What is a Sales Funnel?

While managing a business, owners may come across sales terms. One of the common questions we get is, “What is a sales funnel?” The next question many business owners have is whether or not their company has one.

All companies have a sales funnel, whether they create one intentionally or not. Check out below what a sales funnel looks like and the 4 common stages it has.

What does Sales Funnel mean?

A sales funnel showcases the steps or stages customers navigate, from when they first become aware of a company to when they actually make a purchase. This is often used as a tool to track the customer experience and look for ways to improve the buying process.

The 4 Sales Funnel Stages

Awareness
Interest
Decision
Action

sales funnel stages

Once customers enter the sales funnel, they move through several stages. Naturally, fewer and fewer prospects make it to the next stage. This is what creates the imagery of a funnel. Here are the main stages of the funnel that you should take control of when creating your sales campaigns.

#1 Awareness

Awareness is at the top of the sales-marketing funnel. Customers must first know a business exists before they can buy from it. Focusing on marketing can help boost awareness. One of the most common methods companies rely on is optimizing their website so that customers find them when they search for things related to the company’s products or services.

#2 Interest

Interest is the mid-stage in the sales funnel. Having a website or a store in town only gets people to the front door or the first page. To move from awareness to interest, companies must provide valuable content that customers can use to compare and research. It’s important to keep in contact with customers throughout this step without being pushy. Pushing a sale too early could cause them to jump ship so trust the process.

#3 Decision

Decision is near the bottom of the sales funnel. This is the point when the customer is ready to make a purchase. However, your company may not be the only one they’re considering. Study your target market and your most successful customers. When they were in the decision stage, what swayed them toward your offering? Keep, improve, and innovate on similar offerings.

#4 Action

Action is the final step that involves actually purchasing the product or service. This is where many businesses lose the opportunity to truly capitalize on a sale. Marketing, sales, and customer service may stop focusing on nurturing existing relationships in favor of running off to find new ones. Instead of running off to the newest and best thing, keep customer retention and remarketing in mind for continued future growth.

“If an opportunity isn’t effectively qualified, the sales rep will operate under the mistaken impression that the deal is theirs to win.” —Dave Stein

Need the Right Tool to Improve Your Sales Funnel?

Sales funnels play an important role in building and growing any business. While every company has one, the funnels with high conversion rates are handcrafted to find and keep as many prospective buyers as possible. If you’re in field sales, then SalesRabbit can help you track your sales funnel from lead to close. Schedule a demo with us today to see how.