: Autoresponder Email Campaign

Typically, a sales funnel consists of an autoresponder email campaign. You use the autoresponder to start sending mails to the prospects who signed up on your lead capture page. How many emails you send and how frequently, depends on you, based on the nature of your business.

Why are you sending those emails to your prospects?

To win them over and make them buy something from you! You’re not going to be salesy in any form. Your intention at all times is going to be to help them achieve their goals first, so they trust you enough to help you achieve yours – by buying from you or doing what you want them to.

#6: The Final Sale

Finally, your prospects decide to click on the link that leads to the product or service that you’re selling, with an intention to buy. They may have checked it out earlier, but now they decided to go ahead and give you that sale.

Did you get all that?

Okay, let me explain it again? Don’t worry! No more long-winded explanations. This is short:

Seth Godin defines it well:

“Traditionally, sales is envisioned as a funnel, with prospects shoveled into the big end and customers trickling out the bottom.”

Throughout their journey from the top to the bottom, you’re convincing them with every weapon you have to buy from you. Out of a 1000 prospects that enter your sales funnel at the top, you may have just 1 customer or 10 come out (or more). The number of prospect-customer converts depends on your ability to gain their trust and the value that you provide.

Creating a Sales Funnel for Your Business

To develop a successful sales funnel in your marketing business, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your marketing process.

Answer these three questions and you will get a clear image:

1. Where are your leads coming from?

2. How are they becoming prospects?

3. How are you turning prospects into customers?

When you’re first creating your sales funnel, don’t think about making a sale. Selling will happen automatically as long as you concentrate on driving your prospects down the funnel by offering immense value.  The lower you manage to send them the closer you get to your goal.

As you get used to it, you’ll understand how to add the different stages in a funnel.  With the help of Google Analytics, you can see every single thing that’s happening on your website. You can see how many people are actually going down the funnel and turning into customers.  Google analytics is an amazing tool that will help you understand where you’re going wrong and what you’re doing right.

Keep testing and see what works for you.

Does the Sales Funnel End After the Sale?

No, it doesn’t end there.  You can extend the funnel after the first sale. This can be done by continuing to communicate with customers who already bought from you through emails and encourage them to introduce others. A happy customer will willingly refer others to you. You can offer them some gifts in return.

Another way is to create a separate sales funnel for existing customers and sell them products or services related to the original.

Create Your Own Sales Funnel Model

Once you create your first sales funnel, you’ll understand how you want your future funnels to be. You can create funnels that are unique to you alone. You’ll know how to make more people in your funnel turn into customers

Have you managed to send traffic through the sales funnel to the very bottom?  What is the percentage of people that turned into customers after they went through your sales funnel?