{"id":1836,"date":"2019-06-28T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T15:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:38","slug":"dont-have-defined-sales-funnel-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/dont-have-defined-sales-funnel-what-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Don\u2019t Have A Defined Sales Funnel, Here\u2019s What To Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing a business without a defined sales funnel<\/a> is kind of like trying to catch a particular colour of confetti pieces with a large fishing net. <\/p>\n

Imagine confetti making up multiple shades of a rainbow, all falling from the sky. You\u2019re standing there, moving your net this way and that, but inevitably pieces of the wrong colour get caught, while others of the right colour never make it in at all. <\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t take long before you wished there was a way to isolate only the confetti pieces of the colour you wanted, and a net that would somehow magically let the rest fall on the floor. <\/p>\n

Customers are obviously represented by the confetti in this analogy, but the fishing net could stand in for several channels at once. It could be your website, where prospects first come browsing around to see if you offer the kinds of products and services they need. Or it might be your social media channels, where many people might follow you but only a percentage make up the kind of people who will actually drive sales. The fishing net could even be your email newsletter, which might get lots of clicks but only a smattering of conversions to a sales lead or an e-commerce purchase. <\/p>\n

The power of a defined sales funnel<\/h2>\n

A defined sales funnel addresses all of these challenges, and more. Larger organizations will have entire teams within their marketing and sales groups focused specifically on various stages of their sales funnel, because they know any misstep will lead to missed quotas and potentially more business for their competitors. They\u2019ve often been in business long enough that, even if customer behaviour changes over time, their sales funnel can be adjusted so that the journey of learning about products and making a purchase never reaches a dead end. <\/p>\n

Notice we\u2019re using the word \u201cdefined\u201d when we talk about a sales funnel here. The truth is, all businesses have a sales funnel \u2014 it\u2019s just that not all businesses recognize the path their customers take. <\/p>\n

A small or medium-sized business might be successfully selling its products, for instance, but it always seems like a bit of a mystery how someone hears about them, or when and why they\u2019ll finally sign off on a deal. There might often be a bit of a panic in responding to sudden customer inquiries or pulling off a sale as other prospects suddenly emerge. <\/p>\n

Companies need to define their sales funnel because otherwise, day-to-day progress starts to feel like luck, or a series of flukes. That\u2019s often very difficult to sustain, much less scale into something bigger. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, defining your sales funnel doesn\u2019t have to be a Herculean task. It just means paying closer attention to what customers are doing and building your processes around it: <\/p>\n

1. Set the stage by identifying your key buying stages<\/h2>\n

Even if you\u2019ve never used one in real life, you\u2019re probably aware that a funnel looks like a cone or round pyramid. Sales professionals would label the widest end as the \u201cawareness\u201d stage, when customers first find out about your brand thanks to online ads you\u2019ve run, a social media campaign and so on. <\/p>\n

If whatever story you\u2019re telling through those marketing tactics compels them, customers will then move to the \u201cinterest\u201d stage, where they might visit your website and browse through the items that interest them. Hopefully this will lead them to the \u201cdecision\u201d phase, where they decide to make a purchase, followed by the \u201caction\u201d phase of calling a sales rep or putting something into an online shopping cart. <\/p>\n

As you consider these four stages, start to ask yourself the following questions: <\/p>\n