[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":42},["ShallowReactive",2],{"glossary-funnel":3},{"slug":4,"path":5,"title":6,"description":7,"term":8,"wordCount":9,"hasExample":10,"inboundLinks":11,"isPublished":10,"html":12,"data":13,"related":26,"lessons":39},"funnel","/glossary/funnel","What Is a Sales Funnel? Definition and Stages","A sales funnel is the model of how leads are winnowed down from many at the top to a few paying customers at the bottom. SDRs and BDRs own the top — turning leads into qualified meetings — while AEs carry deals down the rest of the funnel to close.","Funnel",253,true,12,"\u003Cp>A sales funnel is the model of how a lot of \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/lead/\">leads\u003C/a> become a few customers. At the top you have every \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/lead/\">lead\u003C/a> the company touches; each stage — outreach, \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/qualified-meeting/\">qualified meeting\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/demo/\">demo\u003C/a>, proposal, close — filters more out, until only the won deals fall out the bottom. The \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/sdr/\">SDR\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/bdr/\">BDR\u003C/a> own the top: their job is to make the top wide and the qualification honest so real \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/qualified-meeting/\">meetings\u003C/a> don't leak. The \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/account-executive/\">account executive\u003C/a> owns the rest.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"in-plain-english\">In plain English\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Imagine water pouring into a funnel. A huge amount goes in at the top, and only a stream comes out the bottom. Sales works the same way: most \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/lead/\">leads\u003C/a> won't buy, so you need many more at the top than you want at the bottom. The difference between a good funnel and a bad one is usually leaks — stages where too many real deals fall out. Where your team leaks tells you what to fix.\u003C/p>\n\u003Ch2 id=\"why-it-matters-to-you\">Why it matters to you\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>Funnels and \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/pipeline/\">pipelines\u003C/a> are used almost interchangeably, but the emphasis differs: a funnel is the \u003Cem>shape\u003C/em> of the math (many in, few out), while a pipeline is the \u003Cem>list\u003C/em> of deals in front of you. As an SDR, your metric is how many qualified meetings you feed the top — widening the funnel is literally your job. When a manager says "the funnel is leaking," they mean leads that should have become meetings or \u003Ca href=\"/glossary/demo/\">demos\u003C/a> went quiet. Knowing which stage leaks is how you decide where your effort goes.\u003C/p>\n",{"title":6,"description":7,"primaryQuery":14,"term":8,"publishedAt":15,"author":16,"reviewedAt":17,"example":18,"relatedTerms":19,"lessons":24},"what is a sales funnel","2026-09-10","closers","2026-09-24","\"Our funnel is wide at the top but leaks in the middle — too many demos that never turn into proposals.\"",[20,21,22,23],"pipeline","lead","qualified-meeting","sdr",[25],"/academy/sdr/what-is-tech-sales",[27,30,33,36],{"slug":20,"path":28,"title":29},"/glossary/pipeline","What Is a Sales Pipeline? Definition and How It Works",{"slug":21,"path":31,"title":32},"/glossary/lead","What Is a Lead in Sales? Definition and Types",{"slug":22,"path":34,"title":35},"/glossary/qualified-meeting","What Is a Qualified Meeting in Sales? Definition",{"slug":23,"path":37,"title":38},"/glossary/sdr","What Is an SDR? Sales Development Representative, Explained",[40],{"path":25,"title":41},"What Is Tech Sales? The SaaS SDR Career, Explained",1792888522725]