What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a visual representation of the journey potential customers go through. It goes from the initial point of awareness about a product or service to the final stage of purchase or conversion.
The sales funnel is often depicted as an actual funnel or inverted pyramid. There’s a broad entry point at the top, representing prospects in the awareness stage. This narrows down to the bottom, representing the customers who decide to purchase.
Why are Sales Funnels Important?
Sales funnels provide businesses with a clear framework to understand and analyze their sales process. The visual model helps companies to quickly identify bottlenecks or stages with high drop-offs, helping create strategies to improve conversion rates.
By understanding where a prospect is in the funnel, businesses can better allocate their resources. Funnel analytics help make sure the right messages and tactics are employed when they're most effective.
Moreover, when a sales funnel is consistent and thoroughly analyzed, it becomes a powerful tool for businesses to forecast sales and revenue based on the number of prospects at each stage.
Sales Funnel vs Sales Pipeline
While both the sales funnel and sales pipeline deal with potential sales and customers, they serve different purposes:
Sales Funnel: a visualization of the customer's journey, mapping out the stages a potential buyer goes through from awareness to purchase. A view of how many people are in each stage and the conversion rates between stages.
Sales Pipeline: This represents where various deals or sales opportunities are in the sales cycle. It focuses on actionable stages and tasks that a salesperson takes to move a lead from one stage to the next. It shows the sales process from the seller's viewpoint.
A sales funnel is more about points of contact, mapping customers in their journey, and mapping marketing efforts to funnel stages. A sales pipeline is more about helping sales teams identify and analyze opportunities.
Sales Funnel Stages
There are 3 main sales funnel stages. Some sales funnels are further broken down into additional stages, but the 3 main ones are…
Top of the Funnel (Awareness)
At this initial stage, prospects become aware of a business, product, or service, often through channels like advertising, social media, or content marketing. The primary objective here is to attract and educate potential customers.
Middle of the Funnel (Consideration)
Here, interested prospects are evaluating the solutions to their problems or needs. They might sign up for newsletters, download resources, or engage with the brand on social media. Businesses need to nurture these leads, offering valuable content and building trust.
Bottom of the Funnel (Decision/Conversion)
This is the final stage where prospects are ready to make a purchase decision. They may request a demo, get a quote, or add items to a shopping cart. At this stage, businesses should focus on providing clear calls to action, compelling offers, and excellent customer support to seal the deal.
Sales Funnel vs Customer Journey
The sales funnel represents the process of converting prospects into customers. The customer journey or buyer’s journey is a more comprehensive view of a customer's entire experience with a brand:
A sales Funnel primarily focuses on the stages leading up to and including the point of sale. It is linear and goal-oriented, aiming to move prospects from one stage to the next.
A customer Journey considers the entire lifecycle of a customer, from awareness to advocacy. It includes post-purchase interactions like onboarding, usage, customer support, and loyalty-building activities.
The customer journey isn't strictly linear, recognizing that customers might interact with brands in varied sequences and patterns. This makes it unlike a sales funnel, which is shown as linear.
