One of the most common mistakes that small businesses often make is that after a first contact with a potential client, they directly try to make a sale. Sure, the shortest path is a straight line, but that doesn’t mean it is the right one. With tough competition in the market and the access that buyers have to DIY tools and online research, it is very difficult to make a hard sale these days. The best way to boost your sales and get more customers is to create additional steps between the first contact and the actual sale. It seems counterintuitive, but it is one of the most basic market concept that businesses need to be aware of.
When a potential buyer visits your website, it is critical to give them space between becoming familiar with your business and becoming a customer. This space between knowledge and sales is represented by a sales funnel. These can apply to almost any size of business, as long as they have a sales process. A business can get more customers and more earnings with sales funnels, but there is no one-size fits all approach that can be used here. Every industry has a different sales cycle because it varies on the products and services they offer, their target audience and several other factors.
The primary concept behind a sales funnel is that you need to give potential customers some space to make their own decisions. When a business doesn’t have a sales funnel, they usually pounce on potential customers immediately after making contact and ask them what they wish to purchase. This puts the potential client under undue pressure and is likely to drive them away. Typically, a customer likes to have some time to browse and gather information before they make a decision. You can give them the means to engage with the business, but cannot make the decision on their behalf.
The potential customer needs to move from one step of the salesfunnel to the next on their own. There are several benefits that a sales funnel has to offer to a business:
Increase conversion rate
When people move down a business’s sales funnel, their number will reduce, but the people who stay are the ones who are more likely to pay for your offerings. This means that non-targeted individuals will simply be filtered out by the funnel. The ones who stay are going to buy more thereby boosting conversion rate.
Predict sales volume
Numbers are integral to online marketing. They can help in improvising an existing strategy and developing new ones. With a sales funnel, a business is able to predict its sales volume because it shows how many customers move onto the next stage. This can be immensely useful in the long run.
Identify problem areas
Last, but not the least, a sales funnel can help in identifying products or services that are problem areas. When potential customers exit the sales funnel, you can trace it to the stage they left and this reveals the cause. This data can be useful for creating an excellent marketing strategy.
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