What Is A Sales Funnel And Why You Need one?

Selling to potential leads is a challenging task and a lot of businesses struggle with this process. It is one thing to build a marketing strategy and another to know how to convert leads into sales using a sales funnel.

If you are not converting leads into sales, you are not improving your bottom line.

This is why it is essential to understand the role of a sales funnel and why it is important for a modern business looking to succeed. Here are the main perks of a sales funnel and what it is all about.

What is a Sales Funnel?

The sales funnel is a purposeful set of steps and/or events a potential lead goes through before completing the sale.

This starts from when the initial ad is seen online or through any other medium. Whether it is making a phone call to a sales rep or landing on a website, each step has to be calculated to make sure the lead is "funneled" straight to the sales page.

This is how businesses increase their conversion rate and make sure leads don't end up on the wrong part of the website and/or don't complete the sale because they don't know where to go.

Benefits of a Sales Funnel

1. Higher Conversion Rate

The number one advantage comes down to the conversion rate.

You can't run a business without optimizing the sales process. It is just not going to be effective and is going to be akin to throwing a dart at a board without knowing what you are doing!

This is exactly how a lot of businesses struggle because their sales process is inefficient. To get past this hurdle, you have to learn about building a quality sales funnel and how it can help convert sales into leads over the long-term.

This is a must and it is the only way to see tangible results.

2. Builds Trust

It helps build trust because you are going to look like a legitimate business.

Most customers are tech-savvy and are on the lookout for scams. This means you have to legitimize your business and look like the real deal. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how good your product/service is because people won't convert into sales.

You have to build trust and a high-quality sales funnel is going to do this for you in spades.

You will have the chance to win the lead over and potentially get them to stay for a long time as a loyal customer. This is why a lot of businesses enjoy the perks of a comprehensive sales funnel.

3. Helps Track a Lead's Journey on Landing Page 

Analytics play a role in whether or not your leads are converting properly. You can then start making adjustments based on what is working and what is not.

In general, if you are running a business, you want to mathematically understand as much of the buying process as possible.

It should never be guesswork.

This is why a sales funnel that is tracking data helps. You can begin to understand where the sales funnel is failing, why people are leaving, and/or how many are converting.

4. Helps with Upselling 

As you ask "What is a sales funnel?" you will have to think about upselling.

The idea is to have the sales funnel guide leads to make the initial purchase and then upsell them on additional products/services.

This is where a sales funnel is going to come into play and make sure the results are perfect. A lot of people don't upsell properly and never get conversions.

If you want to maximize a lead and get them to buy as much as possible, a sales funnel is advantageous.

5. Simplifies Buying Process

It is important to realize customers are not willing to tolerate a lot online.

Yes, they may be interested in what you have to sell but it has to be easy. These are the days of one-click shopping when it comes to Amazon, so you are not going to have a lot of leeway in the customer's eyes during the sales process.

If you are a step behind, this is going to lead to awful results.

You need to simplify the buying process and that is where a good sales funnel kicks into action.

Final Thoughts

Focus on understanding the science of converting leads into sales.

If you don't warm up a lead and guide them to buying, they will often click away. This has been proven repeatedly in a variety of niches and is something that has been broken down into finer details over the years.

As a result, if you are not taking the time to build a good sales funnel, you are never going to fully optimize your marketing strategy.