As a beginner in business, you may often find yourself in a visionary state. You have grand ideas and other schemes that make you feel fired up and motivated to get a jump start with your plans. Sadly, a great idea and the motivation to pursue a business is not enough to make it succeed. An entrepreneur must understand the tricks of the trade in order to avoid the pitfalls of a business flop.
One important concept in the business world is the sales funnel. In case you haven’t heard of this term, it is what business people use as a reference for lead generation and sales closure. They say that potential customers can be visualized like an upside down triangle. There are more would-be customers at the top of the funnel, but they are actually narrowed down into people who are likely to sign up with your offers. The four main sections of the sales funnel are:
- Awareness section. The audience in this portion of the funnel understands that your business exists, but do not particularly show a focused interest.
- Interest section. Potential customers know about your business, and they are interested to know more. However, they are not convinced to the point that they would actually avail of your offers.
- Decision section. These would-be consumers are deciding if they would go for your offer versus other competitors. This is a critical section because this is the part where you need to build a convincing reason for people to purchase your products or services.
- Action section. The final portion of the sales funnel, wherein the consumer has already decided based on your marketing strategy. All marketers have the goal of bringing customers in the action section of the sales funnel.
Perhaps you are an entrepreneur having challenges in finding customers for your business. Through the understanding of reasons why the sales funnel is important, you will gain insight on how to apply this principle in your marketing strategies.
Why Is The Sales Funnel Important for Business?
- It helps you pick a marketing strategy.
Do you often find yourself penniless on marketing strategies that yield minimum to no results? This is why the sales funnel is important–for you to understand which marketing tools or business model you would need to help you succeed as an entrepreneur. Some marketers prefer to focus on clients who are already in the Decision section of the sales funnel. This makes it easier for them to drive in the customers towards the Action portion. Examples of this are seen in review blogs or specialized retail outlets.
- The sales funnel helps you know how to relate to your customers.
Do you know that businesses also operate in their own language? Sometimes, the way we describe our products, produce content, or talk to our clients have an effect on how we can drive them further down the sales funnel. Once you are able to identify the sales funnel section of a would-be customer, you can easily change the tone of your copy, make well-directed content, or give enticing offers that will help you relate better to their needs.
- It helps you generate more sales.
As you pick a great marketing strategy and know how to relate to your customers better, you will consequentially drive more potential consumers in the Action section. In fact, if you mastered the sales funnel, you would be able to make more sales in the long run. The principle of the sales funnel is learning how to pull them systematically towards your desired outcome.
- The sales funnel gives you an edge against other newbie entrepreneurs.
The common problem of some entrepreneurs is their lack of direction. They may have great ideas, but they fail to execute it because there is no application of tried and tested systems to make sales. The proper understanding of how the sales funnel works helps you gain a competitive advantage over other businesses in your niche.
- It helps you improve on the ways you can grow your business.
There is no perfect business model. In fact, a lot of overnight successes do not really happen overnight. By understanding the sales funnel, you will have increased feedback on what strategies can help you grow your sales. Perhaps you noticed that potential clients in the Decision section choose to purchase another product because of your pricing. You can easily modify these by identifying the roadblocks that lead customers to successfully arrive at your desired results.
Indeed, the sales funnel is an indispensable concept in business growth. As you learn to identify each customer’s level in the funnel, you will begin to become a master in lead generation and generating more sales for your exciting entrepreneurial venture.
