PERCEIVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A NEW APPROACH TO SELLING IN A DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT: A CONVERSATIONAL SALES FUNNEL WITH STATES

Abstract

The constant evolution of digital technologies is significantly changing the way potential customers receive information about products or services. In the digital environment, potential customers rely on various sources of information to sufficiently investigate all the advantages and possible disadvantages of a product or service before making a purchase decision. Their search in the digital environment leads them to advertisements and then to websites or web stores that offer more comprehensive information about the advertised products or services. On the other hand, advertisers use search engines to passively influence potential customers to take further steps in the purchase decision process through carefully crafted advertisements. To better understand the behavior of potential customers and their path through the different stages of the sales funnel, depending on the types of search queries they enter into web search engines, a Conversational Sales Funnel with states was developed. This model consists of six clearly defined stages, including a new initial stage, Tabula. Unlike previous sales funnel models, this stage represents a state of complete ignorance about the product or service. Each subsequent stage consists of a state of awareness of the potential customer and a change of state of awareness. The key for the advertiser is to recognize the state of awareness of the potential customer and persuade the potential customer to change. The primary research conducted concludes that sales professionals have a general understanding of the Conversational Sales Funnel and emphasize that the model accurately reflects real-life customer behavior during the purchasing decision process. The results of the research show that the proposed new approach to the sales funnel in the digital environment is used by sales professionals, but its application is still intuitive. The application of the sales funnel depends on the context, i.e. the specifics of the sales environment, the type of products or services, the complexity of the sales process and the target customers. Therefore, in order to promote a broader and more conscious application of the Conversational Sales Funnel in the creation and optimization of sales strategies, there is a clear need for further training of sales professionals, as well as practical guidelines for classifying search queries into the appropriate stages of the sales funnel. This is particularly important given the different industries in which the behavior of potential customers can vary greatly. To summarize, while sales professionals point out the usefulness of the suggested modification of the sales funnel, the individual stages of the Conversational Sales Funnel need to be adjusted depending on the type of business, factors such as seasonality and preferences of potential customers. Adapting the Conversational Sales Funnel according to certain guidelines would contribute to better overall results for the company.