What is a sales funnel, in a business owner's words?

The name comes from the shape: many people enter the wide part and only some reach the end. In practice it is not a tool or a program. It is a way of looking at the customer's path and asking, step by step, what they need to move forward.

The five stages, in a business owner's words

1. Discover. The person does not know you yet. They see you in a search, in a post, in an ad, or hear someone talk about you.
2. Compare. They know you exist and are looking at alternatives. They try to understand what you do, for whom and why you are different.
3. Get in touch. They decide to talk to you: they call, write, fill in a form or book a conversation.
4. Buy. They receive a proposal, ask questions and decide.
5. Recommend or return. If it went well, they buy again or tell others about you.

What each stage asks for

Each step has a customer question and something the company shows that answers it.

• Discover: "who is this company?" A well-filled Google profile for the company, a clear social media post or a page that appears in search answers it.
• Compare: "why this one and not another?" Service pages, examples of work and frequently asked questions answer it.
• Get in touch: "how do I talk to them?" A visible phone number, a short form and a quick reply answer it.
• Buy: "what will I get, and when?" A clear proposal and honest timelines answer it.
• Recommend: "was it worth it?" Follow-up after the work is done answers it.

Where people drop out

It is rarely where you think. People who say "we need more website visitors" often have enough and lose them at the compare stage, because the page does not explain what they do. Others get good enquiries but take days to reply, and the person has already chosen another company. Seeing the whole path avoids spending money in the wrong place.

One caveat

The funnel is a drawing, not a law. People skip stages, go back, talk to a friend, let weeks go by. Use it to organise the questions, not to expect everyone to follow the same line.

And in a local service business?

The funnel is usually shorter: the person searches, looks at the profile and the website, and calls. That does not make it less important, it makes it easier to look at. Two or three stages handled well are worth more than a complicated diagram nobody follows.

To measure what happens at the get-in-touch step, see how to tell if your website brings in enquiries. For the compare step, what customers ask before buying. And if you want to understand the whole, our Digital Marketing work starts by drawing this path with your company.

Draw yours on a sheet

Take a sheet and draw five boxes in a row, one per stage. Under each, write where that happens today in your company: where people discover you, what they read before getting in touch, who replies, how the proposal is made. Then ask your last three customers how they reached you and mark the path they took. Imagine a metalwork shop (an invented example) that finds two of the three came by recommendation and looked at the website before calling. That company's funnel runs through a good page, more than through ads.

In short

• A funnel is the customer's path, from discovery to recommendation.
• Each stage has a customer question and something the company shows that answers it.
• People are often lost at comparison or in slow replies.
• The funnel organises questions; people do not follow a straight line.

Quick questions

Do I need software to have a funnel?

No. Every company has one, even without drawing it. Software can help record the stages later, but the first step is a sheet of paper.

Is a funnel for small or service businesses?

It is. A local service business can have just three stages: find, get in touch, decide. What matters is seeing where people give up.

Is it the same as getting contacts from potential customers?

No. Getting contacts from potential customers (also called lead generation) happens in the early stages. The funnel is the whole path, up to the purchase and after it.