What is a sales funnel? Find out on a journey through time...

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Do you enjoy watching and following a good TV series? Then let's take a trip to understand what a sales funnel is .

Nowadays, there are countless options available – especially on streaming channels, with the most varied themes and high-quality productions. And the themes of “time” and “technology” are recurrent , as they always arouse a lot of interest, due to the possibilities they offer to expand the imagination.

But series are not a recent innovation . Producers discovered this niche a long time ago, since the early days of TV.

In the 1960s, several futuristic series were produced, such as “Lost in Space” (which has a current version available on Netflix ) , “Planet of the Apes” (which also had more recent versions) and “Star Trek”. It was a kind of “Black Mirror” of the 60s, only longer. Remember that the popular internet didn’t even exist yet.

Well. At the same time, a series called “Time Tunnel” was also produced . In short, it consisted of a secret military experiment, developed by scientists who created a psychedelic tunnel that would have the ability to take people to some place in the future or past.

Wow! Can you imagine visiting historical scenes at the telegram data exact moment they happened? Or even knowing what life on Earth will be like in 50 or 100 years? It's an old dream of humanity, isn't it?

Two scientists were assigned to this important mission. But when they set off, several problems occurred, leaving the two characters “trapped” in a kind of time spiral. They were lost, but they had the opportunity to experience, in real time, great moments in history. They met Napoleon and his battle of Waterloo , were placed inside a rocket headed to the moon (man hadn’t reached it yet!), saw the Titanic and almost sank with it… and so on…

Okay, but why am I telling you this?

This daydream and the memory of the series – which I watched a lot as a child (yes, I'm old enough for that) – came to me when reflecting on the importance of a good sales funnel .


What is a sales funnel?

But… what does one thing have to do with the other?

I explain. And I believe that it is relatively reasonable for managers, organizations, and marketing and sales professionals in particular to have knowledge of the concepts of what a sales funnel is and its stages.

I then constructed the following analogy: a sales funnel is like a time tunnel . But not like the time tunnel in the series, where we can get lost in space-time, going from one place to another, without direction.

You can even consider and treat the sales funnel as an experiment, where variables are constantly exercised, evaluated, adjusted, adapted, corrected and exercised again. But there is already enough knowledge available to have control over it. Yes, that's the word: control.



The funnel and its stages

The definition of the stages that make up the sales funnel, the design of the journey that the lead must go through until they are converted into a customer, and the content that will be available at each stage, as a fundamental part of this process, must be very well outlined, so that you can have control over the actions and reactions.

And, having this control, allows you to have predictability. And having predictability allows you to set goals that lead to the growth and development of your business , of your company.

In the space-time of the sales funnel, each stage – the top, middle and bottom of the funnel – needs to be thought out in order to provide a balanced and stimulating journey for the lead, until they are converted into a customer. This is called planning.

Ok. But you may ask: can I determine the time in which a visitor converts into a lead, in which a lead converts into a qualified lead , in which a qualified lead converts into a customer ?

Yes, it is possible. But that is precisely why it is necessary to combine variables, such as your segment of activity with a good sales strategy, and that all the factors you consider important are included in the funnel. This is also part of the planning and should be included in a good marketing plan. In our case, a digital marketing plan. See how our methodology works.