What Is Sales Funnel?
The concept of the sales funnel is derived from the characteristic of a funnel, which is wide towards the top and narrow towards the bottom. This metaphor is used to keep track of the sales process.
At the upper portion of the funnel, there are unqualified leads. They are the plethora of people who might need the service or product. Yet, the business owners have never really spoken to them. The bottom part of the sales funnel, on the other hand, involves a number of sales. Here, there are people who actually have obtained delivery of the goods or services and have already paid for them.
Using a funnel to is used because people slip at every phase of a lengthy sales process. For instance, a lot of the unqualified prospects could have current providers with whom they may be really satisfied. Some others could have needs that other rivals are better-positioned to meet. Nevertheless, other people may possibly love the products, but cannot afford to acquire them.
Why is there a need to use this tool?
Using this tool and quantifying how many potential customers are there at each phase can help the business owner estimate just how many prospects who are going to be customers soon enough. More importantly, by simply taking a look at just how these numbers vary as time passes, it becomes easier for the businessmen to identify difficulties in the sales direction and take restorative action as early as possible.
For instance, if it is detected that hardly any mailings have happened in 30 days, it might be anticipated that in a couple of months period, sales could possibly dry up. The following month, the company need to make certain that more mailers than usual are delivered.
This tool is going to indicate hurdles and periods of stalemate, or if there are inadequate quantity of qualified prospects at any phase. This information enables the entrepreneur to figure out where sales personnel should give more attention and work to maintain sales at the preferred level and to fulfill sales goals.
The funnel could also explain where enhancements are necessary in the sales process. These could possibly be as easy as conducting more sales training or seeing to it that sales associates put ample attention on all the stages of the sales process.
Those who are going to make use of this tool correctly can greatly enjoy the benefit of having an efficient and appropriately managed sales contact system, with an integrated prospect standing and development workflow. Without it, reporting could be a challenging and time consuming work.
- Understanding the product fully – The first step involves understanding the product. It could be challenging, if not impossible, for the sales agents to actually make a sale without knowing exactly what they are selling. When the sales rep is amply trained about a specific product, specifically a complex one, it can be quick to get involved in a lecture of all the product’s great attributes. The technical specialist turned sales agent is so keen to go into detail about how the item operates or the reason it is special. Do not ever assume that a potential customer will simply relate an attribute to a benefit.
- Finding potential customers – Prospecting entails trying to find new potential customers. Similar to product knowledge, this stage may appear relatively self-explanatory but when examined more closely, it gets to be more complex. The true secret to prospecting successfully is figuring out where to search and what to search for. Additionally, it is essential to differentiate leads, prospects, and qualified prospects. The most significant aspect in this stage is to generate a profile of current customers.
- Creating a superb sales method – This is the place the rubber meets the road in the sales process. This is the stage where the business starts to establish a relationship. Collecting of intelligence then continues. A great method is vital to revenue achievement since it could identify the sales rep either as annoying and repel a prospect, or as obliging with a valuable product to offer.
- Assessing the needs – This could well be the most crucial step of the sales funnel process simply because it makes it easier for the businessmen to see how they can actually be of service. To become a highly efficient sales representatives that sells to the needs of the prospects, they primarily need to know very well what those needs are. What this implies is that they should think with prospect problem solving in mind. The best way to accomplish this is simply by asking plenty of questions.
- Presenting the contract – Ultimately, it is desired to close the deal as soon as all warning flags have already been sorted out. The truth is that the majority of deals close even though crucial warning flags are still present. At this stage, they have given the customer a proposal, which sets out key contractual terms. If a client agreed to proceed with a deal, the two parties become verbally committed. After that, they need to go through the important points of the contract, shipping and settlement, all of these have the possibility to undo the previous commitment. This commitment could be presented conditional upon specific terms being fulfilled.
- Closing a deal – Four in every five of product sales are lost simply because a sales agents are not able to close. Closing a deal is about move to a higher step which is to finally make a purchase. What the agents are attempting to sell at every phase could possibly be different. A closing is considered to have taken place when a legal contract is signed by the two parties. From the point of view of a sales representative, the fulfillment of the contract is the duty of the rest of the organization, and the sales rep can already concentrate on the next prospect. However, when it comes to early-phase startups, the individual who sells is usually also the one tasked to fulfill the contract.
Being knowledgeable about the sales funnel will make it easier to discover how to work with concepts and tools, such as email marketing, email autoresponders, conversion rate optimization, and social media marketing. Understanding the idea behind this tool will enable any business to generate a strong and effective internet marketing campaign.