Funnel.

What is a funnel?

A funnel is a model of the stages people pass through on the way from first hearing about you to becoming a customer, with fewer people at each stage. A common version runs awareness, consideration, conversion and retention.

For a B2B manufacturer it might look like this: sees a LinkedIn post, reads a case study, downloads a spec sheet, requests a quote, places an order. The narrowing shape is where the name comes from.

Why it matters

Thinking in stages shows where you are losing people, which tells you where money and effort will do the most good. If plenty of people visit but few enquire, the problem is on the website. If plenty enquire but few buy, it sits with the offer, the price or the sales follow-up. Without that view, businesses tend to answer every slowdown by buying more traffic, which is usually the most expensive fix available.

The main stages

• Awareness stage People learn you exist, through search, social, referrals, events or ads.
• Consideration stage They compare you with alternatives, reading reviews, case studies and service pages.
• Conversion stage They take a measurable step: an enquiry, a booking, a quote request or a purchase.
• Retention and referral They buy again, upgrade or recommend you. Many funnels stop at the sale and ignore this stage, even though it is often the cheapest growth on offer.

What to do about it

Write down your own funnel in four or five stages, using words your team already uses. Next to each stage, add last month's number: visitors, enquiries, quotes sent, jobs won. Work out the conversion rate between each pair of stages. The weakest step, relative to what you would reasonably expect, is where to focus this quarter. Review the same numbers monthly so changes show up quickly and you can see whether your fixes are working.