Chances are, your potential customers aren’t going to purchase your products the first time they hear about them. Successfully moving them along your sales funnel requires piquing their interest in your product and convincing them that buying from your company is the best decision for them.
What Is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel describes the steps that your customers go through between first hearing about your products or services and ultimately deciding to make a purchase. Because most people try to avoid impulse purchases, especially for big-ticket items, it is crucial for businesses to understand how to keep a buyers’ interest for as long as it takes them to make a purchase decision after seeing an advertisement for the first time.
Typical Stages That Form a Sales Funnel
Sales funnels generally go through four stages. Throughout this process, control over the sale gradually transfers from the business to the customer.
Awareness
The awareness stage describes the customer’s introduction to your company. How your customer first hears about your brand, such as through a Google search or by clicking on a banner ad, is a crucial aspect of this stage, which ends when the customer begins to show interest in purchasing your product or service. Progressing to the interest stage can happen right away, but it often takes a bit longer.
Interest
Depending on what your company sells, customers may consider whether to make a particular purchase for days, weeks or longer. Throughout this stage, customers will typically be comparing your product’s prices and features to those of your competitors to see which one best meets their needs or thinking about whether they actually want or need to buy your product or not, and you will need to take steps to keep them from losing interest.
Decision
By the time customers reach the third stage, they know they have a strong interest in a product and are nearing the point of being ready to make a final decision. Stage two and stage three often flow directly together and are not always distinct. Being available to offer in-depth information and answer questions during this time is a must in order to sway them in favor of your product if needed.
Action
The action stage is the final step in the sales funnel. At this point, buyers are finished contemplating their options and ultimately decide to buy your product or not to.
Designing Your Sales Funnel
Creating a sales funnel requires carefully considering each stage your buyers go through when making purchase decisions and thinking strategically about how you can create the best possible experience for them every step of the way. Successful sales funnels are comprised of well-designed landing pages that grab and keep your customers’ attention, quality products that offer value and meet a particular need, strategies for nurturing their interest and upselling your product to them, and being available to help them make a purchase or listen to why they decided not to and use that information to adjust future marketing materials.
Streamline Your Sales Funnel Organization With Automation Software
Planning and keeping track of your sales funnel using automation software can provide more insights into how well your strategies are working and help you stay organized better than handwritten notes, basic Word documents, and trying to do all the work of keeping each lead happy yourself. The right sales funnel software can automatically provide quick responses to your leads, contact more customers than you would be able to by personally typing up and sending each individual email, and help keep your brand top of mind for leads who choose not to make a purchase for the time being but may be interested later.
At Kevin Brown Design, we help our clients utilize a variety of digital tools to provide the best possible experience for their customers through every step of the sales funnel. Contact us today to learn more about optimizing your sales funnel to boost your sales!