5 Ways To Improve Your Sales Funnel

Having a well-functioning sales funnel is crucial to make your company grow. Today we´ll help you to improve your sales funnel and to service your clients more efficiently. Improving the different steps of the sales funnel is not only beneficial for you but will also make it more pleasant for your customers to use your services.

You’re probably already aware that a sale consists out of several steps and that you need to monitor and streamline every step along the way. All of these steps make up a part of the sales funnel. At the beginning of your funnel leads come in and if everything went well, they are loyal customers at the end.

Regardless of the type of business you´re running, you can make your sales funnel perform much better by performing one of the following 5 actions:

1. Offer FREE services

Potential customers will be much more willing to buy from you when they already have a positive experience with your products. By giving your product away for free to selected groups of people you can accomplish just that. All you ask in return from them is their contact information.

Now that you have a list of people that have tried your product you can build a relationship with them. You can send them special offers and keep them updated on new products that you’re releasing. A client who knows your products and has good experiences with them is much more likely to buy from you then a random person.

 2. Use social media

It´s important to generate leads constantly. Social media can do wonders when it comes to finding new leads. It enables you to target very specific groups of potential customers as you can find people that have already shown interest in the products you´re offering. This makes them likely to respond well if you approach them.

You can show your ads to Facebook users that have previously liked your type of business. It´s also a good idea to show you’re the expert on a specific subject by answering questions on Twitter. By being as active as possible on the popular social media sites and having a link to your website in your profile, you should be able to find more promising leads.

 3. Turn your leads into customers

Once you have built up a list of leads, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the most out of them. Lead nurturing will lead to more sales and larger purchases by your customer base. It’s important to make a connection with your leads and regularly contact them.

One of the most effective ways to communicate with these leads is by segmenting them. By dividing people into different categories, you can send specific information and deals to them that will have a higher rate of success.

There are different ways to segment your leads. For example, you can group all big spenders together or everyone who bought a certain type of product from you in the past. Your customer base will be amazed by how well you know them and can adapt to their needs.

 4. Start blogging

You can give your company a more personal image by blogging. It allows you to get the word out when you have a new product. Blogging will also improve your website’s SEO and bring in more potential customers. To connect with as much people as possible, you can add social share buttons to the blog. Now readers can share your posts with their network.

You don’t want the readers of your blog to leave when they’re done reading. You should offer them the option of signing up for your newsletter. This allows you to keep in contact with them at a later time. If you fail to get their attention right away, they will never move down your funnel, which is where you want them.

 5. Use CRM software

To be able to improve your sales funnel, you´ll have to analyze every step along the process. This is where CRM software can help you tremendously because all of the information is already in there. With a proper analysis you can quickly spot the strengths and weaknesses of your funnel.

The software can tell you at which part of the sales funnel customers are getting ´stuck´. You might do well on getting leads but if you´re not converting them into a sale, they´re not going to help your business that much.

You´ll also get a very detailed profile of your clients through the CRM software. Now you can give them a more tailored service. You can automate certain processes to make your funnel function more smoothly. It will only cost you a fraction of your increased profits to get started with CRM software.

Accurants is a complete small business management software suite that will empower you to run your entire business.  We give our software for FREE for 30-days (try Accurants free for 30 days) & also completely for FREE to all non-profits.  During the trial period you could use all features – Invoicing, Time Tracking, Project Management, Expense Tracking, Mileage Log, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Accounting, and Taxes without any restrictions.

 Photo Credits: Kunsthofpassage Funnel Wall / by Serge Bystro / CC BY