If you are here, you already know what a sales funnel is. You may be looking for ways to optimize it perfectly. Sales funnels are the backbone of your marketing, and you must have a strong one to succeed.
But is it even possible to optimize this funnel? Yes, you can review different sales funnel examples and learn from them.
We have created nine exceptional sales funnel examples for your understanding. Check them out to identify if anything is missing at your end or if you can adopt a particular example as your sales funnel.
But before that, let’s start with the basics and recap our understanding.
Sales Funnel: What Is It & How Does It Work?
A sales funnel is a marketing model that represents your customer’s journey from being aware of your brand to becoming your customer. So how does it work?
It works similar to a regular and everyday used funnel.
Remember how you pour liquid from the wider section of the funnel, and that liquid never comes back. That is precisely how a B2B sales funnel works.
Your leads enter through the top wide part and move down the different stages (although some get lost on the way) to reach the bottom and become your customers.
However, did you notice why the quantity of the poured liquid remains the same when poured through the funnel, but not all leads convert to customers?
That is true, and it is not always your people’s fault if they are not getting converted. Sometimes, even unwanted leads enter the funnel, and you need a proper refining process to retain, filter, and maximize your leads.
We’ll understand that in the sales funnel structure below. But for now, let’s see what a CMO of a marketing company has to say about the working of a sales funnel (Via Reddit)
Step 1- know who your target audience is…without this, you might as well not make a funnel.
Step 2- Find product market fit…Your audience is pretty good at telling you what they want and need, after you figure this out move to step 3.
Step 3- Know what you have to offer, and make it irresistible. You can’t market something if you aren’t crystal clear on what that thing is, what deliverables you will give etc.
Step 4- Reverse engineer your offer to create a free giveaway of some sort, checklist, mindset tips, Idk..what’s your niche?
Step 5- Create the freebie
Step 6- Create the opt-in (landing page)
Step 7- Promote your offer and fill your landing page up with traffic/leads
Step 8- Create nurture emails (I wouldn’t do more than 3 days of that) on Day 3 sell them what you offer.
Step 9- Tag the people in your marketing system as “did buy” or “did not buy”
Step 10- continue nurturing the “did not buy” list.
I could go on and on but that’s the gist of it.
What Do You Need To Build A Sales Funnel?
Just a few things that you must consider, and you are ready to rock with an effective sales funnel.
Good Understanding Of Your Customers
This is the step to ensure you do not get unwanted leads in your sales funnel. How much marketing research you need to do depends on how much you already know about your target audience. The more you know about them, the better, as this will help you target the right leads for your brand.
Leads
You can’t optimize an empty funnel, and you need leads to do so. If you don’t have any leads, find the most effective techniques, such as lead generation through cold emails, cold calling, content marketing, etc for your brand.
Tracking System
You can use anything you already have or are comfortable using, such as a good CRM for sales, a low-code app, a sales engagement platform, or a spreadsheet. Some of the CRMs that you can use are:
- LeadSquared
- Salesforce
- Bigin
- Zoho Corporation
- HubSpot
Basic Structure Of A Sales Funnel You Need To Know
You advertised the product, and your lead saw it and bought the product. Isn’t the sales process so simple? I wish it was this easy.
Customers ask multiple questions, check different competitors, and then move ahead with making a purchase. Irrespective of what your business or product may be, customers will have similar questions to make their decision.
That is why your team needs to understand the basic structure of the sales funnel to resolve those confusions and convert the leads.
AIDA
Every sales funnel has steps or stages from where the customers make their journey. The first and most basic version was introduced in 1898 as AIDA.
A – awareness or attention, I – interest, D – desire, and A – action
The funnel starts with your customers knowing about you (awareness), becoming interested in understanding your product (interest), showing preference towards you over competitors (desire), and purchasing the product (action).
Top of the Funnel (TOFU)
Awareness is the initial stage in every sales funnel, and it is where your leads learn about your brand. This is the widest section with many potential leads that your advertisements or other lead-generation efforts may have attracted.
Remember, not everyone who enters the funnel is your potential customer. So, it is time to research and target your potential customers through email collaborations, calls, content marketing, etc.
TOFU will also have people who may have spoken to your brand already but have not made up their minds (interest).
The conversion rate at this stage is only 20-30%, so you must nurture the leads and show why your product is the best to help them make the decision.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)
Your customer has made up their mind and entered the decision stage. The conversion rate is only 3-5% at this stage, so it’s a tough one. One wrong move can disinterest the customer.
MOFU can also be a mix of the consideration and intent stages. Consideration happens when your customers know the needs and requirements and are ready to explore options.
You must share proposals, negotiating terms, and quotes to ensure they are connected with the product. In the intent stage, your customer is highly involved in the entire sales process and is a perfect fit for your product.
MOFU may end soon or last longer, depending on the nature of your business and the actual stage your ICP is in.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
The last stage is the action or closing of the deal. In this stage, your customer has all the information and is well-educated to decide and purchase the solution that will help them the most.
As per a report, an average B2B sales cycle lasts for 84 days. However, if you have an effective sales funnel, this period can be shortened.
You need a short cycle as the longer the period, the chances of leads being attracted to your competitors increases.
How to shorten the cycle?
=> Offer personalized messages and content and prove to them why you value them more than others.
Build Your Sales Funnel With These 3 Steps
68% of companies have not designed or identified their sales funnel yet. Don’t be in that category because a well-defined funnel sees a 36% higher customer retention rate.
We have created three simple steps for you to start your sales funnel journey.
Step 1: Understanding When Does A Lead Become Prospect
The sales process is lengthy, with much time spent converting leads to customers. But what if your people are wasting time on wrong leads?
A lead becomes a prospect when they show interest in your product, or they are already a viable customer.
For 37% of marketing people, this (prospecting) is the most difficult step. You will have to identify your potential customer and their characteristics.
Step 2: Deciding When Does A Prospect Become Opportunity
The next step is when prospects become opportunities to convert. At this stage, you start sending proposals, negotiate with them, and push hard for them to convert. You know a prospect has reached this stage when they ask for proposals or when your people are talking to decision-makers.
Step 3: Adding In The Standard Pipeline Stages
The TOFU consists of leads from PPC, inbound marketing, purchased lists, organic search, or business development efforts.
Then, the most difficult phase of converting leads into prospects and then opportunities. If you have done that, you have reached the middle of the funnel and are ready to convert the leads into customers.
There can only be three outcomes – either you have lost the sale, lost but can come back for it, or closed the deal. By well-defining your sales funnel, you can have a 16% higher chance of closing the deals.
9 Sales Funnel Examples That Are Effective
Let’s look at the top nine examples of sales funnel that are effective and can be implemented in your business:
SaaS Sales Funnel Example
SaaS products are tougher to sell compared to others. The first step is to make customers aware through marketing, cold emailing, calls, or online ads.
In the next step, ask your sales team to follow up with the potential leads, nurture, and qualify them. Here is a great idea by a Reddit user on how to nurture the leads:
Next, send them proposals and let the customer ask questions to clarify their doubts. The last step consists of either the deal being lost or won.
However, in the SaaS funnel, the fifth stage is important – the renewal stage. This is crucial since your customers will either renew, buy a better plan, or cancel the deal.
eCommerce Sales Funnel Example
The e-commerce sales funnel starts by bringing traffic to the site through ads, referrals, direct messages, email lists, affiliates, etc.
Next, you can have different ways of convincing the customer to reach the decision stage, such as filling out pop-up forms or hosting an online event. This funnel is much simpler than the SaaS sales funnel.
Brokerage Sales Funnel Example
Brokerage is when a business represents multiple vendors or providers. This funnel is straightforward and starts by raising brand awareness through marketing.
Later, companies gauge their customer’s interest and nurture them. It is the third stage which makes the difference. In this stage, the proposal consists of quotes from different vendors to choose from, unlike from just one company.
Enterprise Sales Funnel Example
If you are selling products to large enterprises, this is your sales funnel to use. Here, you need sales representatives who can build relationships with your leads.
Your salespeople must first identify whether the leads will actually purchase and offer them a demo. If they like it, the salesperson should continue to close the deal.
Membership Site Sales Funnel Example
If your business works on a membership model, you must adopt the social media and email marketing sales funnel. This model follows the AIDA methods that we discussed above.
Start by targeting leads on social media to raise awareness, and the ones who show interest email them the subscription offer. To convert them, you can host events or ask them to sign up for free consultations.
Real Estate Coaching Sales Funnel Example
The real estate business revolves around trust, so their coaches must be experienced people who can guide them on how to succeed in the business.
This sales funnel can start with a strong CTA on their website where you can ask prospects to either go for consultation calls or register for free webinars.
Since you are offering a freebie to your prospect, they are more likely to join as there is minimum risk. If you are an excellent coach, your work is done when they attend the free webinar and listen to you.
Real Estate Investment Coaching Sales Funnel Example
Investing in real estate involves investing your hard-earned money. You must have a well-designed website where your leads can check your social proof.
Add a CTA inviting your potential leads to watch the training video. Also, remember to add client testimonials to give that extra push to your leads to convert.
When they click on the video, ask them to enter their email address (which you can use for building lists to send bulk cold emails).
Include a “schedule your session” option in the video; interested people will definitely watch the entire video to reach that part (the others were not your qualified leads).
When you give a valuable video for free, you are building a relationship with your prospect. 86% of customers are ready to continue with the brand if they have an emotional connection with them.
B2B Consulting Sales Funnel Example
What if you have an IT management, accounting, law firm, or marketing agency? Which funnel should you choose? The B2B consulting sales funnel.
This funnel is similar to others but with differences in the interest stage. You need sales reps who are great at convincing people why they must choose your brand.
After they are convinced, you can send proposals and guide them towards the buying process.
Productive Service Sales Funnel Example
Productive services are the ones that offer products that directly impact the growth of other companies, such as lead generation.
Their sales funnel will also begin with their website, where they share their client testimonials as social proof.
A signup form can be added to see if the lead is a right fit for them. Before the signup page, there can be questions to gauge the lead’s interest.
If they answer those to reach the form, they are interested and can be converted into customers.
5 Popular Sales Funnel Templates
Let’s look at the sales funnel templates used by some very popular companies:
SaaS Sales Funnel Template: Netflix
Netflix offers their leads a free 30-day viewing option before making payment. They have a CTA (as shown in the screenshot below) stating that they should start a 30-day free service.
They have a seven-stage sales funnel:
- Landing page
- Plan introduction page
- Plan a pricing page with different cross-selling and upselling options
- Account introduction page
- Account sign-up page
- Payment method page
- Payment details page
Once the customer signs up and adds the payment details, it becomes a subscription-based model that will be renewed automatically.
SaaS Sales Funnel Template: Zendesk
Zendesk uses various digital marketing methods to raise product awareness. Then it engages users in the Evaluation step by displaying video examples of the tool’s functionality.
These demonstrations are customized. Zendesk recommends videos based on the lead’s interests. The videos are also interesting, well-designed, and provide just enough information to help customers go through the sales funnel.
SaaS Sales Funnel Template: HubSpot
HubSpot has a customized sales funnel where they can customize deal stages based on their needs. Their funnel helps them understand the contacted leads, how many bought in, proposals shared, and the ones converted.
SaaS Sales Funnel Template: Mailchimp
Mailchimp starts its funnel by offering a free-limited plan to attract leads. Leads immediately interact with the tool by sharing their payment details. Since users get a free account that they can test anytime, the chances of upgrading increase.
eCommerce Sales Funnel Example: Groupon
Groupon is a leading website that helps customers find the best deals on different products and services.
As soon as a customer lands on their page, they have a pop-up with a promotional discount on signing up.
An excellent strategy that helps them increase their customer base. Once the leads have signed up, they browse for deals (which they only get after signing up, a smart move).
Six Benefits Of Having A Sales Funnel
There is an average drop off of 20-30% at the awareness stage and even 95-99% at the action stage. These numbers are alarming but can be reduced if you have an effective sales funnel.
Still not convinced? Read the benefits.
- Better Insights
You get more insights into your potential customers as they pass through each sales funnel stage. When you know what your prospect needs to be qualified as lead, you can get a better understanding of your product and forecast sales.
- Higher Productivity
A sales funnel helps you become more productive by better understanding your ideal customer and addressing their demands. This saves time that would be spent tracking down unqualified leads.
- Enhanced Customer Relations
This funnel helps you see leads that do not progress to the next funnel level, thus helping you to better understand the demands of prospective customers you are losing out on.
- Easy Lead Sorting and Ranking
A sales funnel assists in classifying leads based on their stage of the purchasing process, allowing sales teams to prioritize high-potential prospects.
Sales teams can improve their efficiency by categorizing leads systematically, ensuring that no prospects are ignored.
- Better Customer Targeting
You can better target your customers if you have an effective sales funnel in place. How? You can make tailor-made marketing strategies, segmenting leads based on their behaviors and delivering personalized content as they like.
- Enhanced Sales Forecasting
Your sales funnel is more than just a journey path of your customer, it is a perfect tool to forecast your sales and conversion rates. You can get an organized summary of your customers and understand the different phases that impact your overall sales. This helps you create a forecast chart or estimates for your sales team.
Measuring The Success Of Your Sales Funnel
| Leads | Track not only the overall number of leads but also qualifying leads. |
| Conversion Rates | Calculate your closed-won sales conversion rate throughout the organization and for individual salespeople. |
| Lifetime Customer Value | Calculate the LTV to see how well your company model works over time. Determine the basic income for each customer, as well as the value generated via upsells and cross-selling. |
| Acquisition Costs | Calculating the entire cost of client acquisition is an essential variable. This cost comprises all marketing and sales expenses incurred while acquiring a new customer. |
| Length of Sales Cycle | This measures the time it takes to move from one phase of the funnel to the next. It will help you identify slow places in the sales process. |
| Referral Rate | The referral rate reflects the number of referrals you get from existing clients as well as the number of referrals you send them. Do you know 91% of customers are ready to give referrals, but only 11% of sales reps ask for it? |
Five Best Practices To Follow For An Ideal Sales Funnel
- Know Your ICP
It is the most important part of any sales funnel. If you know the characteristics of your ICP, you will design a sales funnel that will help your lead become a customer. It includes understanding customer behavior, their preferred communication, and where to find them.
- Engaging Customers
It is easy to find leads but difficult to engage them all through the sales funnel. You must adapt different options, such as demos, interactive content, trials, or social media engagement. The key is to engage and nurture them to move ahead.
- Personalize Prospect Journey
There are so many people selling the same product. Why should the prospect go with you? Because you will offer them personalized solutions. 86% of the buyers are likely to buy from you if you understand their goals. Hence, you must personalize each funnel step for lead conversion.
- Monitoring Funnel Performance
Your process doesn’t end with creating the sales funnel; you must continuously monitor it to ensure you get a good return. Take data from Google Analytics 4 or eCommerce platforms and analyze your sales funnel performance.
- Using Sales Funnel Builder
At least 570,000 websites are using one sales funnel builder software to create and manage their sales funnel. What are you waiting for? Use one today.
How to Repair a Leaky Sales Funnel
A leaky sales funnel means losing on possible leads that may convert into customers. So how to fix it?
- Recheck Your Funnel From Lead to Close
Check for potential flaws in the system, like any internal process that is affecting customer experience and making it difficult for prospects to trust you.
- Check Your Initial Lead Response Time
How much time are your sales reps taking to respond to leads? The higher the response time, the lesser the closing of deals.
- Reasons for Disqualifying Prospects
If you have a leaky funnel, check which leads are disqualifying and what the reason behind it is. If they were your ICP, then why did they not show interest? Evaluate the reasons behind it and figure out what went wrong and what can be improved.
Final Thoughts
A sales funnel is essential for guiding your ICPs through their buying journey. It starts from the awareness stage and moves till the final purchase.
If you map out each stage efficiently, you can optimize your marketing strategies, improve conversion rates, and build stronger relationships.
And a sales funnel is not limited to any industry in particular. Irrespective of your business and size, you can create a sales funnel using one of the abovementioned examples.
Remember, there are many different steps to perfecting your sales funnel, and one of them is effective lead generation, such as cold emailing or cold calling.
If you are looking for a reliable and good email provider, choose GrowMeOrganic. You can find your ideal customer profile from more than 575 million professionals and 15 million companies worldwide, helping you move one step closer to the bottom of the sales funnel.
Take advantage of GrowMeOrganic’s cold email software to send emails to your prospects in bulk.
“Keep Your Sales Pipeline Full By Prospecting Continuously. Always Have More People To See Than You Have Time To See Them.” – Brian Tracy
FAQs
Q 1. How Do I Create A Sales Funnel?
Create a sales funnel by identifying your target audience, creating leads, nurturing them with specialized content, converting leads to customers, and monitoring performance to improve and optimize the process.
Q 2. Is A Sales Funnel A CRM?
No, a sales funnel is a model that represents stages of the customer journey. A CRM is a tool that manages interactions and data during a customer’s lifetime.
Q 3. How Do You Determine Your Sales Funnel?
Create your sales funnel by mapping the customer journey stages, determining target audience habits, evaluating lead sources, defining conversion procedures, and using analytics to analyze and enhance each stage for success.
Q 4. What Is The First Step In Creating A Sales Funnel?
Defining your target audience and knowing their requirements, tastes, and habits is the first stage in designing a sales funnel that will successfully attract and engage potential leads.
Q 5. What Businesses Need Sales Funnels?
Sales funnels are beneficial to almost every business, including e-commerce, SaaS, real estate, consultancy, digital marketing, education, and any organization focusing on client acquisition, lead nurturing, and process optimization.
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