To be successful in any business venture, building strong customer relationships is necessary. One of the most vital concepts for creating meaningful customer relationships in the digital marketing industry is the Customer Relationship Management funnel or CRM funnel. This powerful concept can transform an almost non-existent business into a multi-million dollar brand. A CRM funnel is a functional lead capture tool that can help organisations manage leads, improve their customer base and eventually convert leads into sales.
What is a Sales Funnel?
To create an effective CRM funnel, you need to first understand what a sales funnel is. Similar to how a real-life funnel looks like, a sales funnel can be visualised as an upside-down triangle. However, unlike the real-world funnel that filters down the same amount of substances that have been poured in, prospects are narrowed down as they slowly reach the end of the sales funnel.
Find out how many potential stages you need to build within your sales funnel. Then, identify what necessary action your leads need to take, for them to move to the next step.
Once everything is set, you can now apply your sales funnel within your CRM, allowing you to build your CRM funnel.
What is a CRM Funnel?
Simply put, a CRM funnel is a sales methodology that refers to a CRM tool enabling businesses to track and communicate with current and potential customers. A CRM funnel allows orgnisations to track and manage leads and determine the necessary steps needed for each stage in order to move leads to the next step. With a CRM funnel, businesses can easily track sales history, conversations, and other relevant elements that may affect customer relationships.
What are the Different Stages of A CRM Funnel?
Like the basic sales funnel, a CRM funnel has four main stages:
The Awareness Stage
The first stage in the CRM funnel is known as the awareness stage. In this stage, a lead develops awareness of your brand as well as your products or services. In most cases, awareness occurs in various mediums such as email, social media, online and offline campaigns.
The Interest Stage
The second stage in the CRM funnel is called the interest stage. From being aware of your brand’s presence, the lead then shows interest in your products and services by following you on social media or by contacting you through your website. They might even give you their email addresses in exchange for something like an e-book or a webinar.
The Decision Stage
The third stage of the CRM funnel is known as the decision stage. This is when they make the decision to purchase your product or use your services. They begin by evaluating their options, comparing your product’s pricing and features against that of your competitors.
The Action Stage
The fourth and final stage is called the action stage. In this stage, one of two things can happen: the prospect either finalises the deal and turns into a buyer or he rejects your offer and goes in a completely different direction.
How are the Benefits of a CRM Funnel?
Alongside automating the closing process, a CRM funnel can also offer the following benefits:
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Improve customer experience
By storing customer data such as customer issues, a CRM funnel helps an organisation to deliver a more personalised service that can cater to the needs of each client. Thus, you can use it to provide better customer interaction, improving the level of your customer service.
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Better understand customer behaviour
With a CRM funnel in place, you can identify who among the customers are in need of your product or services and who among them are willing to learn more about your brand. This will help you determine your most profitable customers, preventing you from spending time and resources on leads who are unlikely to convert.
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Increase sales
Given the amount of customer information you can have, a CRM funnel can help increase your company’s sales significantly.