What’s A Sales Funnel, And Why Is It Important?

If you’re reading this, you probably want to know a little bit more about sales funnels. Luckily for you, we are about to break them down in a concise, coherent manner. Plus, we are going to throw in a graphic for fun! Oh, what fun.

So, what is a sales funnel?

First of all, think of a sales funnel like any other funnel. Just as a regular funnel funnels liquids down into the base, a sales funnel funnels potential customers into conversions or funnels them into sales for your business or product.In effect, it looks like a giant, upside down pyramid. Pyramids are bad if we are talking about schemes. But upside-down ones are super great when we are talking about generating business.

Even though this is an extremely basic example of a sales funnel, what is important to note is that there are multiple segments inside of the funnel itself.Each segmented part of the funnel is called a phase. Your sales funnel can have as many phases and subsections as necessary, but too long and intricate of a funnel might detract potential customers away from converting. So, testing multiple sales funnels will help you to find whatever works best for you and your business.It can also be the case that you have multiple sales funnels and phases for multiple purposes or products. Depending on the size of your business, as well as what kinds of services or products you provide, having more than one sales funnel is totally okay.For instance, sales funnels for B2C are much shorter than those for B2B. A customer looking to purchase a few items of clothing on a website can make up their mind as to whether or not they would like to purchase the clothing in a matter of minutes, while businesses selling services to other business can become a long, tedious process that can last several months.But why is a sales funnel important?Well, if you did not have a sales funnel, trying to attract new customers and turn them into conversions would seem like shooting in the dark. Without having a proper direction and guide as to how you want the customer to convert, the more you leave the success of your business to sheer luck and word of mouth.But sales funnels are important for another reason… what if people are coming to your website and then dropping off after viewing one or two pages? Without a proper sales funnel, and without proper tracking, you will not be able to find out where you are missing out on massive opportunities to efficiently and effectively change your strategy to see more conversions.The more A/B testing you can do to your funnel, the more leaks you will be able to mend, and the more conversions you will start to see.