Funnel (Sales)
A prospect hears about you. They look you up. They have a call. They get a proposal. They sign. That path—from awareness to client—is your sales funnel. The funnel is the stages a prospect goes through: awareness → consideration → decision → customer. Understanding your funnel lets you see where people drop off and where to improve. Each stage has a volume and a transition rate; the product of those gives you how many clients you'll get from a given number of leads.
Same leads, different funnel. Two consultants each get 20 leads a month. One has a fuzzy process: some leads get a call, some get a proposal, some go cold. She doesn't track stages. The other has a defined funnel: lead → qualified → proposal → negotiation → closed. She knows 20 leads → 12 qualified → 6 proposals → 3 closed. The funnel makes the pipeline visible. You can improve conversion rate at each stage (e.g. better lead qualification, clearer proposals, faster follow-up) instead of guessing why revenue is up or down.
Map the stages from first contact to closed. Measure how many move at each step. Improve the leaky stages.
What the stages look like
Awareness. They've heard of you or found you (content, referral, search). They're not yet a lead—they're in your audience. The goal is to turn them into a lead (e.g. they book a call, fill a form, reply to an email).
Consideration. They're a lead: they've expressed interest. You're in conversation—discovery call, follow-up, maybe a proposal. The goal is to move them to decision (proposal sent, under review).
Decision. They have an offer. They're deciding yes or no. The goal is to close: answer objections, clarify scope, get the signature.
Customer. They've signed. They move out of the sales funnel and into client onboarding and service delivery.
You can name your stages differently (e.g. Lead → Qualified → Proposal → Closed); the principle is the same: stages, volumes, and conversion between stages.
How to use it
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Define your stages. Write down the steps from "first contact" to "signed." Typically 4–6 stages. Put them in your CRM so every prospect has a stage.
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Track volume at each stage. How many entered this month? How many moved to the next stage? How many closed? You need numbers to see where the funnel leaks.
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Improve the weak links. If 20 leads become 4 proposals, qualification or follow-up might be the issue. If 8 proposals become 2 closed, the proposal or the close might need work. Fix one stage at a time; measure again.
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Connect to sales cycle. How long does it take from lead to close? A long cycle means you need a larger pipeline to hit the same number of closes per month. Funnel + cycle = predictable revenue.