Are you facing challenges in converting leads to sales? Well, you’re possibly not alone, as companies often make mistakes midway through booking a potential lead into revenue by not following the right sales funnel.
To put things in context, the conversion rate across all industries comes at a mere 3.9%. At the same time, the conversion rate for B2B tech is as low as 1.7% while for professional services, it averages around 9.3%.
It primarily happens because of the lack of knowledge among sales professionals about sales funnels and the reluctance of companies to train employees on the right sales tactics that align well with funnel strategies.
If you’re not aware of the sales funnel; fret not. In this article, we will explain what sales funnels are while sharing examples of top 10 sales funnels so that you can take inspiration to create the perfect sales funnel for your business.
Sales funnels are essential frameworks that guide potential customers through their buying journey, from initial awareness to final purchase. In simple terms, a sales funnel outlines each step a prospect lead takes. It helps businesses understand and influence the decision-making process.
To be sure, a sales funnel is visualized as a funnel because it narrows at each stage. The gradual reduction of the funnel represents the decline in the number of prospects leads as they move closer to becoming paying customers.
Most marketers believe that 3.1% to 5% is a good funnel conversion rate, which means that of the total prospects in the beginning, converting 3.1% to 5% to customers is a decent performance.
A sales funnel is important in sales of all kinds because it provides an overview for guiding prospects from initial talks to the final purchase. It helps in identifying where potential customers are in their respective buying journeys. Based on their journey, the sales team can make changes to their sales strategies and messaging to improve conversion chances.
A sales funnel helps in lead qualification which basically means it will help you find customers that are genuinely interested in buying a product or service. Since it helps in filtering real buyers from “window-shoppers”, it helps in improving the conversion ratio. It also streamlines the entire sale process.
Moreover, using a well-designed sales funnel will help businesses achieve better use of resources, which eventually leads to higher conversion rates, and ultimately, increased revenue.
Here are the top 10 sales funnels effective in 2024:
The Lead Magnet Funnel is one of the top-performing sales funnels. The funnel is made in such a way that it attracts potential customers by providing them with valuable content in exchange for their contact information.
This funnel can help your business build a targeted email list which you can use to get leads who can eventually be converted into customers.
Awareness: Attract visitors with an interesting lead magnet which could be an ebook, webinar, or checklist.
Capture: Collect contact information through a landing page.
Nurture: Send follow-up emails to provide additional value and build trust.
Conversion: Encourage leads to make a purchase with a special offer or discount.
Why Lead Magnet Funnel Is Effective? By providing valuable content upfront, this funnel establishes credibility and trust, making it easier to convert leads into paying customers.
The Tripwire Funnel involves offering a low-cost product (referred to as tripwire), which is too good to pass, to convert leads into paying customers quickly. It also helps brands introduce themselves to customers.
Customers are more likely to buy higher-priced products or services of a brand if they like a low-cost product. And therefore, a tripwire funnel helps in brand promotion and marketing, if not sales.
Attract: Use a lead magnet to capture interest.
Convert: Offer a low-priced product which offers more than value for money.
Upsell: Give additional offers or discounts for higher-priced products post-purchase.
Why Tripwire Funnel Is Effective? This funnel brings into action the psychological principle of commitment, where a small initial purchase increases the chances of future purchases.
In webinar funnels, as the name suggests, businesses first educate and engage with potential customers with live or recorded webinars. The main aim of these webinars is primarily to educate potential buyers about products and services, with the hidden motive of converting these leads into sales.
Webinar funnels are used for selling high-ticket items and services. So, it works great for companies in domains such as software and IT services, higher education, real estate, and professional services, among others.
Attract: Promote the webinar through ads, emails, and social media.
Engage: Provide informative content to gain credibility and trust among potential buyers.
Pitch: Give an irresistible offer to prospects at the end of the webinar.
Follow-Up: Send follow-up emails to attendees and non-attendees with additional offers to get more sales.
Why Is Webinar Funnel Effective? Webinars provide businesses a chance to showcase their domain expertise with in-depth interaction as they education prospects with the aim of building strong relationships and trust with potential customers.
A sales page funnel focuses on driving traffic to a single, high-converting sales page that has all the right call-to-action (CTA) commands. It is simple to create and is highly effective for selling products and services directly to customers.
The sales page should be designed in such a way that customers don’t close the window or leave the page without completing the purchase. For this, try offering them additional offers or discounts on the page itself.
Attract: Use targeted ads and SEO to drive traffic to the sales page.
Convert: Come up with a sales page with strong calls to action (CTA) commands.
Follow-Up: Implement email follow-ups for leftover carts.
Why is a Sales Page Funnel Effective? The sales page funnel minimizes distractions and focuses on turning conversions into sales by concentrating efforts on a single sales page.
Product launch funnels are made with the aim of creating buzz for a product which is yet to be launched. The funnel aims to turn the buzz into anticipation, which can eventually lead to product sales.
This type of funnel typically involves a series of pre-launch-related activities to build excitement and keep the audience engaged throughout. The better the reach of pre-sales, the better will be inbound queries and sales.
Pre-Launch: Share teaser content, behind-the-scenes looks, and countdowns.
Launch: Announce the product and provide early-bird offers or limited-time discounts.
Post-Launch: Continue engagement with follow-up content and offers.
Why Is Product Launch Funnel Effective? This funnel builds anticipation and urgency for a product or service which is not available in the market thus far. This leads to a surge in initial sales and momentum for the new product.
Membership funnels, which are usually used by companies that offer subscription-based products or services, aim to build a community of loyal customers who pay regularly for access to exclusive content or benefits.
The funnel helps in bringing loyal customers by giving them free trials or by offering them discounts on buying services for a longer period. It is best for software, media, education and fitness companies.
Attract: Use free trials or lead magnets to capture interest.
Convert: Offer a compelling value proposition for joining the membership.
Engage: Provide ongoing value through exclusive content, community access, or other benefits.
Retain: Implement retention strategies such as regular updates, member-only deals, and personalized support.
Why Is Membership Funnel Effective? Membership funnels create recurring revenue streams and create a sense of community and loyalty among customers.
Survey funnels, as the name suggests, use surveys to gather information about potential customers so that businesses can target them with better campaigns, offers and discounts. The collected data is used to personalize the sales approach and offer solutions that perfectly fit the requirements of each customer.
Attract: Bring traffic to the survey page with ads or right CTAs.
Collect: Gain insights into your customers through engaging survey questions.
Segment: Analyze responses to segment leads into different categories.
Convert: Send personalized offers and content based on survey responses.
Why Is Survey Funnel Effective? The survey funnel personalizes the sales approach and helps businesses increase their relevance and engagement to improve their conversion rates.
Affiliate marketing funnels use the power of affiliate partnerships to divert traffic to your website and eventually sales, app installs, or any other activities you want them to perform.
To be sure, affiliates promote the product in exchange for a commission on sales. Usually, the commission is a percentage of the total sale value. In some cases, however, it can be a fixed amount irrespective of the sale amount.
Recruit: Identify and onboard affiliates who can promote the brand.
Promote: Provide affiliates with marketing materials and track their performance.
Convert: Optimize the sales process to convert affiliate-driven traffic.
Reward: Pay commissions and incentivize affiliates to continue promoting.
Why Is Affiliate Marketing Funnel Effective? Affiliate marketing extends the reach of the brand as it uses the influence of affiliates to bring sales without upfront advertising costs.
SaaS Free Trial Funnels are primarily for software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. In this, software companies offer a free trial to attract users and convert them into paying customers.
The funnel introduces the top features of the software on a limited basis to customers who want to use it but don’t want to pay before using it.
Attract: Promote the free trial through ads, SEO, and content marketing.
Sign-Up: Simplify the sign-up process to reduce friction.
Engage: Provide onboarding and support to ensure a positive trial experience.
Convert: Use email campaigns and in-app messaging to push trial users to upgrade.
Why Is SaaS Free Trial Funnel Effective? This funnel, by offering a free trial, reduces barriers to entry and allows potential customers to experience the value of the product firsthand without committing to payment.
Around 74% of buyers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized as per them. High-ticket funnels are primarily used by companies selling high-value products or services. The funnel focuses on building trust and showing value through personalized interactions.
In this, customers are treated as no less than lords as you have to take care of their individual demands and can not sell them a one-size-fits-all solution. It has to be highly personalized to get them interested in the product or service.
Attract: Use targeted ads and content marketing to reach potential high-ticket buyers.
Qualify: Pre-qualify leads through surveys or consultations to ensure they are a good fit.
Engage: Offer in-depth content, demos, and one-on-one consultations to build trust.
Convert: Present a personalized offer and close the sale through direct interaction.
Why Is High-Ticket Funnel Effective? High-ticket funnels rely on building strong relationships and trust – important for selling high-value products or services. Personalization is the key to high-ticket sales. \
Now that you have learned about the top 10 sales funnels that work great for brands in bringing new business, it’s time to build a high-converting sales funnel for your company. You can either replicate one of the existing sales funnel or modify it based on the needs and requirements of your business to make the perfect sales funnel.
Here are the six areas you need to focus on to create a high-converting sales funnel:
Businesses should always first find their right target audience in the first place before selecting or creating a sales funnel. Understand the likings of the customers, as well as their preferences for particular features. Collect and use these insights to make a sales funnel that will guarantee higher success.
When creating a high-converting sales funnel, identify the type of prospecting for each funnel phase. Both cold and warm calls have their place. Cold outreach works well in the awareness phase to introduce your business. Warm outreach, on the other hand, targets consumers already familiar with your brand. The two complement each other.
Lead generation is one of the crucial aspects of sales. It’s primarily the first part of the sales funnel, and therefore, you must give it a special focus. For attracting customers, you can either go for inorganic or organic traffic to your website which brings attention to your brand and drives sales. You can run ad campaigns or optimize your website as per SEO guidelines to drive more traffic to your website.
There is nothing like too many leads. So, even if you already have a handful of leads, you may want more. For this, you need to continue running campaigns so that you can reach out to as many prospects as you can.
Around 67% of businesses use lead nurturing for their sales funnel.
But it is more important to stay in touch and nurture leads that are past the ‘awareness’ stage as you will have a better chance of conversion with these leads. These lead nurturing campaigns help you turn prospects into sales.
Besides lead nurturing campaigns, you can guide prospects into customers by reaching out to your leads via social media. You can also add prospects to newsletters or invite them to webinars to convert them into sales. You can also engage one-on-one with prospects if you’re selling a high-ticket product or service.
Some funnels don’t end at sales. But they even focus on retaining and acquiring new customers through word of mouth of existing customers. Some funnels even try to upsell or cross-sell products or services to customers who have just evolved from being just a lead.
Hope this article provides you with enough depth and insights for you to create your own high-growth sales funnel which can optimize your sales machinery and help you be better at what you are already doing. You can either directly integrate any of the sales funnel into your operations or customize it as per your business to get the maximum return on investments.
Not sure where to start? Book a call with our AI expert to create an AI sales assistant for you.