Task 5

1. What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is the marketing term for the journey potential customers go through on the way to purchase. There are several steps to a  sales funnel, usually known as

the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel, although these steps may vary depending on a company's sales model.

2. What are the process and stages involved in making a sale?

The Seven Stages of the Sales Cycle

 Prospecting

 Make Contact

 Qualify your prospect

 Nurture your prospect

 Present your offer

 Overcome objections

 Close the sale

Step 1: Prospecting and qualifying

Before planning a sale, do your research to identify the people or companies who might be interested in your product or service. This step is called prospecting, and it’s

the foundational step for the rest of the sales process. A lead is a potential buyer. A prospect is a lead that is qualified or determined to be ready, willing and able to

buy. The prospecting and qualifying step relates to the needs awareness step in the buying process.

Step 2: Preparation/pre-approach

Before making a sales call, email or visit, it is important to do your homework by researching your customer and planning what you are going to say. A good

salesperson researches a prospect, familiarising with the customer’s needs and learning all the relevant background info about the individual or business.

Step 3: Approach

This is where you make a first impression. You do this by introducing yourself, explaining the purpose of your call or visit, and establishing a rapport with your

prospect. First impressions are crucial to building the customer’s trust. You work to establish a rapport with the customer first. This usually involves introductions,

making small talk, asking warm-up questions, and generally explaining who you are and whom you represent.

There are three common approach methods:

Premium approach: Presenting your potential client with a gift at the beginning of your interaction

Question approach: Asking a question to get the prospect interested

Product approach: Giving the prospect a sample or a free trial to review and evaluate your service

Step 4: Presentation

Your research and preparation pays off during the presentation, when you propose your sales solution to your prospect.
By the time you are ready to present you will understand your customer’s needs well enough to be sure you are offering a solution the customer could use. The

presentation should be tailored to the customer, explaining how the product meets that person or company’s needs. Now is the time to focus on the benefits of your

product or service. This might involve a product demonstration, videos, PowerPoint presentations, or letting the customer look at or interact with the product.

At this point, the customer is using the information being shared as part of a suite of possible solutions. They might be researching your offer compared to others. It is

during this part of the sale where you can use upselling and cross selling to engage the customer further.

Once you have identified your customers needs you will know if you they would receive additional benefits from an enhanced product or service offering. This is

upselling. Cross selling is pitching additional products that relate to the product your customer is considering or purchasing (also known as suggestive selling).

Step 5: Handling objections

After you’ve made your sales presentation, it’s natural for your customer to have some hesitations or concerns, known as  objections. Good salespeople look at

objections as opportunities to further understand and respond to customers’ needs.

Step 6: Closing the sale

The important – and sometimes challenging – part of the sale is closing it! This is where you actually have to ask if the potential customer is willing to make the

purchase. If your customer has been convinced your product or service will meet their needs, you close the sale by agreeing on the terms of the sale and finishing up the

transaction.

Depending on your business, you might try one of these three closing strategies.

Alternative choice close: Assume the sale and offer the prospect a choice, where both options close the sale. For example, ‘Will you be paying the whole fee up front or

in installments?’, ‘Will that be cash or card?’ or ‘Would you like me to wrap that for you?’

Extra inducement close: Offer something extra to get the prospect to close, such as a free month of service or a discount.

Standing room only close: Create urgency by expressing time is of the essence. For example, ‘The price will be going up after this month’ or ‘We only have six spots

left’.

Step 7: Follow up

OK, so you’ve made the sale. While it might seem like you’ve accomplished your goal, the customer journey continues. Follow-up is an important part of assuring

customer satisfaction, retaining customers and prospecting for new customers. This might mean sending a thank you note, calling the customer to make sure the

product was received in satisfactory condition, or checking in to make sure a service has met the customer’s expectations.

3. Differentiate Marketing funnel & Sales Funnel.

The marketing funnel usually focuses on presenting a brand to diverse audiences. Its goal is to capture prospects who can easily transition into buyers. When such

prospects are identified, and they develop an interest in the product or service, they enter the sales funnel. At this point, the prospect becomes a sales prospect.

The sales funnel can be defined as the system that guides a sales prospect from the takeover stage (marketing) to conversion. The funnel is at the narrowest end of the

cone-shaped marketing funnel.

There exists a fine line between a marketing funnel and a sales funnel. As a matter of fact, these terms are used interchangeably, and splitting them up is hard. The

single salient difference between these terms seems to be the context of use.
Typically, sales and marketing are two distinct functions. Each has its unique journey map that outlines the progress of a prospective customer. Marketing builds the

interest, and the bottom of its funnel marks the top of the sales funnel. Consequently, the sales funnel is powered by marketing activities that generate awareness to

create product demand.

However, many businesses are merging these functions, and it is becoming increasingly hard to separate a sales support marketing strategy from a marketing technique.

Besides, companies are coming up with custom-made stages for each funnel to streamline their operations. As a result, there has been a blurred line between what the

sales funnel and marketing funnel cover.

4. If you’re facing any objection from your leads and how are you going to overcome in order to convert them to a valuable customer of our corporation?

Objections are inevitable but should never be seen as a door slamming closed in your face. The key is to understand why the customer is objecting – you must take the

time to uncover this if you hope to move forward in a mutually beneficial way. While customers may object for many reasons, let’s take a look at few common causes:

May simply be lack of knowledge: “We don’t need a mobile solution.”

May be a specific, warranted concern: “Your price is higher than everyone else.”

May represent a hidden agenda: The customer has a preference or incentive to use a different product but doesn’t say that outright.

May be a perception issue: “The Cloud isn’t secure.”

We may not be clear about their interests: “That’s not a priority for me this year.”

Take action: Think about the objections you receive in your line of business. Write down an example for each of the above types of objections. The techniques in this

article will assist you with these and many more that you’re likely to face. You may not overcome them every time, but at least you didn’t give up before even trying.

Here are some of the top tactics for handling them:

Tactic #1: Gratitude

Say “Thank You!”  Always thank your customer when they put an objection in front of you because this is an opportunity to address it and move on with your deal.   In

fact, ask them about all of their concerns and objections right up front and you’ll receive even more opportunities to turn the table to your advantage. Don’t forget, an

objection is better than a “no” because it gives you some place to begin the conversation. I can’t tell you the number of times a simple thank you has helped to diffuse a

situation with an angry or upset customer and get me on my way to solving their problem or getting them back on the happy train.

Tactic #2: Empathize

Empathy is a way to connect with your customer on a personal level, show you care and that you’re listening. All of us have had to say “no” at one time or another, and

in business, you’re not always speaking to the decision maker. Often times, they’re just the messenger so don’t shoot yourself in the foot by getting defensive. After

thanking the customer for bringing the objection to your attention, empathize in a way that will help further diffuse the situation. For example: I hear this a lot, I’m

sorry you feel that way, it sounds like this has been very frustrating, I hear what you’re saying and I think I can help. By empathizing with the customer, they’re more

likely to open up and share more.

Tactic #3: Let the Discovery Begin

Now that you’ve begun to diffuse the situation, take your time to uncover what’s really going on. Good customer discovery always focuses on asking open-ended

questions. If the customer can respond with a “yes” or “no,” then you’ve got to rephrase your question. This is a lot harder than it sounds and it takes practice to

develop this ability. You can test yourself at home or with a friend – have a conversation with someone and only ask them open-ended questions. If you get stuck, just
do what every 4 year old does and ask “why?” — you’ll be amazed at how powerful that little question can be! Building rapport is equally important during the

discovery phase.  Check out the recent blog article titled “Your Best Sales Prospecting Asset is You” for some great tips on building rapport and trust.

Tactic #4: Ask, Probe, Confirm

Now that you’ve got the questions flowing, it’s important to keep the conversation moving further and deeper. As the customer responds to your open-ended questions,

you should probe further by asking more questions about what they’ve just said. If at any time you don’t understand something, ask them to clarify.  A great example of

this tactic is when the customer mentions an acronym or other words specific to their company or business process. Experts say that it takes at least 4-5 layers of

questions to really uncover the pain or nature of the objection. Take your time and keep asking questions until you truly understand the reason for the objection and

they’ve satisfied you’re curiosity.  Finally, restate what you heard in your own words and ask them to confirm that you’ve understood them correctly.  Barry Rhein

published a great whitepaper about the power of open-ended discovery questions titled “15 Sure Fire Ways to Qualify any Prospect.”

Tactic #5: Show Them The Value

To keep your customer around for the long haul, they must see value in your product or service. The purpose of good discovery is to understand what’s important to

them, why it matters, and what their business would be like without your product or service. When you uncover a pain, your next step should be to quantify what that

pain is costing the business. If the customer continues to object or restate the same objection then you’re not asking the right questions to align your value to their pain.

Pain can cost a company in a different ways; lost revenue, wasted time, customer satisfaction, employee turnover and more.  GuruGanesha Khalsa of Sandler

Training fame provides a great example of aligning pain to value using this example:  By taking the pain point and expanding on it, the rep can then encourage the

customer or prospect to quantify the problem in business and personal terms thereby convincing them that purchasing a product/service to resolve the issue is worth the

investment.

Tactic #6: Back It Up With Proof & Customer References

Now that you’ve gone through steps 1-5, it’s time to back up your statements with industry research, customer references or customer success stories to prove the value

of your product or solution. For research, find out what analyst firms say about your industry or product and incorporate this data into your conversations. I’ve had

great success getting new customers interested by mentioning what leading industry analysts say about our products. Customer references are another great tool

because those stories often represent a pain or objection that was overcome with success. I challenge everyone I mentor to learn at least 3 new and relevant customer

stories a month. Overtime, your stories will set you apart from others and give your customers another reason to trust you with their business.  I’ve never seen another

company sell it better through customer stories than salesforce.com. Take a look at the customer stories on our website and see firsthand how you could leverage the

value of references for your business.

Managing objections requires practice. Take these 6 rules and apply them to your business. You’ll see very quickly that they do work. We saw immediate increases in

qualified leads and higher close rates in a very short time by employing these techniques because we were able to demonstrate how our product can be used to

overcome real pain in their business.

Peter Drucker once said that “The quality in a product or service is not what you put into it, it’s what the customer gets out of it.”   Think about what’s in it for the

customer, take what you’ve learned from your discovery and wrap your solution in terms of values and benefits that will uniquely help them – this is how you delight

your customers.

5. Explain the sales funnel with a real time example or a case study.

A sales funnel is a visual representation of the journey from your prospect’s first contact with you until a completed purchase. A sales funnel is directly connected to

the customer journey phases, which can be sorted into three parts: top, middle, and bottom.

Stages of a sales funnel

While each organization has its own way of managing the sales process and customer touchpoints towards a purchase, these are structured into three distinct stages.
1. Top of the sales funnel: awareness and discovery

Early in their journey, your potential customers are going through a specific problem and are researching and learning about it.

This early in the journey, they are still identifying their challenge. They have many questions about it as they likely haven’t named the problem itself—they just know

the symptoms.

They are trying to verbalize their problem and are looking for a trusted source of information and education. Here are some examples of questions they might be having

for specific industries:

A customer support software: “Customer support industry benchmarks”

A mattress store: “Why does my back hurt after sleeping?”

An electricity provider: “Average electricity bill”

At the top of the sales funnel, your prospect wants to feel educated and confident to be able to talk about their questions and problems when the time comes.

From a marketing perspective, they want content that will guide them through the topic that matters to them, including blog posts, videos, and even quizzes.

2. Middle of the sales funnel: researching solutions

In this stage, you’re no longer dealing with nameless and faceless contacts. They have now named and defined their problem, and they are looking into all available

solutions such as products and services.

Questions in the middle of the funnel are no longer generic. Instead of asking ‘why’ questions, your leads are diving into a range of opportunities to remedy their

struggle.

Using the same industries as in the previous section, these might be their questions:

“How to provide good customer support over the phone?”

“How to choose the best mattress for [condition]?”

“How to break down an electricity bill?” or “How to choose an electricity provider?”

At the middle of the sales funnel, you lead is diving deeper into the specifics of the problem. They understand what’s bothering them in great detail and want to know

the possible solutions.

At this point, they might not necessarily be evaluating solution providers such as specific companies and their products. Instead, they are looking for types of solutions

available to them.

For example, they have yet to decide if they will buy a software solution for in-house support teams or outsource support altogether. Another example: they aren’t sure

if they just need a mattress topper or if they should buy a new mattress.

The content that serves your leads best in this stage includes in-depth guides, comparison-style checklists, pros versus cons lists, and other insightful pieces.

In this stage, your Leads become Qualified as you get to talk to them and ask them questions that help you decide whether your offer is the right fit for their problem.
3. Bottom of the sales funnel: making an educated purchase decision

Finally, the bottom of your funnel is when your leads now know everything about their problem, the best type of solution for them, and are ready to select the provider

to purchase this solution from.

This is why their questions and concerns in this stage become vendor-driven. So their online searches, as well as their questions to you, might look something like this:

“Does [provider 1] provide better support software features than [provider 2]?”

“Who offers the longest and most complete warranty policy for mattresses?”

“What are the electricity contract terms with [provider 1] versus [provider 2]?”

That’s what helps your lead make a decision that suits their exact needs, specific problems, budget, and other relevant resources.

The best content for the bottom of the funnel are frequently-asked-questions pages, videos about product features, live demos, and side-to-side competitive feature

analysis. These reinforce their confidence in your offer as they keep seeing its fit for their specific problem.

This is when your Qualified leads go through Proposal presented and Negotiation phases, after which you ideally win their business.

Real-life examples of sales funnels

Tricentis

Tricentis is a software testing tool with a suite of products that spans across automation, integration, and optimization. They are one of the most innovative tools for

continuous software testing. Its easy to assume Tricentis wants to be found as someone searches for a software testing tool—and they are. They actually rank highly

with a guide called The Top Software Testing Tools: The Ultimate List of Lists for the software testing tools search.

Because of this, they can easily build awareness with their target audience.

As their potential customers land on their website, they can get in touch with the company in several ways: by starting a free trial, selecting the ‘Ask an expert’ option

(top right) or ‘Talk with sales’ option (bottom right).

Tricentis: Middle of the funnel

Once again, a sales rep has plenty of information about the lead, such as their job title and company name. This is a great foundation for starting a qualifying sales

conversation.

Furthermore, Tricentis pride themselves with a huge resource library, which means that as they nurture their sales leads, they can send them incredibly specific content

for the challenges their lead is facing.

everything they need and move them further into the funnel.

Tricentis: Bottom of the funnel

When it’s time for a Tricentis lead to make a purchase decision, they need more information and reassurance that the product is the right way to go.

This is where Tricentis sales reps can direct the lead toward their ROI calculator, their customer success stories, and even perks like their Tosca Community.

Being a match for their prospect’s needs and requirements, as well as by ensuring them they’ll be properly looked after as customers, they can easily win highly

qualified prospects over.

SRUTHI CHANDRASEKHARAN