A successful online business needs a sales funnel. But, building a sales funnel model needs in-depth knowledge of the sales-to-funnel stages. An effective structure of the sales funnel improves the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing strategy.
However, if you are wondering about what the sales funnel stages are and how it works, here is a detailed explanation and step-by-step guide to sales funnel stages. In this article, we are going to travel along the progression of a sale from acquiring the leads to finalizing the sales.
What Are Sales Funnel Stages?
A sales funnel is a key component in a marketing strategy. Sales funnel stages represent the customer’s journey. It shows the progression of a sale from obtaining a lead to finalizing a sale. It illustrates how the leads start their sales journey from getting the first exposure to purchasing again.
The sales funnel stages are the life cycle of the sale. Sales funnel stages can help you determine what the customer needs in each stage and provide them with relevant content to pique their interest.
Why Are Sales Funnel Stages Important?
These are the reasons why sales funnel stages are important in the sales cycle.
Better Customer Experience
Personalize your sales strategy according to the sales funnel stages. Each stage represents the customer journey, where they stand, and what their interests are. You can beat the average conversion rate, as well as increase the lifetime value of your customer.
Better Customer Understanding
The sales funnel stages help your sales team understand the interest and needs of your customers to personalize and offer relevant content at the right time. Automated sales funnels can also be used. But when it comes to understanding and relating to the modern customer, communication is the key.
Better Relationship with Customers
To have a long-lasting relationship with the customer, and also, for easier conversions, the strategy is to push your customer through the sales funnels. In this way, you get more referrals while also maintaining shorter sales funnel leads.
Better Sales Funnel Strategies
Communicating constantly with your customers gives you the opportunity to get more feedback and insight into how to better develop your strategies to overcome your competitors. You can use sales automation software to track these findings, as well as act on them.
Components of Successful Sales Funnel Stages
- Defined Customer Profiles
- Improved Products
- Objective Goals
5 Sales Funnel Stages of a Sales
These are the 5 sales funnel stages every potential customer goes through from the start of the journey to the end of the sales funnel template.
1. Awareness
A sales funnel starts when a customer is getting their first exposure to your product, service, or company. This sales funnel stage is the widest of all, since this is the first time the customer is learning about you through your webpage, social media posts, or by a reference from friends or family.
The customer eventually finds a problem that needs a solution. This is where a prospect should be given awareness about the product or service that can be a solution to their problems.
Utilize this awareness stage to generate and increase the interest of the customer. So, in exchange for their contact information, like a phone number or email, they sign up for free valuable offers.
Strategies:
- A clear brand message should be developed.
- Clarify the demographics and psychographics of your potential customers.
- Specify the solutions your product offers for your customer’s problems.
Ways to Build Brand Awareness:
- Company official website
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Videos
- Infographics
- Radio advertisements
- News and Events
- Autonomous searches
2. Interest
This is the stage where your customers develop an interest in your product, and learn more about your offers after being exposed to your brand. Online content describing topics relevant to your brand’s offers, and email marketing strategies can be used to accelerate your customer’s interest in this stage.
The authority and the credibility of the brand are built by the company in this stage of sales. Your customers shift to prospective customers by being your follower on social media platforms, asking brand-related questions, subscribing to your emails, and starting direct contact. This is also where the customers look for a solution to the problems they identified in the awareness stage.
Strategies:
- Publish blogs and posts relatable to the customer’s profile.
- Identify the keywords with high density frequently used by prospects when they are looking for information online.
- Drive traffic to your website or social media accounts.
- Create content that mentions the pain points of your target audience.
Ways to Build Brand Awareness:
- Free trials
- Social media accounts
- Email campaigns
- Blog posts
3. Desire
The prospective customers in this stage start looking for solutions that best meets their needs and budget. The desire stage is where customers will research multiple products and offers, then choose the one that stands out or offers the best solution for their problems.
The value of your solutions is demonstrated by the product review and testimonials of previous customers on how your product or service solved a similar issue. The customer is ready to make an informed purchasing decision if you have given the details of your offers, prices, and packaging of your product.
Strategies:
- Create a newsletter subscription.
- Have the customer download E-books.
- Create calendars or planners that are niche-specific.
- Conduct quizzes, polls, and surveys.
- Make manuals in PDF format and valuable workbooks.
- Offer samples and free trials of your product or service.
- Provide free training or tutorials.
Ways to Build Brand Awareness:
- Case studies
- Tutorials and Demo videos
- Product Comparison
- Customer reviews and testimonials
- Recommendations
4. Action
The action stage in the sales funnel is where the prospective customer finally decides to make a purchase. Make it your priority to successfully fulfill and meet the new customer’s needs and expectations.
It adds more value to your offer or service, and satisfies the customer’s purchase when you are helping the customers learn how to effectively and correctly use your products by providing them with further support and educational materials.
Strategies:
- Build relationships by consistently sending relevant emails.
- Quickly reply to any queries or questions about your product or offers.
- Take advantage of limited-time sales, discount offers, and promotional codes.
- Conduct live demonstrations and consultations.
Ways to Build Brand Awareness:
- Tips for customer success
- Package bundles
- Training or product manual videos
- Campaigns for follow-up emails
- Special offers
5. Retention
This stage is in the sales and marketing efforts for customer success by turning a customer into a regular and repeated buyer. This is known as a retention stage or customer loyalty stage or re-engagement. This stage is an effective sales funnel key component as the cost of finding new prospects are being reduced.
As long as you keep the customers satisfied with your service, and offer the best solutions, they should keep coming back. Customer satisfaction is what runs word-of-mouth marketing.
Strategies:
- Promote reward programs for the loyalty of customers.
- Offer customers who refer others with discounts and coupons.
- Provide customer support that is highly responsive.
- Use feedback polls for follow-ups.
Ways to Build Brand Awareness:
- Suggestive selling campaigns
- Engagement email campaigns
- Loyalty and referral programs
- Product relevant videos
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the 5 stages of the sales funnel?
These are the 5 stages of the sales funnel:
Stage 1: Awareness
Stage 2: Interest
Stage 3: Desire
Stage 4: Action
Stage 5: Retention
2. What is the funnel process in sales?
A sales funnel is a marketing term for the process that describes the journey the potential customers go through from prospecting to buying a product or service. There are various stages in the sales funnel that varies according to each company’s sale models.
3. What is B2B sales funnel?
The B2B sales funnel depicts the different stages of the journey of B2B prospects as they move through the purchase process.
Related Reads
Sales Funnel Marketing – Best Guide in 2023
7 Simple Steps of the B2B Sales Cycle
Bottom Line
It can be overwhelming to learn everything about the sales funnel and sales funnel stages all at once. But, you don’t have to worry about it since the sales funnel stages are all about breaking the sales life cycle into separate topics and focusing on improving each stage of the sales funnel.
Start with building a sales marketing funnel that targets potential customers and identifies the new customers into the appropriate stage. Help qualified prospects go through the customer’s purchasing journey. Not only is finding the target customers and converting them to buyers important but also increases the customer retention rate.
Illustrations – Storyset
