sales
Sales Funnel
The stages a deal moves through from qualified lead to closed customer.
Definition
The sales funnel covers the bottom of the customer journey: SQL (sales-qualified lead) -> discovery -> proposal -> negotiation -> closed-won (or closed-lost). Each stage has its own conversion rate and average duration. Sales funnel hygiene is about identifying the worst-converting stage and the slowest stage, then fixing one at a time. Common bottlenecks: discovery (rushed, not enough qualification) and proposal (sent without enough context, ignored).
In your business
- →Map every stage with current conversion rates and average duration
- →Find the worst-converting stage and the slowest stage - fix them, in that order
- →Keep CRM stages tight (5-7) - too many stages means no one updates them