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Sales Funnel Development Starts at the Top

by | |Sales Tips and Tricks

When it comes to streamlining your sales process, sales funnel development is the perfect place to start. A sales funnel is a framework to help you visualize the sales journey from start to finish. Think of your sales funnel as a metaphor for refining your prospect pool. Just like a kitchen funnel, the sales funnel takes a large number of prospects at the top, and narrows down the field through marketing, webinars, follow up strategies, and so much more. In the end, you’re left with the prospects who are committed to your product and are ready to make a purchase.

Your sales funnel is an invaluable tool to gain insight into your sales process. Using a sales funnel model, it’s simple to analyze which development tactics help your business grow. This way, you can track your prospects’ progress through your system, and gather useful data at every step along the way.

The Four Sales Funnel Stages

Although you can divide your sales funnel into as many stages as you’d like, there are generally four main categories that encompass the sales journey: awareness, interest, decision, and action. These four tiers of the funnel are unique in their goals, but they all flow towards closing the deal.

Funnel development requires that you have a clear vision of your business’s values, goals, and ideal customers. Before you start mapping out your sales funnel, make sure you have a cohesive idea about your business’s identity and principles. Armed with a strong sense of identity, developing your sales funnel will be an easy task.

#1 Awareness

The first stage of the sales funnel focuses on spreading the word about your business. Think of this as casting a wide net while fishing, and seeing what you bring in. At this stage it’s okay not to target specific prospects: “during the awareness stage, you want to bring attention to your brand but you don’t need to push any particular product or service. Instead, you should focus on sharing ideas, solutions, or advice” (copper.com).

Tactics to increase awareness include:

  • Ramping up social media posts that focus on information-driven, engaging content that succinctly conveys a few key aspects of your business.
  • Producing SEO focused blog content, which increases traffic to your website.
  • Hosting in-person events and info sessions. While online interactions are a great way to connect with a large variety of prospects, in-person info sessions encourage more personal connections.

#2 Interest

This stage of the funnel focuses on providing prospects with resources addressing specific needs and questions. Once you’ve caught a prospect’s attention with your marketing materials, it’s time to provide more detail-oriented information. Clients are more likely to want specific data relating to their business goals: “questions in the middle of the funnel are no longer generic. Instead of asking ‘why’ questions, your leads are diving into a range of opportunities to remedy their struggle” (pipedrive.com).

Tactics to answer questions include:

  • Organizing email campaigns. Create information-based, solution-oriented email campaigns to demonstrate how your business is equipped to solve customer problems.
  • Utilize chatbots so customers can find quick answers to commonly asked questions.

#3 Decision

The third stage of the sales funnel is all about decisions. This is the point in the sales journey when your prospect decides whether or not to engage with your product or service. Although they have received information about your product, your prospect may be assessing how your product addresses their specific needs.

Here are a few tactics to provide compelling information to indecisive prospects:

  • Use testimonials! It’s valuable for any prospective client to hear about the experiences of other satisfied customers.
  • Provide detailed pricing information. This helps clients understand the nitty gritty details of their purchase choices.
  • Use live or video demonstrations to showcase the value of your products in action.

#4 Action

This is moment you’ve been waiting for! Your prospect has finally become a client. At this stage, your prospect has committed to your product or service and they are ready to move forward and finalize the deal.

Action isn’t just about signing the contracts. Ensure your prospect feels valued by:

  • Offering special bundles or deals.
  • Engaging in follow-up email campaigns to ensure customer satisfaction.
  • Offering referral programs.

How to Optimize Your Sales Funnel Development

If you’re still nervous about creating the most efficient sales funnel for your business we have good news: you don’t need to do it alone. At Acquirent our team of professionals is here to help you with marketing development, recruitment, and lead generation. Acquirent’s goal is to provide personalized top-notch sales development services to all our clients, and to work with you to create a sales strategy that meshes with your business goals.

No matter where you are in your sales development journey, it’s important to have a roadmap. At Acquirent, we’re confident that we can help you chart a course to reach your destination.