Sales funnel in a construction company: 7 stages and where 80% of requests are lost

The scenario I hear most often during the first meeting with the owner.

“Marketing spends 500 thousand a month, brings in 120 leads. Sales close 6 deals. Conversion - 5%. At meetings, the marketer says that the leads are bad, the commercial one says that marketing is wasting money. Who's right?

Often nobody is right. The real issue is the process itself, or rather its absence. There are seven stages between “lead” and “deal” in construction, and each stage loses part of the demand. If even one stage drops, final conversion falls sharply.

Below is a map of the standard funnel in the construction business and the points where exactly money is lost.

Why does the standard “lead → sale” scheme not work here?

In an online store, the funnel is short. Click → item in cart → payment. There are 1-2 steps between marketing and revenue. In construction, there are 5-7 steps and 3-12 months between them.

Difficulties:

• →Long cycle - from first request to payment often takes six months. A lead can be hot in February and forgotten by August if the process is not built.

• →Several decision makers - the architect puts the material into the project, the supplier makes a choice according to the tender, the general signs the contract. Each with their own interests. The sales manager must go through everyone.

• →Complex product - facade panels, ventilated systems, paving slabs with a full installation cycle. This is not “bought and brought.” This includes specification, calculation, approval, and shipment in batches.

• →Shipments in tranches - even after the signed contract, the deal is not yet closed. There may be five shipments in six months, each with its own document and payment.

In such a system, the usual three-stage funnel (“New request / In progress / Closed”) does not work. You need a more detailed map.

7 stages of the funnel in a construction company

I will describe the complete funnel - it is relevant for most companies in the construction niche. The specific names of the stages may differ, but the logic is the same everywhere.

Stage 1. Lead

A request came in - what counts as a lead and what does not?

A lead is a contact from someone with potential interest in the product. The source can be a website request, an incoming call, a trade show inquiry, or a partner referral.

What a lead is not:

• →Subscribe to the newsletter without an explicit request
• →Downloading a catalog without leaving contacts
• →“Breaking through” from competitors’ managers
• →Cold contact without consent

If everything goes into the “Lead” stage, conversions will look weak and the team will process junk demand. A clear definition of “what counts as a lead” is the first thing the funnel needs.

Stage 2. Qualification

Qualification is a short conversation in which we understand whether it is possible to work with this lead further or not.

Minimum checklist:

• →Does the object exist? Address, object type, project name
• →What volumes of material are needed?
• →What is the construction time frame?
• →Who makes the decision?
• →Budget and payment terms - at least as a framework

If the answer to any of the questions is “I don’t know” or “We’re still thinking” - this is not a lead, this is a request for information. He can become a lead in 3-6 months. Now it is sent to a separate stream for warming up.

If the qualification is passed, the lead becomes a deal and moves on.

Stage 3. Request for technical specifications or specifications

Gained an understanding of the volume. Now we need technical data - technical specifications, drawings of the facility, specification of materials for the project.

At this moment, the seller’s meaningful work begins. He asks clarifying questions, can visit the site, and communicates with the architect or contractor. This stage is important, because the quality of the technical specifications determines the quality of the design proposal.

Stage 4. Calculation of CP

A commercial proposal is prepared based on the technical specifications. In the construction niche, this is often not one document, but several options:

• →By volume - basic and extended
• →According to the configuration - with or without installation
• →Delivery times: standard and urgent

Calculation of the quotation takes from 1 to 5 working days. This is not a quick stage.

Stage 5. Meeting and negotiations

The CP was sent. Next is a mandatory meeting at which this CP is discussed. Don’t “send and wait” - this is the path to lost deals. It's the meeting—in person, on Zoom, or on site—that moves the deal forward.

At the meeting, objections are closed, alternatives are discussed, and terms are agreed upon.

Stage 6. Agreement and prepayment

After agreeing on the terms - legal registration. Contract, specification, delivery schedule, payment terms. The prepayment has been made - the deal is considered concluded.

In CRM, this stage is often called “closed-won.” But this is a mistake: there is one more stage ahead, and without it there is no money in the business.

Stage 7. Shipment and additional payment

Shipment is carried out in batches. For each batch - paperwork: UPD, TTN, acts. After shipment - additional payment from the client, often with a delay.

The transaction is considered completely closed when:

• →All shipments have been completed
• →All additional payments received
• →Closing documents signed
• →The client moved to the LTV segment or returned for a repeat order

On average, from signing the contract to the complete closure of the transaction is 2-6 months. This is the final stage of the funnel and the most expensive in case of failure.

Where 80% of requests are lost

In a typical construction company, out of 100 requests, only 5-15 reach shipment. The rest are lost. Where exactly they are lost depends on the quality of the funnel.

Leak 1. Between “lead” and “qualification” - 30-40% of requests

Lead has arrived. The manager did not call back within 15 minutes - the lead had cooled down. I called back a day later - the client was already talking with a competitor. I called back three days later - the client forgot why he left the request.

In numbers: with an average lead cost of 5-15 thousand rubles and a 30-40% loss at this stage, the company loses 1.5-6 million rubles per year only because managers return calls too slowly.

Solution:

• →SLA for first response speed - maximum 15 minutes during business hours
• →Automatic reminders to the manager in CRM
• →Fallback channel - if the manager does not respond, the request escalates to the sales lead or another available manager

Leak 2. Between “proposal” and “meeting” - 25-35%

The CP went into the mail. The manager wrote “waiting for feedback.” Then there is silence. Two weeks later, the manager “accidentally” forgets about this deal. The client too.

This is the quietest and largest leak in a construction crater.

Solution:

• →After sending the proposal, a mandatory call within 1-2 business days
• →Set a specific meeting date on this call
• →If the meeting is not scheduled, the CRM status is set to “refusal” with the reason

Leak 3. Between “meeting” and “contract” - 15-25%

After the meeting, the manager did not record the next step. The client said “we’ll think about it,” the manager replied “okay, we’re in touch.” A month later, no one is in touch with anyone.

Solution:

• →After each meeting there is a mandatory entry in the CRM: what was discussed, what agreements were reached, what is the next step and date
• →Trigger in CRM: if there has been no activity on a deal for 7 days - an automatic task for the manager

Leak 4. Between “contract” and “shipment” - 5-10%

The contract has been signed and the advance payment has been made. Then there is a delay in shipment. Production didn't make it in time. Logistics failed. The client waits a month or two - loses patience, demands a refund and goes to a competitor.

This leak seems small, but it is the most painful financially. It’s not the leads that are lost here, but actually paid transactions. Each such loss means tens and hundreds of thousands in revenue plus a reputational blow.

The solution is not a marketing problem, but an operational one. Link marketing → sales → production → logistics, a unified system for monitoring shipment deadlines in CRM.

How to set up CRM so the funnel is not a mess

All leaks above can be treated with one thing - a properly configured CRM. Not “we have amoCRM, we use it,” but with real discipline in filling out and automating processes.

Minimum set of statuses

Not five statuses “lead → in progress → negotiations → sent to CP → closed.” This is too large a funnel for a construction niche. You need at least seven, preferably ten, according to the steps described above.

Required fields at each stage

• →At the “Lead” stage - source, UTM, phone, name, request type
• →At the “Qualification” stage - region, object, volume, budget, decision-maker
• →At the “CP” stage - amount, products, terms, date of sending the proposal
• →At the “Contract” stage - contract number, date, payment terms, shipment schedule
• →At the “Shipment” stage - UPD number, shipment date, payment status

If one of the required fields is not filled in, the transaction does not move forward. This is not a “soft recommendation”, it is a technical requirement of CRM.

Automatic tasks and triggers

• →A lead has been inactive for more than a day - the manager’s task is to “contact”
• →A transaction without activity for more than 7 days - task and notification to the ROP
• →CP sent more than 2 days ago without feedback - task “call on CP”
• →Meeting completed, next step not scheduled - automatic notification

Stuck deals report

Once a week, the ROP or the owner looks at a report on transactions that have been inactive for 14+ days. For each, there is a solution: we press it, switch it to a long warm-up, or close it as a “failure.”

Checklist: does the funnel work or not?

Ten questions. Count yes and no.

1. Do you have it written down what exactly is considered a lead and what is not?
2. Do all leads in CRM have the “source” field filled in?
3. Is the average time to first respond to a lead less than 15 minutes?
4. Do all transactions have a link to a specific object and decision-maker?
5. After sending a proposal, do you always receive a call within 2 days?
6. After the meeting, is the next step always recorded with a date?
7. Are trades without activity for longer than 7 days automatically taken into account by the ROP?
8. Are the contract and shipments tracked in CRM until complete closure?
9. Do you have a report on conversions between all stages of the funnel?
10. Is there a reconciliation of marketing ↔ sales by numbers once a week?

If “no” more than five times, the funnel does not work. Every “no” is a concrete leakage of money.

Case. How Ceramic Group brought order to the funnel

When we went to Ceramic Group, they had a classic three-stage funnel in Bitrix: “new → in progress → closed.” At any stage, the deal could hang for weeks, no one counted the conversions and did not know where the money was flowing.

What we did in 2 months:

• →We prescribed a 9-step funnel for their specific needs
• →Set up required fields for each stage
• →Connected amoCRM with automatic tasks and triggers
• →We set up 40 quizzes on the website for different segments - each with its own type of qualification
• →Implemented weekly marketing ↔ sales reconciliations based on specific numbers in the dashboard

Result after six months: the average deal cycle decreased by 25%, lead-to-deal conversion increased from 4% to 9%, and incremental revenue from marketing reached 300 million rubles over the period of work.