The Sales Funnel

Last week we had the opportunity to hear from Grove City’s football coach, Andrew DiDonato. As well as being an interesting guest speaker, he gave a run down on the Sales Funnel and how it works to your benefit during the sales process.

I’ve never really been interested in sales before this class and I didn’t really think of sales having any particular models or designs built in to the process to create more effective sales. I really enjoyed the sales funnel model however, and also how Coach DiDonato explained how it works.

Features Tell, Benefits Sell

Before even getting to the sales funnel there are two important things that all salespeople must know. The first being the heading of this paragraph. “Features Tell, Benefits Sell”. Customers do not want to give up their hard-earned cash for cool features. They are looking for benefits, benefits being how their lives are improved from before. Sales representatives need to hone their focus on selling the benefits of their products. Second, Salespeople need to understand that the most important characteristic they can have is “trust”. If someone doesn’t trust you, they aren’t going to buy something from you.

Understanding the Sales Funnel

There are four aspects of the sales funnel with one pre-aspect that needs to be addressed before entering the funnel. This is called the pre-call analysis. The pre-call analysis is when you gather background information on your target customer. You want to know as much information as possible about who you’re selling to so you can know what sort of questions to ask them and what to focus on. The first part of the funnel is called the “need analysis”. During this part, you want to focus on asking open-ended questions. Pay attention to what the customer talks about as it will help launch you into the need awarness part of the funnel.

During the need awareness part, you want to ask more probing questions. Find out more details on what they really want or what they’re looking for. The next part of the funnel is need solution. This is where “features tell, benefits sell” comes in. Focus on explaining the benefits the customer will get. You can use features to help target specific benefits, but do not try to sell the features. The last part of the funnel is need satisfaction. This is the part where you ask for the business. Where you get them to take action. Hopefully, if you’ve gone through the sales funnel correctly and naturally, they customer will seriously consider your offer.