A sales funnel is a marketing term that helps businesses keep a track of their potential customer’s journey from finding them to making a final purchase. A sales funnel helps businesses understand their strong and weak points, and guides them on where they need improvement and how to successfully earn more opportunities. Based on the size and type of your business as well as your business goals, you can modify your sales funnel.
Why Should Your Business Have a Sales Funnel?
Many home improvement businesses work on a two-step focus approach: get booked for a project and then successfully complete it. As a renovator or tradesperson, you are best at completing a project at hand but getting it in the first place can be difficult. That’s why having a proper system in place is important to convert your potential HomeStars leads into an earned opportunity.
A simple sales funnel will help you maintain your reputation, develop stronger homeowner connections and aim for future business growth. As you get closer to closing a potential lead, the funnel gets smaller and smaller.
Here’s Your Ready-To-Adapt HomeStars Sales Funnel:
Stage 1: Receive Potential Lead
With a custom HomeStars business account, you can get leads for the projects you want to work on. Once a homeowner submits a quote request for your company, you will get a notification on your HomeStars for Pros app and on your desktop dashboard. Getting viable leads from your potential clients is step one in the funnel.
Homeowners tend to choose a pro who has a strong HomeStars profile. Follow these steps to build an attractive HomeStars profile and achieve Stage 1 in your HomeStars sales funnel:
- Get your account verified
- Request for latest reviews from your past clients
- Maintain your Star Score
- Create a custom gallery showcasing your work
- Write an appealing profile description
- If your business is on social media and has a website, connect it to your HomeStars profile
- Proudly showcase your Best of Awards HomeStars badge
Your customer success manager at HomeStars can help you with all these steps and more!
Stage 2: Accept Lead & Communicate with Homeowner
Once a homeowner sends you a custom quote request from HomeStars, make sure you click on the ‘accept lead’ button on your HomeStars for pros app or on your desktop dashboard. If you receive a lead while you are working on a project and don’t have time to talk to the homeowner, you can set up an auto-reply for them. This new HomeStars feature will let you set up a custom auto-reply that will be sent to homeowners in real-time as soon as you click ‘accept lead’. Learn more about how to use the auto-reply feature so you don’t miss out on potential business opportunities.
“Pros should treat their first conversation with homeowners as a sales call. Homeowners are more likely to hire pros who contact them within 24 hours. By having an open and detailed conversation about their requirement, timeline and budget pros can close the job on the first call itself! Pros should treat this first communication as a deal maker or breaker!”
Keon Cameron, Strategic Customer Success Manager
When homeowners submit a custom quote, they mention a preferred method of contact on their form. Make sure you contact them as per their preference: by email or phone. Unless they specifically ask you to visit their residence to discuss the project, refrain from getting on their doorstep unannounced.
Stage 3: Follow Up
If a homeowner doesn’t hire you in stage 2 of this sales funnel, don’t lose faith! Make sure you follow up with them as per their preferred method of contact. If homeowners are looking to hire for a big renovation or construction project, they tend to take some time to make a final hiring decision. Do a timely follow-up, be respectful and put your best foot forward so they can hire you confidently. For efficiently handling higher-ticket projects, patience and a proper follow-up procedure is the key at this stage.
Stage 4: Conversion: Win the Job!
This is the last but definitely not the least important stage of your custom HomeStars sales funnel. This is the bottleneck step that comes after all the hard work you put through the first three stages in this funnel. With an attractive HomeStars profile you receive potential leads, accept leads and communicate with homeowners, follow up and finally win the job! Now you have to shine your trade skills and successfully complete the project you got hired for.
After you complete the job, make sure you ask the homeowner to give you a review on your HomeStars profile.
How To Maintain A Sales Funnel?
There are two ways to maintain a sales funnel: analog and digital. There are many digital platforms such as Salesforce that help you maintain your digital sales funnel every stage of the way. You can also use a simple excel sheet to track the progress you receive. Or you can go old-school analog by getting chalk and board. You can track the leads by writing them down and doing follow-ups on paper.
Whether you run a small plumbing business or a big construction company, a custom sales funnel can help you set up a process to improve your business. Your customer success manager at HomeStars can also help you build a sales funnel as per the requirements and nature of your business. Let us help you improve your business!
