Your Introduction to Sales Funnels

If you’ve never heard of a sales funnel before, we’ve got great news! Today we’re going to introduce you to the basics of how sales funnels work to draw in Customers and boost your sales.



Sales funnels are the fancy marketing term for the journey that Customers go through when purchasing your products and services. They start at the top as one of many disparate possibilities, make their way down the middle, and then arrive at the bottom focused on making a purchase.

Or at least that’s the plan; many funnels are leaky, inefficient, improvised things that lose far more sales than they should. Today we’re going to identify the key stages of the funnel and the role they each play in the process. There are many variations on the exact steps, but we’re going to divide the process into four.

Stage 1: Awareness

A Customer can’t begin their journey towards making a purchase if they don’t know your business exists, so that's where we begin our funnel. The awareness stage begins when a Customer first becomes aware of the product or service you're offering them.

This awareness can come about in any number of ways, sometimes it’s word of mouth, sometimes through Social Media, and sometimes it’s through your own deliberate advertising.

However they hear about your business, at this point they are at the widest part of the funnel. Lots of people are aware of your business and its offerings, but nowhere close to all of them are actually going to make a purchase.

Your goal in the awareness stage is to convince them to become more than just aware, to move further down the funnel into interest.

Stage 2: Interest

At the interest stage things get serious. We’ve moved beyond simply knowing you exist and into the territory of seriously considering making a purchase.



If what you’re offering promises to potentially solve a problem they have, they’ll start evaluating it. That problem can be anything, needing tree branches trimmed, a new pair of runners, a burning need to order a charcuterie board, or any of a million other things that can be solved by giving a business money. If what you’re offering seems to fit the bill, you’ve got a chance to make a sale.

Your success will depend upon what you do with that chance. At this stage Customers are very likely to be weighing several different brands against each other. Your goal at this stage of the process is to be the most appealing in order to convince them to choose you over your competitors.

This is where a lot of businesses will lose out on these potential sales, so focus hard on making sure you present yourself well. Spruce up your Site and make sure existing Customers are leaving you some good reviews.

If you’re successful in shouldering your way to the front of the pack, Customers will choose you when they move onto the next stage of the process.

Stage 3: Decision

By this point the funnel has narrowed considerably, everyone who wasn’t seriously interested in your business has long since departed, and those that have decided you’re an obviously poor fit for them have followed in their footsteps.

All that’s left now is the Customers who are ready and willing to make a decision. Don’t get cocky though, while they’re still in the funnel they can still back out, the sale isn’t guaranteed until you've got the money in hand.

Customers at this stage have evaluated your business at a surface level and are ready to dig deeper. You’re much more likely to personally interact with the Customer at this stage, so make sure your sales pitch is polished to a mirror sheen.

Phone calls, emails, and other platforms for in depth conversations are much more likely than a simple About page at this point. Be prepared to answer a lot of very specific questions, your responses will determine whether they commit to taking action or not.

Stage 4: Action

This is the final stage, and all going well, it’s where your Customer decides to make a purchase. If they don’t, there’s nothing more you can do unfortunately, this journey is at an end. The same Customer may one day return, but if they do they’ll be embarking on a brand new journey.

Whichever way things go, make sure to take notes. An unsuccessful journey can teach you nearly as much as a successful one. Losing lots of sales can point to a problem with your funnel, make sure you investigate and address the issue.

Everyone has a sales funnel, whether they deliberately crafted one or not, but the ones that are built with purpose tend to do their jobs a lot better. Examining and refining your sales funnel is another opportunity to boost your sales and your business success, don’t miss out on it.