5 Things You Might be Overlooking in your Sales Funnel
All businesses and organizations have sale funnels to reach their audiences, even if they are not selling products and services but ideas and information. This process serves to grow your business.
Having a well-rounded sales funnel is important in both situations. For those who may not know what a sales funnel is; it is the process of awareness, education, desire and purchase. Hence the name sales funnel, a wide opening that gradually becomes smaller like the letter V. Every place of business should assess this aspect every so often because it evolves with the rise of new technologies, societal values and habits. Here are 5 things you might be overlooking in your sales funnel that might be costing you more over time:
- Not properly evaluating your target audience
Target audiences should be evaluated often to understand where they are online, and the type of information they need to understand the relevance of your product and the type of need your product fulfills for them. This information helps develop content for your website, social media, ads and for your in-house advisors.
- Having an outdated website
Your website is a library of information about your business. If your customers come across your outdated website, they might not trust that your products are of good quality. You want to give your customers a smooth experience when navigating your website and enough information to trust your brand to continue down the sales funnel. P.S. If you don’t have a website, there is a gap in your sales funnel because they cannot learn more about you or where to buy your products and services. –
- Not having a presence on social media
Social media channels are tools used at the top of the sales funnel. Being present on these platforms helps you get known virtually, build relationships with your customers and your notoriety over time. Again, customers can’t learn about you if you are not there. Posting and keeping your social media channels updated helps you get noticed by your following, to increase traffic to your website, answer questions and of course, sell. Would you let your store unkept or untidy? No. Therefore, you should not let your social channels be unkept or untidy either; they are the virtual front doors to your store.
- Payment process might be costing you.
At this step, your customers want to buy your product or service. They say yes! They go to buy and then, your payment process is slow and not user-friendly. You can lose sales because people get distracted or start second-guessing their decision because of this. Evaluate your payment process to make it as simple as possible.
- Your after-purchase care is poor.
Do you provide good customer service during the whole process of your sales funnel? Do your clients have access to quality customer service after their purchase? Sadly, this is often neglected. Businesses and organizations can invest a lot of money in marketing but if they don’t provide good customer service during the experience, it is costing them. The after-purchase care can determine if your customer will become a loyal customer and an advocate of your brand. It is worth evaluating this aspect because it costs less to keep an existing client than to get a new client.
Your sales funnel is an important facet to keep growing your business. An incomplete sales funnel creates a gap for your products or services to get noticed. Nowadays, customers use a variety of applications to learn about products and services, your online presence can be their first impression of you; sometimes we don’t get a second chance for first impressions.
Anik Charbonneau
Marketing and Communication Consultant
Lumos Communication
