SALES FUNNEL
An over-looked business approach that most millionaires have used to transform simple startups into multi million business entities. Don’t run any business before reading this.
What is a sales funnel? A sales funnel in the simplistic definition refers to the visual representation of the invisible path taken by a business lead from the first interaction point to when they turn into a raging buyer.
The main use of a sales funnel in this sense being to build a relationship and give the lead a reason to buy from you. You understand that we all tend to buy from people we Know, Trust and Like.
Think of a sales funnel as the path you took when you first saw your girlfriend. She was just a stranger and therefore you could not ask her for a date the same day you saw her. You gave her reasons to go for a date with you before you asked for it. Now, most entrepreneurs/sales-people treat their potential customers very differently. They ask for the sale even before the customer has liked or even known their brand, product or service.
The good thing is that implementing a good funnel and aligning it with your business would change not only the customers’ experience with you but also skyrocket your profits and lift the burden on your shoulders since it’s easy to divide labor to the most qualified person for a certain task. You can easily tell who is the best person to handle each stage of the funnel until the deal is closed.
A sales funnel is the first building block in streamlining a business idea and transitioning a mere business idea into a multi-million business entity. Let’s dig deeper and dissect a sales funnel into its various components. What exactly does a sales funnel look like–A normal and yet very simple sales funnel will comprise of the following stages, Awareness Stage, Interest, desire and Action stage. Each working dependently on each other subsequent stages.
1: Awareness/Discovery stage
At this stage, your ideal customer may realize that they are going through a problem. But they are still struggling to get a solution to their challenge, this is where your product information comes in. You establish yourself as an expert in the niche by offering the solution. Your content comes handy to educate the customer about a certain problem that they want to solve in their life. Think of someone who has a destination they really want to reach to but doesn’t know if there’s such a place and if so, how they would reach there. This is the perfect time to use that pain point to enter the person’s mind. Get on board and feel like him, talk like him and help him discover the sol.
This is called mirroring the customer. Which steps would he have to go through before he gets a vehicle to deliver him to the destination? Tailor your solution in this direction and make it a FREE or less riskier’ vehicle it could be a Free e-book, tutorial, how-to, inforgraphic…etc and then share with them in exchange for his contacts. That’s your first point of interaction. At your first interaction point, you can’t solve much pain points, but you need to leave an impact on their mind.
You will realize that at this stage there are so many leads coming in your pipeline. Think of a pain point in the market and research how many people are looking for the solution on different search engines. You won’t want to miss a chunk of these potential leads landing in your pipeline in search for a solution you are already offering. This screenshot shows you how many people searched to solve this problem today, think about in a month, year…
You realize that it’s at this stage where you shall start running different types of adverts in order to get traffic in your funnel.
2: Interest stage
At this stage, your customer is already aware of the problem and he/she is looking for ways to solve or achieve their goal. Think of a shoe buyer with a very painful leg and is looking for a shoe that has a comfortable sole. This is where you come in and explain about how products and how they could be the best solution to the pain. Now they know you can help and there’s a problem with them, and you have a solution. Therefore the interest in solving their problem kicks in and is heightened by a number of factors. They truly desire to get the problem solved. They have an interest to buy your item but… not yet. They need to make that decision which of course would cost them a dime.
Note: Depending on how deep your product or service is in your funnel, you might have already started making a number of sales at this point. In some cases the desire is so bad that client can’t go any deeper in the funnel and skips all the other stages.
At this point, the number of people in your pipeline has really reduced.
3: Decision stage
In this stage your prospect has the knowledge about the product and is ready to buy. They might be considering you as well as your competitors. Now this is where you come up with your best offer to retain him/her at your shop. You can either offer him a discount, free shipping for the next order they make online or a bonus product. Whatever approach you use make sure the biggest chunk of your traffic become you customers through your offer. Now you need to spike up their desire and create an urgency for them to buy immediately. Capitalize on the fear of missing out and give a limited time offer for them to take action immediately. This is also know is the consideration stage where the customer is trying to compare prices and other factors before breaking open their wallet to spend on you. Here you might lose the chance to the already noisy market if you don’t act fast.
Give an offer that even a fool would feel stupid to say no to.
4: Action stage
This is the very bottom part of your sales funnel. Your customer is taking the action of buying and transferring the money to your account. It’s also called the purchase stage. This is where the deal is closed at. It’s a win for you. The number of conversions you make here determines the effectiveness of your funnel.
Ensure this is not the end of your funnel, think of turning one purchase into ten. Think of what else you can offer this customer after or together with their initial purchase. Upsell or cross sell something else. A simple example would be someone who bought a car from you, you would enter into a JV (Joint Venture) with an insurance or car tracking service providers to offer the service on your behalf for a referral commission. This should not be the end of your interaction with this customer. This will give you other extra revenues as well as reduce our cost of acquiring a single customer.
To retain your customers, keep them happy in order to convert them into a repeat customers and brand advocates. Remember there is no better word of mouth than that of a happy customer. For instance a customer who bought the vehicle might needs some refresher courses from time to time, exchanging their car with the latest models, information on how to best maintain their car… this builds a relationship with each of your customers. It is also a good chance for you to get referrals. I have a business friend who is a dentist and would send me a card on each of my birthdays and one day during my birthday two of my friends inquired about him and later turned to be his regular clients. Just from a mare birthday card.
Keep them engaged with your product/services, you can do that by sharing content such us;
- Special offers
- Emails
- Product usage guide
- Technical assistance & follow ups
- Branded Free Gifts
Let’s agree most of the business owners often have plenty of ideas and motivations but they don’t know how to apply them in a systematic and more productive way. A sales funnel will help you apply the tricks and boost your business drastically.
Let’s review:
- A sales funnel gives your business a direction.
- It’s more profitable and less strenuous with a sales funnel
- Advertising is the first step in your funnel
- There are many different types of funnels
- A funnel makes your work easier
- A funnel may help you 10X your revenue
Coming up. How to get the most out of your sales funnel.