Doesn’t matter what type of funnel, it always ends with a result!

Woo Hoo!! Another story on the Sales Funnel!!!

Okay, not really. If you’ve been following this blog for the past year, I rarely get into the sales funnel (besides referencing it), and this time, I’m not so sure. I think you will say yes Blaine, you went into detail about the funnel and please, let it go — we know what it is!!!

Well, too bad for you. I’m gonna talk a bit about it.

So I was thinking about the funnel — and how our product is kinda changing the definition of it — or at least how many individuals perceive the funnel to be.

Let me give you the steps of what I think the funnel looks like:

1. Make a connection with a prospect — that could be marketing doing their qualifying as a lead or you picking up the phone and cold-calling.
2. When finally reaching them, booking a meeting with them.
3. Then the chaos (or not) starts, and you have to start preparing for the meeting. From what presentation should you use (or you have to build one) to what assets should I leave behind or email them afterwards.
4. Engaging with the prospect — either in person, over the phone, or, as the virtual world continues to permeate our lives, we communicate through email and chat.
5. Convincing them that the product/service that you have has value and is the awesomest thing on the planet.
6. Coming to an understanding (contract/agreement) of what you will deliver.
7. Delivering what you promised.
8. Continuation of nurturing and servicing after the sale.
9. Ending with the greatest relationship with your prospect (now a buyer) that they will tell everyone in the world to buy from you!!!

I’m not sure how much of a funnel that is — I think it’s a bit different, at least in how your management perceives it to be.

As I mentioned, Spark is spearheading almost each one of those. We provide an engaging platform for that initial reach-out, we help you find the best content to share, either yours, your marketing departments, or another sales persons. We let you layout the content in a way that is revolutionary in the engagement process. And we help you nurture that relationship (not only at the end, or in the beginning, but throughout the sales process — not to mention all the analytics we provide).

Yes, yes — again, if you’ve read my blog for the past year, I rarely pitch Spark, but, this time I just couldn’t help myself as I read all these articles from sales “experts” and how sales people will never meet the expectations of anyone alive. (If you can’t tell, I totally disagree with this!) Sales professionals are as good as the content they are given and the tools that they are allowed to use.

And as a friendly reminder, a CRM is not a tool — it is for management, not for a sales person.

I’m finished — except for one last product pitch: Illumineto Spark — built by sales professionals for sales professionals.

Good luck selling.

Power Tip: Sharing content sources with a team