Facebook Pixel

Getting Familiar with Your Sales Pipeline Stages

What is a Sales Funnel?

Your sales funnel, or conversion funnel, is the path that a lead (prospective patient) takes through the buying process that ultimately results in a conversion (paying patient). The shape reflects the fact that a large number of your leads will never complete the journey through the funnel. You’ll expose your practice and services to a lot of people at the top of the funnel, but only a small fraction of those will actually convert.

Sales Pipeline Stages

A sales funnel is always demonstrated with segmentation, showing the various stages a prospective patient goes through as they make their buying decision. The number of stages varies by industry, but at the top is awareness, the middle is evaluation, and the bottom is conversion. Regardless of what your funnel looks like, it ultimately serves as a tool to stay organized and map out the steps you need to take to move a prospect closer to becoming a paying patient.

Your Sales Funnel as a Framework for Action

Unorganized thinking leads to mediocre conversions. A common mistake many practices make is assuming that awareness will lead directly to a conversion, ignoring all the steps in between. Of course, this is sometimes the case – a person has already done their research, knows they want Botox injections, rings you up, and schedules an appointment… easy enough. But for more extensive and pricey procedures like a tummy tuck or rhinoplasty, the journey from awareness to action can be much longer and fraught with hesitation and doubt.

This is where a sales funnel becomes especially helpful, providing a comprehensive view of where each of your prospects is in the buying journey and outlining next steps that should be taken to move them further down the pipeline.

Breaking Down Your Sales Funnel and The Patient Journey

As a medical lead management software company, the sales funnel and simplifying the patient acquisition process is at the core of our product. We strive to eliminate overwhelm and bring focus, clarity and structure to the medical sales pipeline, allowing reps to focus on the right activities at the right time.

In our upcoming Funnel Series, we’ll be taking a look at the different stages that make up the sales funnel for aesthetic and elective surgery practices. In blog posts to follow, we’ll be exploring in-depth the following different phases of your patient acquisition process.

  1. Marketing Strategy
  2. Response Time
  3. First Contact
  4. Lead Nurturing
  5. Consultation
  6. Follow-up
  7. Retention
  8. Advocacy

Learn proven strategies and techniques for managing prospects at every stage of the buying process, and start converting more of your leads into paying patients!