Effective revenue generation and sustained growth can only be possible when certain key elements, like sales, are performing as projected. Unfortunately, boosting sales performance is difficult for a small business when the sales funnel is less than efficient.

Surveys show that a significant percentage of businesses are yet to figure out their sales funnel game and thus, boost sales. An efficient sales funnel helps a sales team understand potential customers’ perspectives, problems, and needs and converts prospects to qualified leads and then customers.

What is a Sales Funnel?

Imagine a visual depiction of the ride from the first contact with a potential customer to the point where the sale is completed. That is exactly what a sales funnel represents— a visual representation and classification of all the actions between contacting a prospect and closing a sale. While a well-defined sales funnel is of huge benefit to the business, it also positively impacts the customer's journey from the point they made contact to where their needs are met.

Just like regular funnels, sales funnels are wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and only the ideal customer makes it through to the end of the funnel— closing the sale. Therefore, for small businesses to increase their sales performance, their sales team must have firsthand knowledge of sales funnels, how to use them and how they can be put to use efficiently.

Elements That Make Up The Ideal Sales Funnel

We have already established how a sales funnel is a graphic representation of the journey from leads to sales. Regardless of the variations in company policies, the ideal sales funnel is composed of three primary stages— the top, the middle, and the bottom.

The Top

The first stage in lead generation involves contact and awareness. The prospects come in contact with products either through cold calls, ads, or a simple Google search. At this point, most customers do not know what they truly need, or even the exact problem they wish to solve. Therefore, they need a trusted source of information, someone or something, to help them pinpoint their exact needs. The stage is then set for the salesperson to proceed to ask relevant questions and help the prospect find their ideal solution.

The Middle

At this point, the lead has identified the problem and seeks the available solutions fit for their needs. Then, the salesperson must provide helpful content, compare product to product, or even customer reviews of some solutions to help the prospect make up their minds. A lot of communication is needed to help the prospect decide and determine if the product will meet their needs.

The Bottom

Here, the qualified lead begins to ask vendor-driven questions to ascertain the solution that meets their needs and budgets that give them an overall remarkable experience. The salesperson should present relevant content here, like FAQs, live demos, and graphical representations of the product's features. When the qualified lead is convinced the product is ideal for them, the salesperson can go on to present proposals, negotiate, and close the deal.

Benefits of an Effective Sales Funnel

• To prospects: Sales funnels help sales teams send the right message at the right time, providing satisfaction from the outset. An optimized sales funnel also helps create trust between the prospects and the salesperson, leading to loyalty and commitment.
• To businesses: A highly optimized sales funnel helps a business save time by filtering unqualified leads and focusing on ideal prospects. Also, deals are closed quicker, and one can easily track sales metrics with an effective sales funnel.

Find more helpful tips on maximizing the potential of your sales funnel and set up the perfect sales funnel to boost your sales performance HERE.

The Pipedrive Solution

Keeping an eye on several leads can be tasking, and sooner or later, they could go cold due to inactivity. You need a system that helps you keep track of leads, organizes your day-to-day activities, stays on top of hot deals with prompt reminders, and brings an automated edge to your sales game. You need CRM software, and Pipedrive is a leading CRM solution that can help small businesses increase sales by 28%.

Pipedrive helps businesses manage their sales funnels and close deals quicker with sales automation, lead management, analytic insights and reports tracking sales metrics, and an effective communication tool. With the Pipedrive CRM, you can follow up on every lead, and quickly close sales with the help of automation.

Pipedrive also integrates with several applications, eliminating the stress of switching from app to app and helping sales teams access data across sales and marketing applications faster. Businesses get a free 14-day trial when they sign up on Pipedrive, as an added advantage.

Take your sales performance to the next level with an efficient sales funnel, and effective management software to ensure you stay in touch with leads, satisfy your prospects and close more sales faster.