Every business must define a pathway that helps it to capture sales prospects and lead them to the point where they eventually buy what is offered. This is where creating a sales funnel comes in.
A sales funnel is a very important tool that can help to scale your business. Unfortunately, many small business owners fail to see the need to build one.
To build a sales funnel, you need software to help simplify the process. There are many credible sales funnel software such as ClickFunnels, Kartra, and BuilderAll. To decide the software that best suits your business, you need to do an in-depth analysis of your business’ goals and objectives. Choosing the right sales funnel software for your business is as important as building the funnel itself.
Without a plan to help you lead prospects from the stage where they do not know you to one where they wish to do business with you, you won’t find much success. Figuring out the best way to identify and qualify your prospects, and then get them to buy is a process. It starts with creating a successful sales funnel and we’ll explain how to do it.
The sales funnel stages
The stages in a sales funnel have been described in diverse ways but we will simplify it. There are four common terms that can help you to understand how a sales funnel works. The process involved in transforming customers from visitors to buyers is best understood using the AIDA acronym.
A – Awareness
I – Interest
D – Decision
A – Action
The four stages of a sales funnel above describe the mindset of your customer. Each stage needs a unique strategy to help you send the right message at the right time. Let’s see what each stage entails:
Awareness
The awareness stage is where you first capture the potential customer’s attention. You can do this through a Google search, a social media post, an advert, or something else. The prospect now knows that your business exists and is aware of your offerings. At this point, you want to court them and have them come back to your site.
Interest
As a prospect moves to this stage, they know more about your business and are researching. They are also considering other options. This is their best time to offer them something incredible that is of value without actually selling to them. Trying to sell to them in this stage could turn them off and drive them away.
Decision
Once you’ve helped the customer, they move to the decision stage and are ready to buy. Even if they have other options in mind, you can be sure that they are considering you too. At this point, you want to give them your best offer and it should be something that they find hard to resist.
Action
this is the stage where your customer takes action and buys your service or product. They also develop a full connection with your business. But this does not mean that your job is complete because you need to work to retain the customer. Continue to show them that you care and ask them for feedback while providing support where needed.
How to create a sales funnel that actually sells
There are four key steps to help you create a successful sales funnel. Keep reading as we discuss them.
1. Determine who your prospects are
You need to know your audience and identify your prospects. Your sales funnel begins with a wide end and you want to fill it up with as many interested persons as possible. This will help you to qualify them and determine who the good prospects are.
Who is your ideal customer? Come up with a questionnaire and point out what their problems are. Prepare a list that has some qualifying questions to help you plan. Knowing what your customers need and desire should be your objective here. If your business is designed to meet the needs of different prospects, identify all of them.
2. Qualify the prospects
Some people might match the characteristics of your ideal client but that doesn’t mean they are the ones you’re looking for. Once you identify and drive prospects into your funnel, you have to qualify them. The process is not that difficult. Polls and surveys, or simply communicating with the people in your funnel can get them to tell you what their needs and wants are. Another idea is to come up with a product for your ideal customer and ensure that the right audience sees it. Qualified prospects will take the offer while unqualified prospects won’t.
3. Use sales funnel principles
A sales funnel can be likened to an engine that drives potential customers to the point where they become full-time clients. Let’s say you have a blog that is updated daily. Then, you attract prospects to your blog by promoting it on social media. Once your prospects start to visit your blog, offer them something in exchange for their email addresses. Then, build their interest in a product by sending them emails from time to time.
You could also start by selling a low-priced product to attract and build a list containing verified buyers. Next, offer a more expensive product and notify them about it to drive them deeper.
4. Build trust for your sales funnel
Backward planning can help to establish your sales funnel. What is your highest-priced product or core offering? You need to connect with prospects that will be willing to pay the amount for that offering. However, you have to get them to trust you before they part with their money.
Do a backward analysis for each stage in your sales process. Determine what your prospect will need to trust you very much and take the desired action in that stage. Then, know what you have to do to make them take that action.
You can build a successful sales funnel
Once you can identify and understand your customers, it should be clear what is expected of you. A reverse analysis of your sales process can help you to determine the right action to take at each stage. This should help you create a winning sales funnel.