---
title: "Sales Funnel: Definition and Examples"
description: "A sales funnel is the series of stages a prospect passes through from first contact to closed deal, such as lead, qualified lead, opportunity, proposal and..."
path: /glossary/sales-funnel
family: glossary
updated: 2026-10-17
html: /glossary/sales-funnel
sources:
  - "https://www.salesforce.com/sales/funnel/"
  - "https://www.hubspot.com/glossary/marketing-funnel"
facts:
  term: "Sales funnel"
  also_called: "B2B sales funnel, Revenue funnel, Sales conversion funnel"
  category: "Sales"
  formula: "Stage conversion rate = prospects who reach the next stage / prospects in this stage x 100"
---

# Sales funnel

A sales funnel is the series of stages a prospect passes through from first contact to closed deal, such as lead, qualified lead, opportunity, proposal and closed won. It shows how many prospects reach each stage and where deals drop out.

## What Is Sales Funnel?

**In short:** The sales funnel starts where the marketing funnel hands off.

Typical B2B stages are prospect, contacted, replied, meeting booked, qualified opportunity, proposal, negotiation, and closed won or lost. Each company defines exit criteria for every stage so reps move deals the same way.

Salesforce describes the difference between a sales funnel and a sales pipeline as perspective: the funnel follows the buyer's path, the pipeline tracks the seller's open deals and their value by stage. In practice the pipeline answers "what will close this quarter?" and the funnel answers "where are we losing people?", because it shows what share of prospects make it from one stage to the next.

## Sales Funnel Example

Formula

```text
Stage conversion rate = prospects who reach the next stage / prospects in this stage x 100
```

Example of a one-month outbound funnel: 2,000 prospects contacted, 60 replies (3%), 24 positive replies, 15 meetings held, 6 qualified opportunities and 2 closed deals. The drop from positive reply to meeting held (24 to 15) is the cheapest place to improve, for example by booking faster and sending reminders.

## Sales Funnel in Practice

Outbound teams watch the top of the funnel closely because small changes compound. If the reply rate on a 2,000-person campaign moves from 2% to 3%, every later stage gets 50% more input with no change in close rate.

## FAQ

### What are the stages of a sales funnel?

There's no fixed count. Salesforce's guide uses six: awareness and discovery, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation and purchase. B2B outbound teams often track their own: contacted, replied, meeting held, opportunity, proposal and closed.

### What is the difference between a sales funnel and a sales pipeline?

Salesforce calls the key difference perspective: the funnel follows the buyer's path, the pipeline tracks the seller's deals by stage. Use the funnel to find where people drop out and the pipeline to forecast revenue.

### What is the difference between a sales funnel and a marketing funnel?

The marketing funnel produces leads; the sales funnel turns qualified leads into customers. Many companies run them as one funnel with a handoff in the middle.

### How do you improve sales funnel conversion?

Measure the conversion rate between each pair of stages, find the biggest drop and fix that step first, whether it's list quality, reply handling, meeting show rate or proposal follow-up.

## Do this in Ken

### Do This in Ken

Campaigns runs the top of the funnel over email and LinkedIn, replies land in Inbox, and Ken CRM (Coming) carries qualified deals through stages to closed won.

- Link: [Do This in Ken](/how-it-works)

## Related

- [GTM Glossary](/glossary): Every GTM term, grouped by topic.
- [Marketing funnel](/glossary/marketing-funnel)
- [Sales pipeline](/glossary/sales-pipeline)
- [Sales cycle](/glossary/sales-cycle)
- [Lead qualification](/glossary/lead-qualification)
- [CRM](/glossary/crm)
- [How Ken works](/how-it-works)

## Sources

| Source | URL | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Salesforce: What Is a Sales Funnel? | https://www.salesforce.com/sales/funnel/ | 2026-10-17 |
| HubSpot: Marketing Funnel | https://www.hubspot.com/glossary/marketing-funnel | 2026-10-17 |

## Changelog

- 2026-10-17: Page published.