Let's get this straight.
Achieving your sales goals is about more than building a sales funnel.
Knowing terms like the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel without implementing them the right way makes your sales process more complex and closing deals all but impossible.
If building a sales funnel is the only thing you need to do, then why is it that 79% of marketing leads are never converted into sales?
Monitoring your sales funnel helps you track your prospects' behaviors as they interact with your business and go through the stages of the buyer's journey.
Knowing their behaviors enable you to spot and repeat patterns that drive your prospects towards closed deals.
This article discusses the meaning of sales funnel management, the importance of implementing this process, and a breakdown of the funnel management process.
P.S. If you already know all of this, you can skip to our list of top sales funnel management software to optimize your sales process and increase your revenue.
Sales funnel management helps you organize, track, and analyze interactions with your prospects along their journey through each stage in your funnel. These interactions include initial sales calls, email campaigns, and phone calls, which lead to closing a deal. Monitoring customer engagement as they move through your sales funnel helps you pinpoint areas that motivate your prospects to close.
A sales funnel is a visual representation of the stages people go through as they engage with your business, from being prospects to being customers.
The stages of a sales funnel are:
In brief:
Funnel management involves closely tracking customers at each of these stages. This allows you to gauge their interest and help push them in the right direction – making a purchase.
It also helps you categorize and prioritize leads. If prospects don't seem likely to end up making a purchase, you can put them on the back burner and focus your attention on those who are more likely to become customers.
If you've ever tried to manage a sales funnel without the right systems in place, you know it can feel like juggling multiple things while riding a unicycle, exciting, but one wrong move and things crash.
Funnel management is all about keeping every stage of the buyer journey smooth, predictable, and measurable.
Let's break it down.
The modern buyer doesn't move neatly from awareness to decision. Instead, they bounce between Google searches, LinkedIn posts, webinars, and even TikTok videos before they finally decide to click "buy." That means lead funnel management has to go beyond one-dimensional outreach.
Here's why:
Email is great, but let's be honest. Your prospect probably has 74 unread newsletters sitting in their inbox. Text messages, on the other hand, have a 98% open rate and usually get read within three minutes. That's practically instant access to your lead's attention.
With smart sales funnel management, SMS becomes your secret weapon:
Here's where things get futuristic. Traditional funnel management required a lot of manual chasing, like sales reps sending the same templated emails to hundreds of leads. But with AI and automation, personalization finally scales.
Here's how:
In short, understanding what is sales funnel management today means recognizing it's no longer just about moving leads from one stage to another. It's about weaving together real-time communication, SMS engagement, and AI-driven personalization to create a funnel that feels less like a rigid pipeline and more like a dynamic, lead-friendly journey.
Now that we've covered why funnel management matters, let's get into the how. The funnel management process requires structure, intention, and a touch of automation magic.
Here's how to bring sales funnel management to life step by step.
Before you start firing off texts or automating sequences, you need a clear map of your sales funnel. This is where most teams stumble, and if you can't define your stages, you can't manage them.
Let's quickly revisit the sales funnel stages:
Sales funnel stage |
Overview |
Awareness |
|
Interest |
|
Decision |
|
Action |
|
This mapping exercise is the backbone of the funnel. Without it, funnel management meaning gets fuzzy, and your pipeline becomes more chaos than strategy.
Here's where things get interesting. While email and calls have their place, SMS often outshines them when timing is critical. Here's how to integrate SMS touchpoints:
When done right, SMS feels less like marketing and more like an ongoing conversation.
No sales rep has time to manually text every prospect at just the right moment. That's where automation shines. Tools like Ringy make it easy to set up sequences that do the heavy lifting.
Smart sales funnel management balances automation with authenticity. Leads should never feel like they're talking to a bot, even if the workflow is running behind the scenes.
Managing a funnel without metrics is like driving blindfolded. You're moving, but you have no idea where you'll end up. Funnel management thrives on data.
Track SMS-specific performance:
And don't forget funnel-specific KPIs:
Numbers tell the truth. They'll show you where your funnel shines and where it leaks.
Here's the fun part: improving as you go. The best funnels aren't static. They evolve with feedback and smarter tech.
The result? A funnel that doesn't just capture leads but actively adapts to how real buyers behave. That's what true sales funnel management looks like in today's landscape.
Managing your sales funnel efficiently can be mind-boggling due to the sheer amount of metrics that need to be monitored and the difficulties involved with implementing the right strategy at the right stage.
But armed with the following software tools, you can easily automate processes, get detailed reports on lead conversion, and improve your sales strategy at each stage.
We know you want to get the best bang for your buck, so here's an overview of the top sales funnel management software and their pricing.
Sales Funnel Management Software |
Pricing |
Ringy |
|
Zendesk Sell |
Starts at $19 per user per month, billed annually |
Systeme |
$17-$97 per month, with a free plan |
Yes, we've included ourselves on the list because we believe we offer the best solution to your sales funnel management woes.
Right off the bat, here's what we bring to the table…or funnel:
Drip campaigns are especially useful for funnel management since it enables you to engage your leads across all the stages of your sales funnel. Plus, with automatic messages, Ringy ensures that your cold leads are nurtured while you focus on selling.
Our clients can tell you how we've helped them with their sales funnel – see what they have to say.
But why not see for yourself and take a more comprehensive look at our features?
The best part? Our pricing is straightforward – $109 per month.
*Pricing accurate as of August 2025*
From its sales dashboard and analytics tools to lead organization with custom fields, Zendesk Sell provides complete funnel visibility for your sales reps.
Zendesk Sell lets you quickly build flow fields to track prospects from lead to customer and track sales campaign results.
This is particularly helpful since new sales reps can find it confusing to add new leads because of some set fields you can't use or delete.
Pricing starts at $19 per user per month, billed annually.
*Pricing accurate as of August 2025*
Systeme's freemium plan offers impressive features, including landing page creation and email templates. It is perfect for sales teams that want to try out lead funnel management without spending a dime.
Systeme also offers:
While this software is excellent for small businesses getting started, the landing page forms can be generic and lacking in customization.
Systeme costs $17-$97 per month, with a free plan available.
*Pricing accurate as of August 2025*
Sales funnel management helps you:
You should also leverage software tools to make sales funnel management even more efficient and effective.
With Ringy's automation features, detailed reporting, and contact management, you can easily maintain both a bird's eye view and an in-depth analysis of your sales funnel.
Request a demo, and let's get started.