Be Willing to Narrow the Sales Funnel

As I have mentioned before, a good sales process helps you limit the field of potential clients by choosing the Right Targets and the Right Activities to undertake.

Why narrow the sales funnel? It helps you increase the speed and profitability of your sales. And most importantly, it will increase your client satisfaction. If you provide clients with the value they expect and more, you will be viewed as a partner and not just a vendor.

By narrowing the funnel, you have the right types of opportunities going through your sales process. However, that is not enough for complex sales. You need to continue to narrow your funnel throughout your sales process.

You do this by clearly defining each step of your sales process. If you understand the discreet stages of your sales process, you can make a decision to continue or not at each stage.

For example, if you get past the discovery stage and your solution is not a good fit, you can decide to stop. And that is the right decision. If you give them a solution that is not the right fit, what is going to happen?

Or, if you are at the point where you need to speak with other stakeholders and you are told you will not have access to them, you can choose not to move forward. Because if you don’t get access to all of the stakeholders, you will be guessing when you give them a proposal. And if you are guessing, then you are probably going to get it wrong.

The point is that you should not get carried away by the excitement of a sales opportunity. Stay focused on whether the fit is right. By continuing to narrow the funnel throughout the sales process, you ensure that you will develop a partnership with your client where everyone benefits for the long term.

If you would like assistance defining your sales process and the critical decision points to narrow your sales funnel, we would be glad to see if we can help. Just send an email or give us a call at (858) 863-9913 to start the conversation.