A sales funnel is the ultimate online marketing system. It refers to the buying process that your customers are led though when purchasing your products or services.
It consists of several steps which can vary depending on your specific sales model and how your customers prefer to purchase.
What it does:
- Uses marketing strategies to attract prospective buyers to enter the funnel.
- Converts a prospect to a lead – a person that has indicated interest in your products/services.
- Converts a lead into a customer – a person that buys.
- Turns customers into repeat buyers.
Throughout the entire process, you continue building relationships with your prospects, leads and customers. They develop trust in you as the authority or “go-to” in your specific area of business.
What can you learn from your sales funnel?
Your sales funnel provides important conversion data. For example, if 600 people enter your sales funnel and 150 make a purchase, your conversion rate is 25%. You now know that you must attract 600 new prospects through your current funnel to find 150 paying customers.
You can identify where your prospects are in the journey to becoming a paying customer. The data pinpoints where in the funnel they decide to make their first and then, repeat purchases. Knowing the buying habits of your customers helps you fine tune your funnel with “triggers” that speed up the sales cycle.
How do you attract prospects to your sales funnel?
There are several steps or components involved in a sales funnel. They are used to attract new prospects, engage them and move them along toward the end goal – becoming a paying customer. The components include:
- Websites
- Landing pages
- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Branding
- Search engine optimization
- E-commerce
Properly executed, your sales team will experience an abundance of inbound requests. Your website will become your most successful sales person – delivering sales full time through the sales funnel with no time off for weekends and holidays!