A sales funnel is a crucial element in the sales process. It defines the sequence of steps designed to provide prospects and customers with the information they need to make a buying decision.
The first step in this process is often advertising, then comes the sales page or landing page that specifies what you are selling and how it will help them. Finally, after some initial contact with your company or product, there is typically a checkout process.
Whenever possible across B2B Sales Funnel Stages, you should use multiple outreach methods – such as emailing customers directly and following up with them until the closure of the sale.
Here is a quick rundown on the sales funnel stages in converting prospects into contacts and leading them into becoming your valuable customers.
Leads that Go into the Top of your Sales Funnel
It is essential to feed your funnel with healthy and high-quality leads. Lead generation is the first step in the sales process. It is also known as qualification and discovery. Lead generation includes systematic activities that take place before adding a lead to your sales funnel.
Source: Copper
The lead-generation process typically includes a call to action that requires a user to give contact information in exchange for more information about your company’s products or service offerings.
Typically leads that fuel your sales funnels and B2B sales pipelines are obtained by activities such as email marketing, phone calls, webinars, etc., depending on the type of business you are running.
Making Concerted Efforts in Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing help your potential prospects take the next step and become your customer. It involves following up with them to see how they are doing, what they are struggling with, and soliciting feedback to improve overall customer experience.
Source: Demand Gen
It’s about building relationships to get people excited about your products and services so that they feel compelled to buy when you send them an email asking for a purchase or sign-up.
Lead nurturing is about knowing to say the right thing at the right time. The timing of your engagement is critical here. Lead scoring is also a great way to identify a qualified sales-ready leads.
Building Strong Customer Bonds in the First Meeting
The first sales meetings can be challenging. It is crucial that you clearly understand what your prospects are looking for and what they want you to achieve.
Ideally, your prospect at this point of the B2B Sales Funnel Step would want to understand more about your capabilities than what you could offer for sale. Therefore, this is the opportune moment to establish a relationship and build trust.
Here is where leads data with insights and intent information can come to your rescue. You can confidently pitch solutions by knowing what your prospects are looking for and effectively convert a customer into purchasing your products and services.
Closing a Sale Effectively
Sometimes, the most challenging part of closing a sale is making the customer comfortable enough to buy from you. If you can’t convince them that they’re making a good decision, they will walk away, and you will lose the sales opportunity with them.
Successful salespeople know that their job is not just about closing the sale. If you want to up your game, you must devise strategies to make sure that the prospects that convert become your repeat customers. This thought process should be the driving factor in all your sales pitch.
It includes effectively communicating the value proposition and handling all objections raised head-on, and providing tailored responses to any qualms pertaining to the sale.
Keeping your Best Foot Forward in Retaining Customers
Any astute marketer would understand the need to keep the channels of communication open with customers who have converted.
As with all the B2B Sales Funnel Stages, your relationship with your customer should not end when the sale is over. Keeping your clients engaged even after a sale closure would promote a feel-good factor about your brand and retain your customers for the long haul.
It would also increase the likelihood of them referring someone else too.
Conclusion
We at Span Global Services understand the dynamic behavior of the marketing landscape. Our keen eye to detail helps you align our lead engines and lead databases to optimize your B2B sales funnels.
By being in the marketing services domain for over a decade – we help your prospects navigate effortlessly down the sales funnels.
We help you adapt to the changing needs by knowing that no two B2B sales funnels are precisely the same.