Key takeaways
- A funnel describes the buyer's journey, read as totals at each stage.
- The useful number is how many move from one stage to the next.
- Fix the stage that loses the most good buyers before adding more at the top.
What are the stages of a sales funnel
The stages of a sales funnel follow the buyer's thinking: noticing a problem, looking at options, choosing one and buying. Many B2B teams use four to six stages under names like these.
- Awareness: the buyer first comes across you, through a post, a search, an event or a cold email.
- Interest: they engage, by reading more, replying or signing up for something.
- Consideration: they compare options and talk to you about their situation.
- Decision: they ask for a proposal, involve the people who sign and negotiate.
- Purchase: the contract is signed and the buyer becomes a customer.
What is an example of a sales funnel
An example of a sales funnel is the path a buyer takes with an invented payroll software company selling to firms with 20 to 200 staff. A finance manager reads its guide on year-end payroll (awareness), signs up for a short email course (interest), books a call to see how it handles two countries (consideration), asks for a quote with the finance director on the call (decision) and signs a contract (purchase).
At each step some people stop. Counting how many move from one step to the next shows the company where its funnel leaks.
How is a sales funnel different from a sales pipeline
A sales funnel is the buyer's journey seen as totals, while a sales pipeline is the seller's list of open deals seen one by one. Marketing often reads the funnel to judge campaigns. Sales reads the pipeline to decide what to do next with each deal.
The two overlap from consideration onwards, where buyers become deals. Keep the stage names consistent across both, or the reports will disagree.
How do you find where a sales funnel leaks
You find a funnel leak by comparing how many buyers move between each pair of stages and looking for the step that falls short of the rest. Then look at the buyers who stopped there and ask why.
If many people sign up for content but few book a call, the gap is between interest and consideration: the follow-up may be too generic or too slow. If calls go well but proposals stall, the leak is at decision: perhaps the person who signs never joined the conversation.
Where Pebbles Ai fits
- CapabilityProspecting & customer recordsThe Pebbles Ai CRM (in Beta) keeps contacts in segments and deals by stage, with board views and filters, so you can see who sits at each step.
- CapabilityAI workspaceIn Assistant chat, the Marketing and Strategy assistants work from your company context to plan and draft the content each stage needs.
Common questions
What is the top of the funnel?
The top of the funnel is the awareness stage, where people first come across you. It is the widest part because most of them have not yet shown any intent to buy.
Is a sales funnel the same as a marketing funnel?
They describe the same journey from different ends. A marketing funnel focuses on awareness and interest, while a sales funnel puts more detail on consideration, decision and purchase.
What is the bottom of the funnel?
The bottom of the funnel is the decision and purchase stages, where the fewest people remain and each is close to buying. Work here is about proposals, the people who sign and terms.
About this page. Written by the Pebbles Ai team for people who run sales, marketing and growth. Last updated .
