6 Key Sales Funnel Stages (+ Strategies & Examples)

Because this potential buyer isn’t in the buying mindset, avoid making direct offers at this stage and instead focus on showing them free and educational content that opens their eyes to problems they have and the possible ways to solve them. Give your target audience members advice and ideas about how to succeed in their profession or area of interest. Consider using online lead generation to move them through the awareness stage.

Here are some strategies for moving leads from the awareness stage to the interest stage:

• Publish Blog Posts: Write blog posts that answer questions your target audience is asking and publish them onto your website’s blog.
• Post on Social Media: Share advice, tips, and stories on social media platforms where your target audience is active. Read our guide on social media lead generation for more.
• Run Online Ads: Run social media and Google ads for free consultations, webinars, and other lead magnets your target audience would find valuable.
• Offer Gated Content: Offer free lead magnets — a newsletter, ebooks, webinars, etc. — that users can access by submitting their contact information into an online form.

Once you’ve built their awareness to a sufficient point, some leads will drop out, deciding this isn’t for them, and quality leads will stick around and engage with your brand. It’s crucial to define an action that leads must take to transition into the interest stage. For most businesses, a lead moves into the interest phase once they’ve given their contact information, often in an online form in return for a lead magnet such as a newsletter subscription or an ebook.

At this point, your primary goal is to provide leads with content that educates them about a specific product or service relating to their needs. Make them so interested in the solution that they want to start researching it in-depth. A secondary goal is to boost your credibility as an expert in this space so that they trust you. The strategies here become more personalized and targeted than in the awareness stage since you know more about their interests and needs.

Here are some strategies to build interest and move leads into the evaluation stage:

• Conduct Cold Outreach: Send cold emails and place cold calls to leads who, based on your research, seem like they’d be a good fit for your product or service.
• Run Email Campaigns: Create targeted email nurturing campaigns that send helpful content and valuable offers to leads based on their behavior and demographics.
• Offer Free Trials: Give leads the option to use your most basic product tier with limited functionality for free.
• Use Chatbots: Install chatbots onto your website that can field questions about your solution from web visitors who aren’t ready to speak with a sales rep.

The transition from interest to evaluation stage usually occurs once a lead has suggested through their actions some serious consideration of an offering. This could happen when a lead asks a chatbot about a specific tool, signs up for a free trial, or responds positively to a cold email from a sales rep.

Your goal is to use sales and marketing that facilitate the lead’s research process. Often, this involves sales reps initiating conversations with leads. Your strategies should be focused on making it easy for these potential buyers to learn about your products and services. Give them the information they need to feel comfortable buying your solution.

Below are some great strategies for pushing leads into the decision stage.

• Hold Consultation Calls: Do discovery in order to match a lead with the perfect product tier or service package. Check out our guide on running consultation calls for more.
• Share Social Proof: Share case studies, customer testimonials, and client success stories with your leads to build trust and credibility.
• Promote Discount Codes: Send leads discount codes that expire, and increase the urgency to buy your solution.
• Offer Product Demos: Hold live product demos for leads and offer free recorded demos on your website so that leads can see your product in action.

Often, a company will move a lead from the evaluation stage into the decision stage when they take an action that indicates they’re considering a specific product tier or service package. This might be asking a sales rep for a pricing breakdown, asking them to draft a business proposal, or agreeing to a sales rep’s request for a formal sales presentation with the decision-makers.

This stage is where salespeople have to overcome objections, negotiate the deal, and convince prospects that their product or service is the prospect’s best option. Your goal is to get them to buy your solution and sign the contract. Strategies in this stage often revolve around face-to-face interactions where you talk over their concerns and provide reassurance of your value to them.

Here are some great strategies for encouraging prospects in this stage to make a purchase:

• Send a Business Proposal: Write a proposal outlining the scope of work, project timeline, pricing, and other information that helps the lead understand your offering.
• Share Solution Comparisons: Provide your leads with a useful document that describes how your product or service differs from its competitors.
• Hold Negotiation-Focused Meetings: Discuss and negotiate the terms of the agreement, while also assuaging the lead’s worries and overcoming objections.
• Negotiate a Sales Contract: Create a sales contract and negotiate it with your lead to define the terms and conditions of the deal and to lower the risk of the sale.

The transfer from the decision stage to the sale stage of the sales funnel is simple to pinpoint and pretty much the same for every business. It occurs when a prospect makes a purchase from your business, either by signing a sales contract or submitting their first payment. It’s when you successfully close the deal.

After the sale is made, your goal is to delight your customer and give them that satisfying feeling that they made the right decision in choosing you. Deliver the product or render the service, and provide support throughout the buyer’s transition period from prospect to customer. Also, give them any training or information, like passwords, they need to start using your solution. Also, any content you send them should focus on helping them use your solution.

Below are some strategies to use in the sale stage of the sales funnel:

• Provide Training: Offer in-person training sessions or training webinars and how-to videos that customers can access on your website.
• Implement the Product: Set up the solution and ensure customers have everything they need to use it effectively (e.g., passwords, account setup instructions).
• Meet Service Expectations: Deliver your product or service in a way that meets, but preferably exceeds, your customers’ expectations.
• Hold Check-in Calls: Schedule monthly calls with your customers to assess their needs and satisfaction, answer any of their questions, and keep building the relationship.

Businesses often use time-based rules to determine when a customer enters the renewal stage. A subscription-based business might move customers into renewal two months before their contract expires. Other businesses might enter them into the renewal stage immediately after the product is delivered or the one-time service is rendered. As a rule, move leads to the next stage when you believe it’s appropriate to start talking about a future together.

It’s your job at this stage to remind the customer about all the great things you’ve achieved for them, manage any new rounds of contract negotiations, and provide them with any information they need to make their decision. Many of the strategies involve proving to the customer that you were of tremendous value to them and that continuing the relationship is in their best interest. Also, you might want to use this time to mention new offers they’d like as well.

• Send Renewal Reminders: Email your customers reminding them about their upcoming contract renewal and telling them how to do it.
• Share Success Reports: Send before-and-after images, KPI improvements, or other proof that you’ve achieved great things for your customer.
• Send Renewal Contracts: Proactively send your customers a contract or online form that they can sign to renew the current agreement.
• Promote Cross-sells and Upsells: Based on your knowledge of their situation, recommend other products and services that will help the customer achieve their goals.

Customers stay in this stage forever unless you lose them as customers, either by failing to get them to sign a renewal or by going a defined time period without selling them anything new. You define what a lost customer is. When you do lose a customer, it’s important to re-engage them with targeted emails, phone calls, and other strategies that remind them of your value and update them on new products and offers that you think they’d find exciting.