Prospecting is a necessity for any business venture or brand. Consisting of looking for potential customers in a target audience, it helps to expand the customer base in the medium and long term. To achieve it and evaluate its performance, various mechanisms are used. The “sales funnel” occupies a prominent place in the process of acquiring new customers. Also called “conversion funnel”, “conversion or prospecting funnel” or “sales funnel”, it is closely linked to commercial prospecting. For effective sales prospecting, you will need to constantly improve your sales funnel. This is the path the lead takes to eventually make a purchase, becoming a customer, and ultimately a loyal one. Here’s what you need to know to improve your sales funnel in order to succeed in your sales prospecting.
Understand what a sales funnel is
The sales funnel is an abstract funnel or path you need to master to acquire new customers and retain old ones. “Funnel” is an English word which means “funnel” in French. It is commonly used in the marketing world. A sales funnel is nothing more than the journey that leads to the conversion of the prospect, in this case to the sale and/or loyalty. It is a mechanism to put in place as part of the prospecting and acquisition of leads for the launch of your brand or a new product.
To give you an idea of this path, an Internet user who ends up on your website after a Google search is a lead. He is thus at the entrance to the conversion tunnel. By implementing the right strategy, you can lead him to go further and know the end of the course.
Master the steps of a conversion funnel
The prospecting funnel is made up of four stages:
- attention,
- interest,
- decision,
- the action.
To get a lead to start the sales path at your business, you need to get their attention. You can achieve this by being present on the web thanks to a well-referenced website and by sharing content on social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Once the lead’s attention has been captured, you have the possibility of converting him into a prospect by arousing his interest. To do this, create content that will bring added value. It’s a subtle way to let them know about your products and present their advantages.
The decision stage is the stage at which the lead-turned-prospect is in favor of a purchase. If you make him a good offer, he will decide to buy the product or service. For example, you can offer a promo code, a gift or free delivery. The idea is to make your offer exceptional and more advantageous than what the competition would offer.
In the fourth and final step, you must incite the prospect to action. Get him to make his purchase decision a reality by offering him, for example, several secure payment methods or a delivery service that meets his expectations. After the consumer has made their purchase, the sales funnel continues and should end with loyalty. To do this, thank the customer for their purchase, offer them something (technical support for example) and ask them to come back and give their opinion on the merchandise. The ultimate goal of optimizing your sales funnel is to get the customer to adopt your brand and become an ambassador.
Determines expectations for setting up the sales funnel
In order to improve your sales funnel when prospecting, you need to know exactly what results you expect from lead follow-up . So start by asking yourself the right questions like:
- when should reps contact leads?
- what should salespeople say to leads on first contact?
- How quickly should an answer be given to a question from the lead, prospect or customer?
- how to get back in touch with a lead who left the sales funnel halfway?
Research all the questions whose answers will allow you to have a clear idea of what you need to do to achieve your goals.
Create or improve your landing pages
As a reminder, a landing page is the page on which an Internet user finds himself after having clicked on a link in an online advertisement or in an email for example. It serves to better present the offer mentioned in the advertisement. Also called “landing page”, “landing page” or “landing page”, the landing page is very useful for capturing leads and starting the conversion process. This can be the home page of your website or pages specifically created for ads.
If you decide to use the home page as your landing page, consider integrating a lead generator that collects emails from visitors. You can set up call to action buttons to encourage leads to subscribe to your newsletter, discover your offers, join the community, download a white paper, etc. Through these buttons, you will lead visitors to explore your site to learn more about your brand, your products and your services. If you choose a specific landing page, you will need to detail the offer mentioned in your ad. Highlight its qualities in order to give the visitor all the good reasons to choose it.
Follow the sales funnel every step of the way
Following the prospecting by email, via LinkedIn, via Facebook or via other channels, make sure to follow your conversion tunnel from end to end. This operation must be done at each stage of the course and be constant. The goal is to minimize leakage of leads, prospects, and customers from the sales funnel . You will need to use various data to measure the performance of your strategy.
For example, you have to pay attention to the evolution of the number of leads, the conversion rate of leads into prospects, of prospects into customers, etc. We advise you to establish a dashboard that will be used to monitor in real time the performance achieved at each stage of the prospecting funnel. You will thus set up a reporting and feedback system that will allow you to identify and constantly improve your sales funnel.
After reading this article, you will no doubt have understood that the sales funnel is essential in the sales process. To improve it, use effective channels to reach your target. Carry out prospecting campaigns by email and via social networks. Create landing pages to welcome your visitors and monitor the sales funnel.
