Funil de Vendas - Humberto Marques, Renato Levi

Is your sales team having trouble attracting new customers? Is the conversion not very good? Aren’t your current customers loyal? This “Funil de Vendas” book summary is here to solve those problems in a straightforward and dynamic way.

Nowadays, there are a growing number of offers, and consumers can easily compare products and services before buying them. The practice of making sales is constantly evolving.

In this context, Humberto Marques and Renato Levi detail a five-phase methodology that aims to improve the results of the commercial sector.

Do you want to know which methodology is this and what are these phases? Stay with us!

The book “Funil de Vendas”

“Funil de Vendas: um jeito fácil para você realizar bons negócios”, in free translation “Sales Funnel: an easy way for you to do good business”, was published in 2019 by Editora SENAC São Paulo. The book tells, in 104 pages, how to use the Sales Funnel methodology to leverage sales.

This methodology has five important phases: to prospect, to attract, to convert, to analyze and to relate. All of them explained throughout the book.

Who are Humberto Marques and Renato Levi?

Humberto Marques is a teacher and businessman. Graduated in Business Administration, holds an MBA in Hotel Management from the Centro Universitário SENAC.

Founding partner of “Vai dar Negócios”, acts as a consultant for the sales team of small and medium enterprises. In addition, he teaches social development, management and business courses at SENAC São Paulo.

Renato Levi is a business administrator with a specialization in Sales Management from the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM). Has outstanding performance in the commercial area, salesman and sales manager, in the line of B2B and B2C environments.

To whom is “Funil de Vendas” indicated?

The content of this work is essential for any modern salesperson who wants to improve their numbers and hit their goals.

The tool suggested by the authors can also be useful for sales team managers, as well as decision-makers who constantly have to deal with salespeople.

What can I learn from “Funil de Vendas”?

• The Sales Funnel is an evolution of AIDA and is used to: track negotiations, predict the company’s performance, plan assertively, and optimize the time spent on sales;
• Effective prospecting will only happen if you know your client’s habits;
• Digital marketing tools are critical to getting more leads;
• Clients often present nonverbal signals that they are interested in making a trade;
• Indicator analysis is essential for developing increasingly assertive selling strategies;
• Doing good after-sales is as important as doing good trading.

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How to apply the Sales Funnel in practice?

The seller has historically always been the professional responsible for taking to the streets offering their products and convincing people to buy. This was what the commercial managers of many companies thought.

Performing this unorganized, unplanned function, and the sheer number of “nos” they received throughout the day, they began to realize that this was not the most accurate way to make a sale.

With this thought of organizing their activity, which was born in the United States at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the AIDA model. This model explained the consumer’s motivations to choose a particular brand or product.

 AIDA system model

• Awareness: your offer or promotion should get the attention of your potential customer;
• Interest: when the client interacts with the product or service being offered, he/she stands, questions, holds the product, shows some reaction;
• Decision: it is when the customer shows interest, starting with questions such as “Do you have it in another color?” or “How much does it cost?”;
• Action: the seller closes the deal and the customer, aware, decides to buy. Then, reassurances can be made: “Will you take only one?” or “Are you going to take both colors, correct?”. The customer’s action is to agree and just adjust the situation: “I’ll take only one” or “I'll take the blue one”, for example.

AIDA was evolving and with the support of scientific studies ended up becoming a methodology, called the Sales Funnel. For a better understanding of what it is and the five phases that make it up, keep reading!

Phase 1 – Prospect

The first phase of this methodology is prospecting. Many companies have difficulties at this stage because they develop prospecting campaigns, without first being aware that they need “to mine” prospects.

The authors caution that there is no rule to follow for effective prospecting, but they do offer some tips:

• Choose the business segment very well: each segment has a certain customer characteristic and therefore a particular way of relating to them;
• Decide where your business will operate: determine where your business will be located (national, regional, municipal, or state). Strategic decisions depend on it;
• Define who your customer will be: it is not effective to call everyone offering your products or services, it is important to define your target audience for good assertiveness in prospecting.

Then, after knowing the segment in which the company is inserted, which strategies will be used and which regions of service it intends to act on, it is time to use the resources to do the prospecting. So, the following tools are presented:

• Outbound: This prospecting model uses active methods in search of potential customers. Prospecting can be done by phone, email, social networks or even in person;
• Inbound: This template is applied when public interest has already been identified through visits to the company’s social media page or channel. By leaving email, mobile phone and profile during registration, the sellers of the company will get in touch;
• Channels: In this method of customer acquisition, unlike previous methods, a strong relationship with partners will be required. Strategic business partnerships that will ensure future customers;
• Referral: This method uses customer relationship marketing to tell your company about other potential customers.

Phase 2 – Attract

Knowing who your product interests, where your customers are, and knowing their behavior and habits, the next step is to attract their attention and arouse their interest.

So, some digital tools are of great importance right now:

• Marketing automation: this tool operates all management functions, generating management reports that help control indicators;
• Email marketing: this tool allows you to initiate direct contact with the lead, alerting everyone about new products, campaigns or something new;
• Building landing pages: it is the tool that the user intended for a form, for the purpose of capturing their data;
• SEO: This tool acts as a search engine optimization, making your page better positioned on search engines.

Effective representation of an email marketing campaign.

Phase 3 – Convert

Now that the lead has been found and he has shown an interest in buying the product, it is time to convert it into a customer, that is, make the sale.

The authors like to point out that “selling is a process” and therefore has a beginning, middle, and end.

The start is a scheduled and confirmed meeting, with clear objectives set and duration predicted. It is critical that the sales professional is always clear and objective, always saying what he wants and listening to the customer.

Also, it is important to suit your client, making use of different languages and clothing according to the occasion.

From the moment you are facing the customer, you have introduced yourself and started the conversation, it is the middle phase of the process. This is where the salesperson will recognize the customer’s behavior.

The tip here is to ask open-ended questions, but without exaggeration. The first two are enough, otherwise, the conversation will become tiresome and repetitive for the customer.

Lead his/her reasoning toward what interests you, and for that, use phrases previously spoken by the client. For example, if the customer said that it is important for him to have a machine automated, at the end of the contract said: “For you, it is important for the machine to be automated…”.

Finally, when the customer is really interested in closing the sale, he will signal it through nonverbal communication. Pay attention to the movements of the head, whether it is nodding and agreeing or denying something.

If you have the products in your hand, be careful if it moves and fiddles with your product. Or if you cross your arms constantly, it is a sign of defense or that you are not comfortable with any situation.

So, analyze all the details and, when favorable, prepare for the finalization of the negotiation.

Phase 4 – Analyze

It’s time to stop to analyze how the results are. How effective the process is and if it is on the right track.

One of the biggest doubts for people involved in the commercial sector is which strategic indicators to use to analyze the effectiveness of the process. Thus, the authors suggest five types of indicators:

• Indicators of your customer portfolio: used to find out the customer gain after a given campaign and the number of inactive customers;
• Sales Revenue Indicators: used to track whether planned revenue is being achieved or not;
• Indicators of average purchase value per customer: used to know the buying habits of their customers and their average spending on an acquisition;
• Indicators of purchase of more items from the catalog or product portfolio: used to know the strength of the company and its products to the market;
• Outcome indicators (target goals): Used to monitor goals and provide the best strategies through analysis.

Phase 5 – Relationship

Some salespeople believe that after the sale is completed, their relationship with the customer ends. Quite the opposite!

The tip, according to the authors, is to maintain a close relationship with him, so that it becomes lasting.

The after-sales stage is as important, if not more important, than the other stages of the funnel in terms of business strategies, since you will create a sales cycle.

Making the customer do not forget about the company will mean that when they need a replacement or a new product, they don’t look for the competitor but who has been providing the support all the time.

In addition, the cost of acquiring a new customer is considerably higher than maintaining a customer relationship during the after-sales.

Other books about marketing and sales

In “Digital Business”, Alan Pakes says that sales are the cornerstones of any business. That’s why you should also focus on winning over your customers and showing that you have the right solution for them by guiding them toward selling your product.

Jeffrey Gitomer, in “The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource”, points out that a successful salesperson is one who understands customer needs well and offers services that solve their problems. Think long-term about possible customer loyalty to your service.

Finally, in the book “How to Sell When No One Is Buying” author Dave Lakhani advises: if you are not selling, try to improve your approach. In tough times, bad salespeople give up and open opportunities for the most creative and efficient salespeople.

How can I apply the ideas from “Funil de Vendas”?

• Seek to understand who your customers are, where they are and what their habits are;
• Make use of digital tools, they will help you a lot to find new leads;
• When entering a trade, pay close attention to your client’s behaviors, they will help you know the exact time to start closing;
• Always analyze your results to know if you are on the right track;
• Make good after-sales.

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