The way buyers are purchasing is changing, yet many sales teams still base their strategies on the same models they did five years ago. One example is the traditional sales funnel — although it still has a place in modern sales, this tool for tracking the customer journey needs an update to remain relevant in today’s landscape.
While the sales flywheel, and other emerging sales models, are becoming more popular due to the way they prioritize customer experience, by modernizing your sales funnel approach, your team can access similar benefits without the need for a significant strategic change.
What Is the Sales Funnel?
The sales funnel allows sales teams to visualize and sort customers as they progress from initial contact to purchase. Every team’s sales funnel is slightly different, but there are fundamental “stages” that appear in each.
Traditionally, this sales tool is broken down using the AIDA model, which separates leads into four segments. The following might not directly reflect how your team approaches each sale, but they should seem familiar.
- Attention: Buyers have had their first interaction with your company, but are not yet prospects.
- Interest: Buyers are intrigued by your product offerings and begin to do more research into your company, possibly requesting a demo.
- Desire: Buyers are interested in purchasing your product, but are not yet ready to make their final decision.
- Action: Buyers have made their decision and are ready to close the deal.
While this model is a staple of many sales strategies, there are some industry leaders who believe it’s no longer an accurate depiction of the sales journey. However, the sales funnel can still be an effective tool if adapted with tactics that help meet modern customer expectations.
Sales Funnel vs Sales Flywheel
Popularized by HubSpot, the sales flywheel is a new way of thinking about the customer journey. This model is centered around the customer experience, and focuses on using customer momentum to drive sales.
The flywheel uses three phases to describe how your team approaches selling:
- Attract: Your team focuses on bringing in new customers with content that interests them and makes it easy for them to learn about your company.
- Engage: Your team opens opportunities for customers to connect and engage with them, such as omnichannel communication and email nurturing.
- Delight: Your team provides support and empowerment for customers, such as loyalty programs, proactive customer service, and feedback loops.
Unlike the sales funnel, the flywheel model has no definitive end. Customers are continuously cycling through, emphasizing the value of repeat sales.
While this new model exemplifies how modern sales is adjusting to focus on customer experience, it’s also more complicated to understand and can be more difficult to measure.
The sales funnel works in a linear fashion so you can access a more straightforward measurement of sales output and your sales team can better organize their leads.
Adapt Your Funnel for Modern Selling
Keep the flywheel ideology in mind by putting the customers first and maintaining momentum after a sale, and then you can easily adjust your sales funnel approach without having to overhaul your strategy. Your traditional sales funnel can maintain its usefulness for years to come with the following shifts.
Don’t Lose Customers at the Bottom
Although buyers may move downward through your sales funnel, that doesn’t mean their journey ends once the sale is closed. Imagine a net at the bottom of your sales funnel. Once you’ve reached the action stage, you can recapture buyers by bringing their attention to upsell or cross-selling opportunities.
By nurturing the buyer relationships that reach the bottom, you may have an easier time moving them back through the funnel for another product or add-on down the line.
Stay Flexible in Your Stages
The traditional sales funnel uses definitive stages. However, in reality, buyers will flow back and forth between these phases. To better understand and organize these indecisive leads, your team must remain flexible and meet these customers where they are without trying to make them fit into a one-way journey down the funnel.
Personalize Content to Stage-Specific Needs
Customer needs should be your first priority, no matter which sales model you choose. These needs will adjust as buyers move from one phase to the next. Your sales team needs to follow these changes and provide buyers with sales content that matches their latest needs using tactics like personalized interactive demos. This will create more momentum throughout the funnel, and keep buyers engaged and delighted.
Leverage Digital Solutions
To better understand and illustrate your customer’s journey through the sales funnel, you need modern solutions that provide valuable insights. Digital tools like Consensus Demolytics offer a look into the behaviors, engagement, and preferences of your buyers. This data can be used to enhance performance, keep buyers interested through the sales funnel, and cut down the length of your sales cycle.
Elevate Your Sales Tactics
The sales funnel is just one of many traditional sales strategies being modernized to meet today’s evolving customer needs. Consensus’ Product Experience Platform can help your sales team streamline outdated processes, reduce sales cycles, and close more deals, faster. Watch a demo to learn how.
