What is a sales funnel? It is the process a person goes through when buying from a company. A sales funnel is split into different steps. These steps includes:

• Awareness: They now know of a problem
• Interest: Starting to build momentum and interest
• Evaluation: Comparing various options
• Decision: Negotiation starts
• Purchase: The customers buys
• Evaluation: Re-look at options (answering the question, “did I make the right decision”)
• Repurchase: Buy more

The sales cycle or speed of the sale will be different for different markets. Some cycles go fast others are slower. Sometimes people spend more time in one phase compared to others.

There are some basic sales funnels. These funnels typically get more advanced as you see how it works. Here is an example of a lead magnet funnel.

Do you see how many moving parts there are? A funnel is not just a single web-page. It is a combination of elements that make up a sales funnel.

Many times a sales funnel is a multi-step or multi-process, meaning there are multiple steps in the process. Each adding to the funnel.

Looking at the lead magnet funnel above you can see the following key elements:

• Opt-in page: This is the page where you ask for contact details. Usually just an email address.
• Thank you page: The thank you page is important. You can show the next steps and what to do.
• Lead Magnet Delivery: Delivering on your promise. This can be a report; video; training, checklist, etc.
• Download Page: On this page they download or consume the lead magnet.
• Lead Magnet: This is the actual lead magnet.
• Email Follow Up: Follow up is an important step in the process.

Why is a sales funnel important? People do not walk around with cash in their hands ready to give it to anybody who asks. There is a process to build trust. Build value. This is where sales funnels work great. They help build trust and value.

Sales funnels also gives you these added benefits:

• Scalable: You can increase or decrease traffic to a sales funnel making it scalable. For many businesses increasing traffic is easy to do.
• Measurable: Because a sales funnel has specific steps you can measure each one. If there is a process or step not working you can focus in on it.
• Testing: You can use sales funnels to test the market; test pricing; test offers and so much more.

Interested in sales funnels for your business? Look at my sales funnel implementation programme.