As a business owner, your sales funnel is a vital part of converting prospects into buyers. Understanding what a sales funnel is, and how to identify and fix the gaps in it is essential to your success. You want to ensure that every new prospect flows smoothly through the process and has the highest possibility of becoming a customer.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is the process a new prospect follows as they move closer and closer to being a customer.

At the top of the funnel, a large number of buyers are exposed to your marketing message and have the potential to learn about your business. This is the awareness stage. Then, a certain number of those who are aware of you will engage further with your business, entering your sales funnel. Often times they’ll start the engagement process by reading and commenting on your blog, signing up for your emails, or downloading an e-book.

Over time, you’ll nurture these buyers in your sales funnel until they are ready to buy. But your sales funnel doesn’t stop there. When you provide an amazing product or service, along with outstanding customer service, your customers may become vocal fans who will spread the word or buy additional products from you. The sales funnel never ends.

Typical Gaps in the Sales Funnel

Finding the gaps in your sales funnel is an important way of making sure that no one “falls out” of the process and misses the chance to become a customer. When you know the typical gaps in a sales funnel, you can examine your own process and identify if any of these things happen for your prospects.

At each stage of the sales funnel, it’s possible to lose leads and miss out on sales opportunities. Here are the typical gaps you’ll see in your sales funnel:

• Giving up on No’s. Just because someone says “No,” initially doesn’t mean they are lost as a customer. Different customers take different amounts of time to navigate the engagement stage. Don’t give up too soon!
• Lack of Follow-Up. Have you ever exchanged business cards with a prospect, promised to follow up, and then forgot to contact them? That’s a lost lead, not to mention wasted time! Don’t let the lack of follow-up cost you customers.
• Waiting Too Long to Follow Up. It’s nice to meet someone who could be a great client, or have a prospect contact you through your website. Unfortunately, many business owners wait far too long to follow up. It’s important to have an established plan that allows you to follow up immediately with interested prospects.

Closing the Gaps

Now that you know where the gaps in your funnel are likely to exist, it’s time to learn how to close them. When you take these steps, you’ll see your number of leads increase and your sales numbers improve dramatically:

• Think of a “no” as a “not yet”, and use marketing automation to stay in touch. You never know when a prospect will be ready to buy! You want to be there when that time comes.

• Create and maintain a variety of email campaigns that follow up prospects, leads, and customers automatically. This will help you avoid having a lack of follow up at any stage in the sales funnel.
• Email automation can allow you to follow up immediately with prospects and interested leads without being in the office. It’s a life saver!
• Use email campaigns to handle details that are time-consuming or easily overlooked. Some ideas include scheduling demos, following up after leaving a voicemail, or handling common objections.

Identifying and closing gaps in your sales funnel helps you close more deals. Automating it saves you both time and money. To learn more about automating your sales funnel and closing the gaps, set up a free strategy session with me today! I can’t wait to help you streamline and grow your business quickly.