--- title: "Sales funnel: what it is, stages and how to build one 2026" description: What a sales funnel is, its stages, how to build one step by step, which metrics to track at each stage and how to run it on WhatsApp. locale: en category: ventas pubDate: 2026-11-08T04:00:00.000Z canonical: https://blog.mercately.com/en/sales-funnel --- # Sales funnel: what it is, stages and how to build one 2026 A **sales funnel** is a model of the journey a prospect takes from discovering your brand to buying from you (and, if you do it right, buying again). It is called a funnel because each stage has fewer people, but those people are closer to a decision. Once you understand it, you can see exactly where you lose deals and what to do at each stage so more prospects make it to the close. This guide covers the funnel stages, what a funnel is for, how to build one step by step, which metrics to watch at every stage and how a conversational funnel works on WhatsApp, the channel where a large share of sales happen in Latin America. What is a sales funnel? ----------------------- A sales funnel represents your sales process as a series of stages. Everyone who shows some interest enters at the top; the people who become customers come out at the bottom. In between are the filters: questions, demos, quotes, objections handled. The value is not in the diagram. It is in what the model lets you do: - **See the whole process**, not just the outcome (this month's revenue). - **Spot bottlenecks**: if only 10 out of 100 leads ask for a quote, the problem sits before the quote. - **Attach specific actions** to each stage instead of treating every prospect the same way. - **Forecast revenue** based on how many deals sit in each stage. Sales funnel stages ------------------- There is no single correct number of stages. This five-stage model works for most businesses that sell through digital channels: | Stage | What the customer is doing | What you need to do | Example action | | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | Awareness | Realizes they have a need and finds your brand | Get visibility and a first touchpoint | An ad that opens a WhatsApp chat | | Interest | Asks for information, compares options | Reply fast and understand the need | Qualifying questions: what, when, budget | | Consideration | Weighs your offer against alternatives | Show value and remove doubts | Send the catalog, a quote or a use case | | Decision | Ready to buy or asking for one last condition | Make closing easy and remove friction | Payment link or order confirmation in the chat | | Retention | Has bought; may buy again or refer others | Keep the relationship going | Post-purchase check-in, reorder reminder | Many models leave retention out. Including it makes sense: selling again to an existing customer usually costs less than winning a new one, and happy customers feed the top of the funnel with referrals. ![Diagram of the stages of a sales funnel](https://d2knypoejyuafk.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/embudo-de-ventas-1.jpg.webp) ### Define entry and exit rules for each stage The most common mistake is having stages with nice names and no criteria. Write a verifiable rule for every stage, for example: "a lead moves to Consideration once they have received a quote." That way two different reps classify the same deal the same way, and your funnel numbers actually mean something. What a sales funnel is for -------------------------- A well-designed funnel does several jobs for your sales team: 1. **Structures lead generation.** You learn which channels bring contacts and which of those contacts move forward. For more on the top of the funnel, see our guide to [lead generation](https://blog.mercately.com/en/lead-generation). 2. **Focuses your team's time.** Reps concentrate on late-stage deals while repetitive early-stage tasks get automated. 3. **Aligns marketing and sales.** Both teams agree on what a qualified lead is, when it gets handed off and what happens next. 4. **Makes campaigns measurable.** You can tell whether a campaign produced customers or just conversations that went nowhere. 5. **Cuts manual work.** With clear rules, many transitions (sending information, routing to the right rep, reminding about a follow-up) can happen on their own. More in our guide to [sales automation](https://blog.mercately.com/en/sales-automation). How to build a sales funnel step by step ---------------------------------------- 1. **Describe your ideal customer.** What problem you solve, who makes the buying decision and which channel they prefer. For many businesses in Latin America, that channel is WhatsApp. 2. **Map your real process, not the ideal one.** Review your last 20 or 30 sales: how each customer found you, what they asked, how many messages or meetings it took, what made them decide. 3. **Define stages and criteria.** Start from the five stages above and adjust. A few clear stages beat many vague ones. 4. **Assign actions and owners to each stage.** What content goes out, who replies, how fast, what is automated and what needs a human. 5. **Pick a tool to track it.** A spreadsheet works at first, but it breaks as soon as you have several reps. A CRM stores the stage, owner and history of every deal. 6. **Connect your lead sources.** Forms, ads, social media and WhatsApp should all create deals in the same place, with no copy and paste. 7. **Measure for 30 days before changing anything.** You need a baseline to know whether your improvements work. 8. **Fix the stage with the worst conversion.** Tackle one bottleneck at a time, measure again and repeat. If you already have quarterly sales targets, the funnel is what turns them into daily work. Our guide to building a [sales plan](https://blog.mercately.com/en/sales-plan) shows how goals, strategy and funnel fit together. Metrics for each funnel stage ----------------------------- Tracking only closed deals is like watching the scoreboard without seeing the game. These are the metrics worth following at each stage: | Stage | Key metrics | Warning sign | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | Awareness | New leads by channel, cost per lead | Lots of leads from one channel that never move | | Interest | First response time, qualified lead rate | Replies that take hours; leads never qualified | | Consideration | Quotes sent, move-to-decision rate | Quotes that get no reply | | Decision | Close rate, average deal size, sales cycle length | Many "let me think about it" with no follow-up | | Retention | Repeat purchase rate, returning customers, satisfaction | Customers who buy once and disappear | On top of stage metrics, track three overall numbers: **total conversion rate** (new customers divided by total leads), **customer acquisition cost** (sales and marketing spend divided by new customers) and **customer lifetime value** (how much revenue a customer brings over the whole relationship). If acquisition cost gets close to lifetime value, the funnel is not profitable even if it sells. ![Metrics used to measure a sales funnel](https://d2knypoejyuafk.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/embudo-de-ventas-2.jpg.webp) Sales funnel vs. marketing funnel vs. pipeline ---------------------------------------------- These ideas overlap, so it helps to separate them: - **Marketing funnel:** runs from first discovering the brand to becoming a qualified lead. Its goal is to attract and educate. - **Sales funnel:** takes the qualified lead to the close (and to repeat purchases). Its goal is to convert. - **Sales pipeline:** the operational view of your team's open deals, each with a stage, owner and estimated value. It is the day-to-day tool for managing the funnel. The conversational funnel on WhatsApp ------------------------------------- For many Latin American businesses, the funnel does not happen on a website with forms. It happens inside a chat. The customer sees an ad, messages you on WhatsApp, asks about prices, gets the catalog, negotiates and pays, all in the same thread. That is a conversational funnel. Here is what each stage looks like when WhatsApp is the main channel: 1. **Awareness:** click-to-WhatsApp ads, a WhatsApp link in your Instagram bio, a QR code at the point of sale. 2. **Interest:** a chatbot or an AI agent greets the customer, asks two or three qualifying questions and tags the lead. 3. **Consideration:** the rep (or the AI) shares catalog items, answers questions and sends a quote. 4. **Decision:** the customer gets a payment link or confirms the order without leaving the chat. 5. **Retention:** post-purchase follow-ups and campaigns using approved templates to drive reorders. A key cost detail: since July 1, 2025, Meta charges for the WhatsApp Business API per delivered template message (marketing, utility and authentication) instead of per 24-hour conversation. Since October 1, 2026, replies sent inside the 24-hour window the customer opens and utility templates sent inside that window are charged too, at the country's utility rate. Even so, stages where the customer messages first tend to cost less, because you reply without an approved template and at a lower rate than marketing, while follow-ups and campaigns outside the window require templates. You can estimate it by country with the [WhatsApp API pricing calculator](https://www.mercately.com/calculadora-precios-whatsapp-api). The biggest risk in a conversational funnel is follow-up: an unanswered "let me think about it" is a lost sale. See how to [follow up with customers on WhatsApp without being pushy](https://blog.mercately.com/en/whatsapp-customer-follow-up). Common sales funnel mistakes ---------------------------- - **Stages with no entry criteria:** every rep classifies deals differently and the data is useless. - **Abandoned deals:** leads sitting in the same stage for weeks with no action. - **Measuring only the close:** without intermediate metrics you do not know what to fix. - **Ignoring response speed:** on messaging channels, a lead who waits hours often buys from someone else. - **Scattered data:** chats on personal phones and notes on paper make it impossible to see the full funnel. How Mercately helps you manage your sales funnel ------------------------------------------------ Mercately is an AI-powered conversational CRM for WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. The idea is that the CRM is built from the conversation itself: every chat becomes a contact with a stage, an owner and data, with no manual entry. What you can do across the funnel: - **Funnels with configurable stages** inside the [Mercately CRM](https://www.mercately.com/crm), so you can see where each deal stands and who owns it. - **A shared inbox** with each customer's full history, plus [WhatsApp Multiagent](https://www.mercately.com/whatsapp/multiagente) so several reps can work the same number with automatic assignment. - **Automatic qualification** with [no-code chatbots](https://www.mercately.com/chatbots) or with [MIA, the AI agent](https://www.mercately.com/mia), which works 24/7, detects buying intent and hands off to a human when needed. - **Funnel automations**, scheduled messages and inactivity reminders so no lead goes without a follow-up. - **Closing inside the chat** with the catalog, PDF quotes and [payment links](https://www.mercately.com/pagos-digitales), so customers do not have to send screenshots of bank transfers. - **Campaigns with approved templates**, segmented by tag or stage, to reactivate deals and drive repeat purchases. - **Analytics** on response times, workload per agent and sales to measure your funnel. Mercately uses the official WhatsApp Business API and is an official Meta partner. Check the plans on the [pricing page](https://www.mercately.com/precios). Conclusion ---------- A useful sales funnel is not the most sophisticated one. It is the one your team actually uses every day: stages with clear criteria, defined actions at each stage and metrics that show where deals leak. If you sell on WhatsApp, moving that funnel into the conversation, with automatic qualification, follow-ups and in-chat payments, is the most direct way to convert more. **[Try Mercately free for 15 days, no credit card required](https://app.mercately.com/register)**. ## FAQ ### What is a sales funnel? It is a model of the path a prospect follows from first hearing about your brand to buying\. It is split into stages, and each stage has fewer people who are more likely to close, which is why it is shaped like a funnel\. ### What are the stages of a sales funnel? A practical model for small and midsize businesses has five stages: awareness, interest, consideration, decision and retention\. You can rename or split them to fit your process, as long as each stage has a clear entry and exit rule\. ### What is the difference between a sales funnel and a pipeline? The funnel describes the customer journey and is used to measure conversion between stages\. The pipeline is the operational view of your team's open deals, with stage, owner and value\. The pipeline is how you manage the funnel day to day\. ### Which sales funnel metrics should I track? At minimum: new leads entering the funnel, conversion rate between each stage, average time a lead spends in each stage, customer acquisition cost and average deal size\. Those numbers show you where deals get stuck\. ### Can you run a sales funnel on WhatsApp? Yes\. 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