The Main Sales Funnel Stages Explained

To increase your marketing and sales efforts, you must create funnels that effectively move customers through your sales process.

A successful sales funnel has four stages, and you need to understand each step and what it can help you achieve. Then, using this framework, you can identify and implement the best sequence to move as many prospects as possible through your funnel.

However,  creating a sales funnel that attracts steady customers can be a significant challenge.

A company’s sales funnel is its lifeblood, and knowing how to create and maintain each stage is critical. Here is a simple but effective process for creating your funnel stages to help you get started.

What you will learn in this guide:

So, let’s dive in!

What Are the Main Sales Funnel Stages?

In a typical sales funnel (based on the AIDA model), prospective customers go through four stages (awareness, interest, desire, and action) when they decide to buy something.

These four stages show how to funnel consumers towards a purchase.

In some variants, the number of those stages may vary.

The sales funnel stages follow a hierarchy model.

The model’s original purpose was to explain how advertising and other marketing efforts captivate potential and existing customers.

Also, it helps them differentiate brands before they make a purchase.

The stages describe the number of tasks necessary to move a customer from the attention “awareness stage” through the sales cycle to the action of conversion.

Here’s how each stage of the sales funnel works:

1. Attention – Attract the consumer’s attention to your product or service.
2. Interest – Increase consumer interest in your product or service
3. Desire – Make the consumer want your product or service.
4. Action – Initiate an action for the consumer to buy your product or service.

Let’s look at each stage in more detail.

Sales Funnel Stage #1: Attention

The attention stage is the first phase of the buyer’s journey.

At this point, customers are drawn in through marketing campaigns carefully created through extensive consumer research.

What Is Attention in a Sales Funnel?

Attention is the process of making potential customers aware of your business and the service or product your offer.

During the attention stage, prospective consumers often have already identified a problem, are trying to understand it, and are looking for possible solutions to solve it.

In the attention stage, your main goal should be to attract the potential consumer’s attention to your products or services that can help them solve their problems.

You need to explain to your audience why they should buy from you.

Prospects will convert to paying customers for your products and services when they understand the advantages.

Which Marketing Strategies Can Be Attributed to the Attention Stage?

To the attention stage can be attributed these marketing strategies:

Sales Funnel Stage #2: Interest

The interest phase begins once leads are generated.

Here, customers learn more about your company, its services and products, and any useful information that might help customers decide.

What Is Interest in a Sales Funnel?

Interest is the process when a potential customer has already noticed your product or service, but interest in its benefits is still needed to generate sufficient interest to encourage the buyer to start researching further about it.

This phase aims to help the customer make an informed decision by providing more information about your business.

In the interest phase, the customer is trying to learn more about the company, its products or services, and any other helpful information about it.

At this point, your main goal is to increase consumer interest levels in your product or service.

You can do this by creating a consistent brand voice and message that your target audience can relate to and sharing it through various marketing channels.

Which Marketing Strategies Can Be Attributed to the Interest Stage?

Here are some of the marketing strategies that can be attributed to the interest stage:

Sales Funnel Stage #3: Desire

The desire (in some cases, it might be called decision) is the third stage of the sales funnel.

It is where you finally get the customer to decide whether to buy your product or service.

What Is Desire in a Sales Funnel?

Desire is when the consumer is already interested in your product or service and you’re trying to make them desire it, moving their mindset from “I like it” to “I want it.”

In this stage, the potential customers reach the point where they are persuaded to commit.

This is where they decide that they really want to be your customer.

Not only have you caught their attention and got them interested in your brand, but they’re also actually considering making a purchase.

At this point, your main goal should be to persuade a potential customer to want to own your product.

In most cases, they will need more information about your product. They will look for how well your offer fits within their budget, their current business model, and the outcomes they can expect.

Which Marketing Strategies Can Be Attributed to the Desire Stage?

The desire (decision) stage can be attributed to these marketing strategies:

Sales Funnel Stage #4: Action

Action is the final step in the buying process.

What Is Action in a Sales Funnel?

Action is the process when the prospect decides to become a customer. The purchasing process should finally take place at this stage.

This phase usually occurs naturally if your prospects have been carried through the first three stages (Attention, Interest, and Desire) and responded to it appropriately.

After properly nurturing the prospect, they should be ready to take action and buy your product or service.

It’s now time for the desire to translate into a purchase.

This is where you close the deal – you want that to be a simple, straightforward process.

Which Marketing Strategies Can Be Attributed to the Action Stage?

Conclusion

Create a funnel based on your industry and the goals of your target audience after first identifying who they are.

For each stage of the funnel, create an effective promotional strategy incorporating custom content.

If you execute this process correctly, you will significantly increase your overall conversion rate, which will also have a positive impact on your customer relationships.

References:

• Lewis, E. St Elmo. “Side talks about advertising.” The Western Druggist 21.2 (1899): p. 65-66.
• Lewis, E. St. Elmo. (1908) Financial Advertising, Indianapolis: Levey Bros. & Company. p. 124.
• Duncan, Brendan Andrew, and Charles Peter Elkan. “Probabilistic modeling of a sales funnel to prioritize leads.” Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGKDD international conference on knowledge discovery and data mining. 2015.
• Rantanen, Ville. “MARKETING AND SALES FUNNEL IMPLEMENTED FOR A MARKET RESEARCH.” (2012).
• the Mind Tools Content Team By the Mind Tools Content Team, Team, the M. T. C., wrote, B. T., & wrote, H. F. (n.d.). Aida: Attention-interest-desire-action: Inspiring action with your writing. From MindTools.com. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/AIDA.htm