Sep
25
Sales Funnel: Part 4
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, fundamentals, learning, sales, systems
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...In this part I look at how to access the second of 3 listed functions of a sales funnel.
Set priorities on where to focus next.
You can use your funnel data to see which parts of the funnel are in need of attention. You can only do so much on any given day so, you’d like to focus on doing things that give you a better outcome without working any extra hours. The challenge is to keep your funnel suitably stocked at every stage with enough prospects.
If your sales process converts 1 in 20 or 5% of all the prospects that come in to it at the top or start of the funnel, then for every sale you make you need at least 20 new prospects coming in at the same time. Anything less than this and in short order your funnel will be delivering falling sales revenue…
Your funnel data can help you spot if a particular stage is low in prospects so you can dome something about it in a targeted way.
You see, the tendency of less experienced sales people is to pay the most attention to the prospect that is just about to buy, and very little on the more numerous prospects at the start or top of the funnel or sales process. This is very understandable, but if you’ve been very helpful and supportive of this prospect all the way through, you’ve done about all you can for and with them at this late stage. Sure, keep in touch with them in the right way, but ‘hassling’ them will probably not speed up the sale much, if at all, and may just annoy them…
But if you neglect your early stage prospects and the business of getting more in to your funnel, at some point the pipeline runs dry and then you go in to panic mode – fine if you have enough cash in the bank to survive, but if not, your business is dead.
Generally only one thing kills a business – gets it every time – a lack of cash flow.
To ensure you don’t suffer from this, you have to keep that pipeline or funnel well stocked.
So your priorities will probably be something like this:
- Close the sale with those prospects at the bottom of your funnel – just don’t over play it!
- Get new prospects in to the top of your funnel – if your close ratio is 1 to 20 then get at least 20 new prospects in for every sale you close…
- Work your way down through descending stages in your funnel as you support & interact with the prospects in each of those stages – move them through the funnel one stage at a time…
With this you’ll know how to allocate your available working time and resources…
Simple!
- Sales Funnel: Part 1
- Sales Funnel: Part 2
- Sales Funnel: Part 3
- Sales Funnel: Part 4
- Sales Funnel: Part 5
Trackback URI
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.