Sales Dictionary
Sales Funnel
Definition
A visual representation of the customer journey from awareness to purchase.
Deep Dive
The sales funnel is a visual metaphor representing the step-by-step journey a prospective customer takes from initial awareness of a product or service to making a purchase. It typically starts wide at the top, encompassing a large pool of potential leads, and gradually narrows as prospects progress through various stages, demonstrating increasing interest and qualification. Common stages include Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA), each requiring distinct marketing and sales efforts to move the prospect closer to conversion.
Examples & Use Cases
- 1A marketing team tracks website visitors (awareness), then downloads of a whitepaper (interest), followed by sign-ups for a webinar (desire), and finally requests for a product demo or consultation (action).
- 2An e-commerce site maps its funnel from a user clicking on a social media ad, browsing product pages, adding items to their cart, and ultimately completing the checkout process.
- 3A B2B company monitors how many MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) convert into SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads), then into qualified opportunities, and finally into closed-won deals.
Related Terms
Customer JourneyMarketing FunnelSales Pipeline