Marketing Dictionary
Sales Funnel
Definition
The buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products.
Deep Dive
The Sales Funnel is a conceptual model that illustrates the multi-stage buying process companies lead potential customers through, from initial awareness to eventual purchase and often beyond. It's typically depicted as a wide top narrowing down to a small bottom, symbolizing the decreasing number of prospects at each subsequent stage. The funnel helps businesses visualize the customer journey and identify key touchpoints where prospects might drop off or need additional nurturing to move forward.
Examples & Use Cases
- 1A potential customer sees an ad for a new smartphone (Awareness), then reads product reviews and watches video demonstrations (Interest), compares it with competitors (Desire), and finally purchases the phone (Action)
- 2A B2B prospect attends a webinar (Awareness), downloads an industry report (Interest), requests a product demo (Desire), and signs a contract (Action)
- 3An online learner discovers a course on social media (Awareness), reads the course outline and testimonials (Interest), adds it to their cart (Desire), and completes the enrollment (Action).
Related Terms
Marketing FunnelCustomer JourneyLead Nurturing