Sales Funnel also referred as sales process. A customer goes through different processes before finally making a decision to buy a product or service. Covering these different stages before a customer makes the final choice to buy is covered in Sales funnel.
To understand better lets take an example. A customer visits your website from an online ad or from your facebook page. At this point customer browses through your blog or looks through the product gallery at this point may be goes through the offers. At this point the customer becomes AWARE of the products or services offered by you as a business. There might be a scenerio that a sale can happen on the first visit or the customer leaves email or phone number on your website. This makes it a lead. At this point we can say the customer has INTEREST in the product or services offered. Now you can contact the customer using email or phone or both to evaluate the potential lead. Now through the communication you had with the customer, it can help him/her reach a smart DECISION. The Last part or the bottom of the Funnel is the ACTION. Here the customer completes the sales process and takes action to complete the sales process.
We can Classify Sales funnel into 4 Major Categories :
If we further go through this process we can add two more :
At this stage the customer becomes aware about your business and knows your existence. Awareness is the Top of the Sales funnel hence it is an important stage. This is where the customer starts the journey the first stage of the funnel.
This is the second stage where customer shows interest in the product or the services you offer. Customer or potential client shows interest by leaving a comment or filling the contact form or subscribing to email list. At this point it generates a potential Lead.
The third stage of Sales funnel is Decision. This is where the customer makes the choice to buy the product or service referred by you.
Action is the bottom part of the Marketing or Sales Funnel. Very few customers reach this stage if you are not implementing a correct strategy of web design on your website. This is where customer completes the sales process and takes action to buy the product or services.
Sales funnel can be summarize in these 4 Stages Awareness Interest Decision Action or as AIDA.