Sales cycle: know its 7 fundamental stages

If we think of a sale as a customer or end user, we might only see the specific transaction moment. However, from a marketing expert’s perspective, that is just one step in the entire process. To close a sale, it is essential to conduct a prior analysis of the brand, competitors, sector, and products, and then design a sales cycle strategy with well-defined actions across its seven stages.

If you’ve studied marketing, market research, and sales, you probably already know this. But the hardest part isn’t achieving a conversion — it’s knowing your audience so well that you can captivate them, being so creative that you constantly surprise them to earn their loyalty.

Discover the 7 stages of the sales cycle

As competition evolves, improves, innovates, and grows, paying more attention to the sales cycle becomes crucial, since the actions taken in each of these stages are decisive. Let’s begin by defining what they are and what each of these seven points entails.

1. Research or prospecting: identifying and finding potential clients. This involves researching and collecting data on possible customers who may be interested in the offered product or service.
2. Qualification: in this phase, the quality of the prospects identified earlier is evaluated. The goal is to determine if they meet the criteria to become actual customers — whether they have needs that the product or service can fulfill and the financial capacity to acquire it.
3. Connection: the goal here is to capture attention. Interaction begins with the potential customer through the channels most used by the target audience — social media, email, organic searches, offline media… It’s important to adapt both the message and format to each medium.
4. Presentation: now it’s time to showcase your products or services in detail, emphasizing their features, benefits, and added value that set them apart from the competition. The goal is to persuade the potential customer and demonstrate how your offering meets their needs.
5. Feedback and objections: in this stage, the seller faces any criticism or doubts raised by the client. Listening to their concerns and providing convincing arguments helps overcome objections and build trust.
6. Closing the sale: this is where the sale is formalized, as the client agrees to the terms and conditions of purchase. This stage is important not just because the goal is achieved, but also because it establishes the customer’s trust and commitment, which must later be maintained.
7. Follow-up: in the final stage, you must implement the most creative and innovative loyalty strategies to ensure that customers remain emotionally connected to your brand and continue choosing it whenever they need your products or services.

How to achieve your first online sales

As you know, every business has its own brand, identity, goals, and target audience. Still, we want to guide you through the most common actions used to generate initial sales or leads, helping you work your sales cycle strategy more effectively.

If you already have a well-defined, niche-tested product, you’re ready to carry out the following actions:

Drive traffic to your website: in the early stages, building brand awareness is key. To do this, develop an SEO strategy (to attract organic traffic) and paid Google Ads campaigns (to increase visits from segmented users by interest and filters). These are the basic actions, but you should also consider investing in more aggressive strategies such as affiliate marketing or lead generation via social media.

Influencer campaigns: if your target audience is active on social media and your product fits well there, don’t hesitate to implement influencer marketing campaigns to boost brand awareness. Offer discounts or special benefits through these digital advocates to generate leads.

Within these two major strategic categories for generating first sales, there are many variations and possibilities you can explore. Follow our blog to stay up to date on the latest digital business trends!

How to build lasting customer relationships throughout the sales cycle

Once you’ve achieved your first sales, the hardest part begins — getting them to repeat. To do that, you must take a step closer to your customers, make them part of your brand values, and reward them for trusting your business. Here’s how:

Send emails with exclusive promotions: make them feel special with discounts, greetings, birthday gifts, an engaging newsletter with valuable content, and anything else that might interest your most loyal audience.

Host events for top clients only: if your brand allows it, you can continue to strengthen relationships in the real world. Events are an excellent way to enhance the user experience, bringing it from the digital realm to the tangible one — setting your brand apart from competitors and boosting brand recall.

And you? Have you ever implemented any of these or other strategies? Do you think it’s important to work through each stage of the sales cycle mindfully? At Educa.Pro, we keep researching the latest trends and news in the digital world. Follow us — we want to share them with you!