Has Your Sales Funnel Got A Blockage?
The sales process is often described as a funnel. At the top of this funnel are hundreds of potential leads. At the bottom of this funnel are the individuals that you’re able to successfully convert into customers.
Through effective marketing and nurturing, it’s possible to filter leads through the funnel at a fast rate. But what if leads stop converting into customers? This is a sign that you have a blockage in your sales funnel that needs to be unclogged. This post delves more into how to find this blockage.
Understand the different stages of the funnel
The difficult part is working out at what point in the customer journey you are losing leads. To work this out, you first need to understand the different stages of the funnel. You’ll find many different diagrams online breaking down the funnel into as many as 8 stages. But really there are 4 core stages that every sales funnel can be narrowed down to:
Awareness: This is the stage where customers first become aware of your brand (e.g. seeing an online advert)
Interest: This is the stage where customers show an interest in your brand (e.g. clicking on the advert and perusing your site)
Decision: This is the stage where customers decide to buy your product/use your service (e.g. putting your product in the basket)
Action: This is the stage when the customer commits to making a purchase or signing a contract (e.g. entering card details and clicking ‘pay’).
A good marketing strategy should take into account all of these stages. Failing to optimise one of these stages could lead to a blockage that stops you securing sales.
Track leads through the funnel with software
In order to work out what stage you’re losing customers, it’s worth mapping out the customer journey using software. In fact, it may be possible to track individual customers this way.
A lot of CRM software allows you to segment leads into different stages - which can be useful for tracking customers over a long period if your sales process is typically a slow one. If you notice that emails are no longer being replied to during a certain stage, this is clearly where the blockage is. From here you can try to work out the common denominator. Are you losing customers directly after revealing the price? Or perhaps it’s at the point of discussing certain terms and conditions that you lose leads?
Online customers who you don’t interact with can still be tracked using UTM parameters. These allow you to track an online user’s journey from clicking on an online advert to reaching the payment confirmation page on your site. If there’s a blockage, you can then trace this to the exact web page that customers reach before abandoning your site.
It’s important to choose CRM software specialised to your industry so that you can track customers the right way. There are software options targeted at generating construction leads, software options targeted at online retailers, and even some targeted at lead generation for marketing agencies. Compare solutions to find the most applicable one.
Unclog the blockage
Once you’ve identified where you’re losing leads, it’s important to make necessary alterations. If people are getting put off by a price, consider whether you are able to lower the price or present it in a more attractive way (such as breaking the price down to show what the cost goes towards). If people are abandoning products in their shopping basket at the checkout page, consider whether payment options are too limited or shipping delivery options are too slow.
You may need to experiment with different adjustments to see what works. Alternatively, research into what other companies are doing and take note if they are doing things slightly differently. Pay attention to feedback from leads to - while many leads may simply stop replying and ‘ghost’ you, a few may leave comments before pulling out that could prove valuable.
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