Sales Funnel for Small Business: What Happens Before the Purchase

Leo has a habit his team took a while to understand. When a customer signs the contract, he puts away the pen and asks: Before you go, tell me how you got here. From the very beginning.

He writes it all down in a notebook. His company installs solar power on homes, and the buying decision takes weeks. He wants to know what happens in those weeks.

On a Thursday in March, the one who answered was Christine, a teacher, the owner of a corner house with a south-facing roof. What she told him is right below. Midway through the story, she almost signs with another company. And the reason she didn't doesn't show up in any ad report.

The Path, in Her Words

"It started with the January electric bill. I opened the envelope and said out loud, alone in the kitchen: this can't be right. That night, I typed into Google how much it costs to put solar power on a house. A bunch of ads came up. I clicked the first one, from a company I'd never heard of, and left my phone number. The next day a salesman called me, Rick, very friendly. He gave me a price over the phone, without even knowing the size of my roof, and said the promotion was good until Friday. I wasn't ready to decide by Friday. I said I'd think about it. He called again on Friday. And on Monday. Then he stopped. A week later, still curious, I searched again and landed on a page with a calculator. It was your company's. I entered the amount of my bill and my ZIP code, and it showed me an estimate of how much the system could generate. At the end, it asked for my email to send me the full simulation. I sent it. What I didn't expect was for the emails that followed to be useful. One explained what happens on a cloudy day. Another, what I needed to ask any company before signing, including you. There was one with the story of a neighbor from my part of town, with a photo of her roof. I read every one. On the 23rd, I got an invitation to visit a finished installation on a Saturday morning. I went with my husband. The homeowner answered his questions better than any salesman could have. That's when I asked for the site visit. Your technician climbed onto my roof, measured, took photos, and two days later a written proposal arrived, with what was included and what wasn't. And today is day 41. That's why I'm here."

Leo thanked her, wrote the number 41 at the top of the page and circled the word calculator.

What a Sales Funnel Is, Without the Complication

A sales funnel is the path a person travels from first contact with your company to the purchase. It has three parts: the top, where they discover you exist; the middle, where they build trust while deciding; and the bottom, where they receive an offer and buy. For a small business, the funnel doesn't need expensive software; it needs each of those parts to exist on purpose, not by accident.

In Christine's story you can see all three clearly.

Top: the search ad and the free calculator. Both brought Christine in. They are acquisition channels, the paths by which a stranger reaches you. Someone who arrives and leaves their contact becomes a lead, that is, a potential customer who hasn't bought yet. Middle: the emails, the neighbor's story, the visit to the finished home. None of it asked for the purchase. All of it answered the questions she was too embarrassed or too lazy to ask. Bottom: the site visit and the written proposal. Only here did anyone talk about price. And when they did, she was ready to listen.

Where Rick's Company Lost Christine

Notice: Rick's company got there first. The top of its funnel worked.

What didn't exist was the middle. Between the click and the offer there was a single phone call. The company tried to take a person who had just discovered the subject straight to the bottom, with a Friday deadline. Christine didn't say no. She said I'll think about it. And nothing in the company was set up to follow someone who was thinking.

That's the most common leak for anyone selling something that requires a decision: investing to attract, skipping the middle and pushing on the bottom. The team concludes that the lead is bad. Often it was good. It just wasn't ready.

Leo's company, meanwhile, had two channels at the top, a middle built for people who haven't decided yet and a bottom that only showed up when called. It arrived later. And it sold.

How to Build Your Company's Funnel in One Afternoon

You don't need to copy Leo. You need to ask his question.

1. Ask five recent customers how they got to you, from the beginning. Write down the channels that come up, how long it took and when they decided. That's the only funnel research a small business needs to start.

2. List your top-of-funnel channels. Google search, referrals, your business profile, partnerships, video, trade shows. If only one shows up, that's where you should start working: depending on a single path is living in feast or famine.

3. Design your middle. What happens between first contact and proposal? If the answer is "we call again," create something useful: an email that answers the most common question, the story of a similar customer, an invitation to see finished work.

4. Leave the bottom for those who ask. A clear proposal, in writing, with what's included. Offer it when the customer gives the signal, not on the first phone call.

5. Count the handoffs. How many people arrived through each channel, how many became conversations, how many bought. In 30 days you find out where the leak is.

One of the most underrated top-of-funnel channels is exactly the one that brought Christine in on her second attempt: trading a useful, free tool for a person's contact info. We explain how to do it in lead magnets: how to trade a free resource for contacts who buy.

A Funnel Isn't a Drawing, It's a Choice of Channels

Building a funnel isn't drawing a picture in three colors. It's choosing, on purpose, which paths a stranger will take to reach you, what they'll find while they decide and when they'll hear the offer.

There's the business owner who looks at the funnel and asks: why aren't they closing?

And there's the one who asks: what do they need to find before they're ready to close?

The first adds pressure at the bottom. The second builds the whole path and, over time, knows how many contacts it needs this month to close the contracts it wants next month.

After two years of that question, Leo's notebook became the company's map: a channel that kept showing up in the answers got attention; one that never showed up was dropped. But to choose what to test at the top, he needed to know more than the three channels everybody uses.

That's what The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide is for, written by Luiz Philipe Campos, founder of Ímpetus Host. It covers 100 channels in 10 parts, from ads and Google search to free tools, newsletters, partnerships, events and direct sales. For each: what it is, a practical example, the first step to test it, who it works best for and what it costs to try. With the scoring spreadsheet that comes along, you rate channels on cost, speed and fit and choose the first three for your top of funnel. With the 30-day plan, you launch the first one and measure each handoff, the way Leo does.

Next step

Don't depend on a single way to win customers

Everything in this article works better when new customers arrive every month. Most businesses depend on two or three channels and suffer when one of them slows down. The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide shows 100 ways to win customers, a practical example of each one and the first step to test it spending little or nothing.

• ✓The 100 channels, one by one, from the best known to the ones almost nobody uses
• ✓A practical example and a low-cost first step for each channel
• ✓A simple way to choose the channels that fit your business now
• ✓Bonus: Channel scorecard
• ✓Bonus: 30-day test plan

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee

The guide lands in your inbox right after purchase, as a PDF, to read on your phone or print and mark up. If it isn't what you need, Hotmart's 7-day guarantee refunds your money.

Start with one channel. Measure for 30 days. Then add the next.

Leo, Christine and Rick are characters created for this text.

Frequently asked questions

What is a sales funnel?+

A sales funnel is the path a potential customer travels from first contact with the company to the purchase. It's usually divided into top (the person discovers the company), middle (builds trust and gets questions answered) and bottom (receives the offer and decides). Every stage loses people, and understanding where they drop off shows what needs fixing.

Does a small business need a sales funnel?+

It does, even if it doesn't call it that. Every sale goes through discovery, trust and decision. What changes for a small business is that the funnel can be simple: two or three acquisition channels at the top, a few useful pieces in the middle and a clear proposal at the bottom.

Why do I get leads and they don't buy?+

The most common causes are a missing middle stage, an offer made too early and slow responses. Asking recent customers how they arrived and checking how many contacts from each channel turn into conversations shows where the leak is.

How do I choose acquisition channels for the top of the funnel?+

Choose channels where your customer already is, that bring people with buying intent and that you can maintain with a routine for at least 30 days. The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide offers 100 options with a first step and a cost to test, plus a spreadsheet to score them and pick your first three.

Does it work for my type of business?+

Yes. The channels cover local businesses, service providers, online stores, B2B companies and professionals. The guide helps you pick the ones that fit your case.

How do I receive the guide?+

Right after payment, Hotmart sends the access to your email. You can read it on your phone, computer or print it.

What if I don't like it?+

You have a 7-day guarantee. If it isn't for you, ask for a refund through Hotmart within that period.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide

100 ways to win customers without depending on a single source of sales

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee