How to manage a sales funnel correctly

If you’re merely beginning in the world of business, or if you have a successful company which is up and running, sales are your company’s essence. In the digital world of today, creating a website which converts visitors into viable leads is just the initial step. The inbound marketing/sales process is.. a process which involves transferring a lead from first contact to closing a sale in a series of steps.

Lead nurturing requires management. Using various methods in order to continue to build trust, maintain your business at the top of the minds of your customers, provide prospects with particular valuable information in addition to finally offering solutions requires time, tools as well as proper management for success.

The correct way to manage sales

When you lose a deal, it’s very easy to move on to the next one in addition to hoping for better results the next time but taking a “don’t look back” attitude to your sales strategy means that you lose out on occasions that you can take in order to improve.

At the end of the day behind every lost sale lies insights which are revealing. Was it the price, a tactic employed by sales, or merely a bad lead? It is necessary for you to know the “why” behind what you lose.

What does the sales funnel allow you to do?

The sales funnel allows you the ability to visualise leads as these move from total stranger to repeat customer. However, a sales funnel is only a fancy graphic if you don’t have an efficient sales funnel management strategy in place.

A sales funnel is just a pictorial representation of the manner in which a lead travels through the sales process in your company. A typical funnel looks like an inverted pyramid. The top of the funnel is often wider and has a larger volume of leads which come into your system. After this, the funnel gets narrower as the leads become qualified. Finally the sales funnel culminates in the leads who have become your customer. The process of managing this customer journey is termed ‘sales funnel management’.

A sales funnel can be a benefit for you however sometimes it can be a thorn in your side as well. A well-designed as well as accurate sales funnel can function to simplify the entire process for you as well as assist you with filtering leads according to the level they are at. This means has the result that you know what to communicate to which lead at what point.

However, if the funnel becomes needlessly long in addition to complicated, that would mean that there is bound to be lead leakage.

Best management practices for sales funnels

• Set clear as well as concise goals: Before you begin to build your funnel, know why you are undertaking this process in the first place. Recognise what your sales funnel has been set up for so that you can make the best use of it.
• Track movement of your leads while they are going through the funnel: Get yourself a CRM or a sales execution tool which will assist you with knowing where each lead is situated in the funnel. This way you’ll get an idea of the time it takes for a lead to move through the system as well as what factors are assisting the lead to convert.
• Speak different languages: Leads in a number of different stages of your sales funnel would want a variety of things. It is not possible to speak about the features of your product at every phase. This means that you have to attempt to educate the customer during the initial stages using e-books or white papers. Alternatively, you can distribute product demos to leads opportunities in addition to pricing to leads who are thinking about you.
• Make sure that your sales cycle is not too lengthy: Longer sales cycles are not optimal in the long run. In addition, these may lead to lead leakage over a number of years. Measure the average time that it takes to close the deal as well as try to stick to that timeline.
• Measure your progress: Continually measure the results at each phase of the sales cycle. Note the number of new leads which are coming in addition to what is driving sales for your company. In this way you will know what is working and why it is working.

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