How to Optimize a Sales Funnel

02 Dec How to Optimize a Sales Funnel

The sales funnel stages are a visual representation of the buyer’s journey from discovery to conversion. It starts at the top where there are huge numbers of potential customers just waiting to discover your products and services and ends in the smallest portion where qualified leads finally become paying customers.

In an ideal world, everyone who starts on this path will naturally and easily continue all the way through the funnel.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of room along this path for those leads to fall away.

Maybe they didn’t see the products they really wanted.

Maybe they got lost somewhere in the company’s CRM.

Or, it could just be a change in the sales team that left a lot of information floating around without anyone to handle it.

We’ve discussed how to create and manage a sales funnel before, and we’ve also looked at different ways to give your leads a second chance.

Now, let’s look at some simple and important ways you can make sure your sales funnel is operating at peak efficiency and that it is fully optimized to keep the leads flowing while giving your sales team more time to do what they’re best at: closing sales.

Automating Your Processes

The more time you have to spend manually optimizing your sales funnel, the less time you will have to actually close the sales that are ready to take that final step.

You can automate many of the relevant outreach processes that are necessary to keep the sales funnel filled with new prospects while freeing up the sales team to be more productive.

At Aktify, we can help you start up this kind of automation by providing up to 8 automatic outreach attempts, through texts, emails, or phone calls. We can also integrate our system directly with your CRM so you can send unresponsive leads to us the minute they stall.

Then, once we revive one of those leads, we can set the appointments for you and notify the sales rep with an email or through the CRM.

Of course, if any of these leads still don’t move like they should, we can determine why they’re having concerns and get feedback on how to improve the process.

All of this can happen automatically so none of it gets in the way of engaging with qualified leads and closing the deal.

Fall Out Doesn’t Mean All Out

Inevitably, some potential customers are just going to stall somewhere in the lead funnel. Others will seem to fall completely out of the pipeline, never to be heard from again.

An optimal sales funnel should be prepared for this inevitability and have a solution to pull them all right back in.

A simple email out of the blue probably isn’t the ideal way to do that, of course. There are, however, a few things you can do to revive these stalled leads and get more potentials moving through the pipeline.

Some techniques for optimizing lead revival includes:

• Discovering the reasons why leads are stalling.
• Gather actionable insights on all your leads.
• Use an effective system to make more contact attempts without cutting into your sales team’s bandwidth.
• Set appointments quickly, notifying the sales team members through email or their preferred CRM.
• Create new reasons for stalled leads to begin engaging with you (goodwill gifts, contests, etc.).

A Truly Optimized Funnel Lets You Forget about Funneling

The most optimal sales funnel gives you the opportunity to focus less on the actual funnel and more on the qualified leads.

Too often, the sales team is forced to spend their valuable time modifying processes and reaching out to inactive leads just to keep things loaded in the top of the funnel. While these are important activities and a necessary part of keeping the leads flowing, it is not as effective as turning those leads into actual sales.

When your sales team can spend their time focused on closing sales instead of maintaining a funnel, your conversions can increase and your revenue can grow.

If your leads are stalling and your sales flow is stuttering, contact Aktify today and see how we can help.