What you don’t know about your sales funnel
January 30, 2012
We all think and talk about our sales funnel a lot. We’re always saying things like:
- We need to keep it full.
- We need to stay active with the prospects that have been in it for awhile.
- On average, it takes a prospect X months to move through it.
- And so on….
But consider the statistic to the right. 60% of your sales efforts are what happens before you have actively put someone into the funnel. In other words — it’s not you who is doing the selling.
Who is?
- Your existing customers
- The customer who left and is working with your competitors
- Your vendors
- Your website
- Review sites
- Your social presence (or lack thereof)
How much do you know about your pre-funnel sales machine? Do you know what’s being said? Maybe the bigger question — how should you be influencing those conscious and accidental sales efforts?
Think about how you shop — whether it’s for work or something for home. Do you beeline for a salesperson or sales collateral? Or do you do a little bit of investigating first?
Get out a piece of paper and do this exercise. Write down the bullet points I have above (starting with your existing customers) and next to each bullet point — describe what you would ideally like a prospect to hear/see/experience from each source.
Then — go to each source and see what’s actually being said/experienced. I’m guessing you’ll identify some areas that require your attention.
After all — your prospects are paying attention to these sources — shouldn’t you?
