If you like innovative ideas, know that the commercial area also produces many of them, such as the sales funnel. This is a strategy capable of optimizing processes from prospecting new customers to loyalty. Thus, providing significant results for the business.
Yes, that’s right! The sales funnel is used by large companies and also by entrepreneurs like you, who seek to scale their business and attract customers in line with the differentials of the services offered.
In this post, we will explain the concept objectively and focus on its applicability to the business. Especially, for those companies that provide services in the area of information technology. Continue reading and find out more!
Sales funnel: the concept
The figure of an inverted sales funnel is the ideal representation of the volume of incentives and the journey through which the customer is taken from his acquisition to the purchase decision.
Also called a pipeline, it is an intelligent strategy, divided into phases that allow you to target specific actions for each moment of the sale’s conversion.
One of the reasons for its success, by the way, is that it uses the customer’s vision in the purchase process. Then, from there, he gradually proposes that the company has the ideal solution for his needs.
It is practical functioning in business
If the concept is interesting, its practice offers an organized view of the sales stages, which allows the development of efficient commercial strategies for any business model. See each of them below:
Top of funnel
It is seen as the discovery phase, in which the potential customer is often unaware that they have a problem, its impacts, and its solutions. A law firm, for example, may suffer recurrently from failures to update software and use licenses.
When faced with guidance on the fines that such a problem generates or the discounts that you fail to earn for renewing licenses on the correct dates, the potential customer is awakened to learn more about the subject.
At this stage, however, as the funnel shape suggests, there is a greater volume of interested parties and, therefore, a higher amount of incentives and guidelines are demanded that discard those that are not company-specific business opportunities. Therefore, the filtered image is ideal to illustrate the strategy.
Middle of the funnel
At this stage, those interested who continued through the funnel can be called leads, as they have already interacted in some way with the company, whether by accessing their social networks, providing their email address to download an e-book, or visiting their stand at a fair. business, for example.
Still, he needs to know the possible solutions to his problem. So, actions in the middle of the funnel will make him understand each of the company’s service differentials and its value proposition.
Despite the direction of the actions, this is not yet the time to convert the sale, but to filter, identify leads that are more aligned with the business, and create a relationship of trust. Therefore, a qualification is made that will define the potential of the sales opportunity.
The better qualified, the lower the effort to convince the sale, after all, the lead will have already identified the company as the one that presents the greatest set of benefits to solve their problem.
Funnel bottom
The bottom of the funnel reserves the conversion actions, which, of course, are directed toward the leads most in tune with the company’s service. That way, they can be approached and, as they have already been educated throughout the process and already identify the company as an authority on the subject, they will be easier to convert into business.
It is valid to say that those leads with less alignment at the moment with the service and the conditions of the company will not be discarded, but will be kept in a continuous relationship until the right time to approach them.
This happens, for example, when they demonstrate that they do not have the necessary budget to hire a certain service but recognize its importance.
Keeping in frequent contact ensures that, when the time comes, they will remember the company as the ideal solution and the one that best understands their particularities.
The importance of the company’s results
The sales funnel organizes the business process and allows its management to be customized according to the needs of each customer. It is important to remember that each one of them represents a scenario of different influences and incentives.
A customer who discovers the company through the website, for example, will enter the funnel looking for information that makes him understand that he has an unresolved need, while another who has contact with the solution at a specialized fair in the sector may already have a vague idea about it.
By managing all these opportunities in the pipeline, the company is able to take customized actions for each profile, always in the direction of the sale, making them able to perceive the fair relationship between the differentials offered in the service and the value charged for it.
This makes such customers aligned and fully satisfied with the service in the way they contracted. A call that is outside the scope of the initial negotiation, therefore, may be duly charged without any disputes, for example.
Sales funnel benefits
With the sales funnel, it will be easier to predict the results. This will make it possible to manage resources and even plan new acquisitions so that the promised quality is fulfilled for existing customers and new ones that are introduced.
We can also cite as advantages:
Increased productivity
With the right leads to address, the sales team will be more productive and efficient. Once potential customers have already been mapped, the chances of successful approaches will be much higher.
Management optimization
Resource management will be more efficient. Each team member will be able to work with a portfolio of leads and customers, making sure that everyone receives due attention to their demands.
Also using a system to control customer accounts and their calls, displacements and other resources will be better used, that is, they will only be activated when they are really needed.
Reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC)
Costs used to attract customers will be reduced, as in the case of sponsored ads. The generation of commercial actions and content for the target audience will create a volume of interested parties organically.
In addition, satisfied customers will be loyal to the company, often defending it to the public. In this sense, the sales funnel reduces the commercial effort and allows the focus to be directed toward relationship management, generating new business for the satisfaction of its current customer base.
Thus, it is possible to define intelligent sales actions, which seek to capture only those leads with the greatest business potential and adherence to the type of service, avoiding the use of the sales force without a defined strategy.
This is essential for a company that aims to offer proactive and preventive IT support, not just reactive, as the customer will recognize the value of investing in service in these parameters.
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