Common Sales Funnel Obstacles & How to Fix Them

So you’ve taken the time to map out your customer journey and grease your sales funnel. You have your strategy in place, and have designed all of your tactics to support it. Customers should start converting, and dollars should start rolling in… shouldn’t they? In theory, yes. But practically, this isn’t always the outcome. Here are five often overlooked sales and marketing obstacles that may be preventing your prospects from moving down your funnel.

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Call Systems

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Despite the fact that many consumers prefer to email, chat online or even text with companies, the phone is still an important channel. Sometimes, businesses get so caught up in trying to modernize the processes that they unintentionally forget about the phone. This can be a big mistake. Here’s what to consider when it comes to this channel:

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• Are your sales and customer support phone numbers clearly displayed, and easy to find, on your website?

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• Do you have a business phone system?

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• What happens when someone calls you and the line is already in use?

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• How long is your voicemail message?
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These might seem like inconsequential factors, but every one of them matters. If a prospect is interested in what you sell but has a question, they want an answer - right meow. If they can’t reach you by phone or try to, then get stuck in waiting purgatory or listening to a five-minute voicemail recording, they’re likely to abandon ship. Make sure you have your calling systems buttoned up, so that anyone who takes the time to dial your number gets routed to the right place, quickly and without additional hurdles that could scare them away.

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Lack of Immediacy

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Piggybacking off of the previous point, consumers expect instant gratification (thanks, Amazon!). If a customer wants to reach you, they don’t want to wait a day or a week for you to find time for them. If you sell products, they’ll simply find another company that sells something similar. And if you sell services, they’ll likely see your lack of attentiveness as a sign of what it would be like if they worked with you.

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So, your number one priority with sales and customer service should be responsiveness. Have a chatbox on your website? Ensure someone is tasked with monitoring it and answering questions within minutes, not hours or days. Have a sales email address? Again, make sure at least one person on your team is regularly checking it and getting back to people as fast as possible.

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Long Loading Times

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Notice a theme here? Yes, people are impatient. They’re busy, and they have about a million and half other things they need to be doing aside from browsing your website. If they see your ad and go to learn more on your website, what is that experience like for them? Does your homepage take an especially long time to load? Is your pricing page bogged down by graphics and videos that aren’t optimized? Any of these issues can be enough to drive a potential customer away, so you must spend time making sure your website is running smoothly and mobile optimized.

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Buried or Confusing Information

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Buyers today generally like to research a company on their own before engaging with a salesperson. Your job is to make it easy for them to find what they’re trying to find. For example, do you have an FAQs page on your website? A short explainer video that talks about how your membership works? A resources section on your site, with infographics and blog posts on specific topics they may care about? The more concise and clear your copy is, and the more questions you proactively answer on your website and in your marketing materials, the more likely prospects will move forward in your sales funnel.

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Any questions, or need help optimizing your website and digital marketing efforts? We’d love to help!