3 Buyer Psychology Tips To Create Overflowing Sales Funnels

So, you run a business. That means you rely on a steady stream of clients or customers making purchases or engaging your services—and you need to keep that stream flowing or else you don’t have a business. That’s where the sales funnel comes in.

Every business has one, helping them tempt new leads and nurture relationships toward a conversation. But how often do you question the results? How regularly do you look into what’s behind people’s decision-making?

Because here’s a bit of a secret: The key to a truly successful funnel—to attracting leads and effortlessly guiding them toward a sale—is buyer psychology. 

The buyer psychology of purchase decisions might seem like a daunting topic, but don’t worry, ScoreApp is here to break it down for you. 

This article will give you everything you need—all the knowledge, insight, and extra reading—to understand the psychology of sales and use it to your advantage. That means getting to grips with:

• The key stages that form a high-performing sales funnel, and the buyer psychology behind them
• The psychology of buying, and the different triggers that influence buying decisions 
• How to use buyer psychology in marketing to drive more conversions. 

There’s no need for a psychology degree. With this guide, and tools such as ScoreApp’s intelligent quizzes and assessments to do the hard work for you, you can find what works and create a stronger sales funnel in no time. 

Shall we get started?

The key stages of a high-converting sales funnel (and why most businesses get it wrong)

A truly great sales funnel has three main stages:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

For the funnel to reach its full potential, and bring in more high-quality, readily converting leads, you need to understand these stages and what sets them apart. 

Here’s what you need to know.

Awareness: Attracting leads

Attracting leads is absolutely vital to any business, but the trick is not to come on too strong.

• The mistake: It’s here that too many businesses go off half cocked, pushing a sale that hasn’t been earned. Let’s face it, in this early stage plenty of leads aren’t going to know who you are, let alone have a reason to trust you. You need to rectify that first.
  
• What works: Building a rapport is key. Raise your profile with them and generate a bit of goodwill. Show them the value you can bring. Give leads some content, a free resource, or an interactive quiz with personalized results. Anything that demonstrates why they should engage with you is a winner. We recommend putting together a ScoreApp quiz that helps leads identify their challenges, while demonstrating your knowledge on the subject and how you can help guide them through it. Think along the lines of ‘What’s your business bottleneck?’, with results that lead to genuine, actionable insights. Now that’s valuable. 

Consideration: Nurturing trust and interest

You’ve got your leads’ attention, but you still need to butter them up over time.

• The mistake: You don’t want to dive double-footed into a sales spiel. Bombarding leads with sales pitches before they’re ready will only have one outcome—and that’s them backing away quickly. If you’ve got nothing to offer other than the hard sell, then nobody will want to talk to you. That’s buyer psychology 101. 
• What works: Instead, help your leads understand what it is you’re offering, and how it helps them. Obviously your marketing materials are a good start, but testimonials and case studies from independent clients are even stronger. We always trust what other people say about a product or service more than the provider. Use a lead magnet like an assessment, and you can create a personalized nurturing sequence that includes both relevant case studies and blog posts for maximum impact. 

Decision: Turning leads into customers

Getting to grips with nurturing leads is a huge part of the process, but you still need to get those leads to convert and become customers. And you need to make it as easy as possible.

• The mistake: All too often the buying process is overcomplicated, overwhelming, and just not worth battling through. If your lead can’t find out how to make a purchase, then they’ll go and do it elsewhere, regardless of how much value you’ve added to their lives lately.  
• What works: Instead, make your sales process crystal clear with clearly signposted steps toward conversion. Even better, add a bit of urgency or scarcity to sway any leads who are hovering on the fence. For example, follow up a ScoreApp quiz with a special, limited-time offer that addresses their pain points and makes their goals achievable. When you base the offer on their data and insights, you make it irresistible. 

Those are the three stages of converting leads, but there’s more to it than that. When it comes to the buyer psychology of purchase decisions, certain mental triggers have a huge impact.

Psychological triggers that influence every purchase decision

People don’t buy products. They buy solutions, status, and emotions. Here are three of the biggest psychological principles that influence sales.

The power of social proof: People trust what others say

The psychology of sales tells us that we trust other people more than a brand’s marketing. Think about it. How many times do you check Google reviews before visiting a restaurant or hiring a plumber? Do you look at Rotten Tomatoes before choosing a movie? 

In some circles, it’s known as third-party endorsement. In others, it’s social proof. Either way, it’s a powerful tool. Use it to your advantage by adding case studies and testimonials to your automated email nurture sequences. 

You can even leverage the results of previous ScoreApp quizzes to engage leads. For example, a title along the lines of “86% of business owners who took this assessment discovered their #1 sales blocker” will make new leads curious and eager to get their own results.

Scarcity and urgency: Fear of missing out = faster decisions

A deal is always tempting, especially when you know it won’t last forever. A sense of urgency can be the last nudge people need for converting. Fear of missing out and scarcity drive decisions. But don’t overdo it. Mounting a deal every other week will soon lose potency.

Tie your limited-time offer to quiz results to bring people to your lead magnet. A time limit on downloading results, for example, or a special discount for anyone who completes a quiz in a set timeframe.

The reciprocity principle: Give value first, sales follow

If you give someone something, they’ll give you something back. Or, when it comes to buyer psychology in marketing, people reciprocate when you give them something useful for free.

What does that mean for you? Well, if you can deliver valuable insights with the results of a free ScoreApp quiz, then your lead is more likely to make a paid purchase a little later down the line. 

Social proof, FOMO, and reciprocity are just a handful of the buyer psychology principles, or hacks, for bolstering your sales funnel. There are more to get to grips with if you really want to master the psychology of buying.

Each one makes the journey from lead to customer smoother and more likely, but you have to be selective: Not every technique is suitable for every situation. It’s down to you to find out what works best. 

How to apply buyer psychology to your sales funnel—effortlessly!

We’ve covered a lot, so if your head is reeling with thoughts of buyer psychology, then don’t worry. ScoreApp is here with a way to apply buyer psychology to your funnel that shortcuts all the textbook reading you had planned. All you need is a ScoreApp quiz. 

With a ScoreApp quiz, you can:

• Grab attention, kick-starting engagement and the awareness stage
• Give personalized insights that build the kind of trust vital for the consideration stage
• Use tailored offers to drive conversations through to the decision stage. 

ScoreApp in action

The fact is a lead magnet is the best way to consistently entice potential new customers into your sales funnel, especially if it’s an engaging, interactive lead magnet such as a ScoreApp quiz. 

A quiz that gets leads involved, gives them a usable, useful outcome (like a report), and guides them seamlessly through the next steps is going to convert at a much higher rate because it feels natural. Because it’s not a hard sell.

Identify a pain point or a growth metric, build your quiz around it, and watch your sales funnel swell. 

The smart way to build overflowing sales funnels

When it comes to harnessing the psychology of buying, you don’t need to be an expert. You just need to have the right tools.

With ScoreApp, you can effortlessly apply the three key stages of a successful sales funnel: awareness, consideration, and decision. Even better, you can employ the psychological triggers that build trust and encourage conversions, thanks to the automated email sequences, engaging lead magnets, and personalization ScoreApp puts in your hands. 

And the best part? ScoreApp is free to try. See for yourself, and create an overflowing sales funnel today thanks to buyer psychology and ScoreApp.