Tools
What is a Sales Funnel? And Why Do You Need One
What is a Sales Funnel?
Ahhh, the sales funnel. What a beautiful and vital process for EVERY company looking to increase sales. That’s right, I said every company. The sales funnel process has varies of success depending on your industry, but believe me when I say IT WORKS!
Every single day I see companies advertising their product to audiences that have no idea who they are or what their product is. Being a stranger to your customers does not typically make a high amount of sales.
Sure, sales can be generated as a stranger, but the success rate is nowhere near what it can be if the customer is more aware of your product or brand prior to purchasing. The sales funnel is the perfect and proven method of guiding the customer from awareness of your brand, to completing sales and even beyond that to future purchases.
From coffee shops to modern-day virtual reality companies, I’ve worked with a number of different marketing methods to increase sales, and the number one tactic has always been the sales funnel, especially with the technology and delivery methods available to us these days.
Enter the sales funnel. Remember, the term sales funnel refers to a process used to push customers through to conversion. Potential customers enter into the top of your funnel via an enticing offer, you communicate with them/make them aware of you/your brand, then eventually you convert them into paying customers.
So how do sales funnels work? Sales funnels can be anywhere from basic to complex depending on the product or niche. The basic flow of a sales funnel that works in modern times is as follows:
The Basic Stages
- Obtain Leads: Advertise something your target audience wants. What is their problem? What value can you provide to help them? Consider giving them something for free, or for very cheap that allows you to cover costs. Maybe it’s an eBook, some video lessons or perhaps a physical product where the customer covers the shipping and handling. Whatever it is, make the offering attractive to your target audience. The aim here is to obtain their details in exchange for your irresistible offer. If they want to obtain your product, they have to give you an email address or more info so that you can send your product to them. Now that you have their contact details, they are inside the first stages of your sales funnel.
- Engage and Build Trust: You have them. You can now start engaging with your potential buyers. By doing this you are qualifying or verifying that your buyer has a need for your product and that value is recognised. There are various ways of doing this. For both me and my clients, the most effective method for communicating with your customers at this stage is via email. This can be automated so you can practically do this in your sleep. More on this later.
- Convert: By engaging with your customers over a series of emails you would have by now earned trust. When potential customers become familiar with a brand or product, they are far more likely to commit to purchase. It’s in our nature to trust more after engagement. I don’t often buy from strangers/brands I don’t recognise, and it’s no different for your product. Put yourself in their shoes – be friendly and provide value during stage 1 & 2, now you sell.
- Up-sell and Ascend: Up-sell other products and ascend your customers up through your value ladder to higher ticket purchases or regular payments for products/services.
Imagine how much time you could save if you could automate this entire process? Well actually, you can. You can literally sleep whilst you are engaging with your customers. Both me and my clients have made a lot of profit doing this, and you can too.
There are various products out there to achieve funnel automation, but without a doubt, the number one product that converts to sales through this process is a product called ClickFunnels. It is without a doubt my secret tool for generating leads and more business for any company online.
Hundreds of thousands of people are doing exactly that right now, and the process is still a new one at the time of this writing (Spring 2017), so jump in there while you can and get ahead of your competitors.
ClickFunnels is free for 14 days. We recommend you take action and beat your competition! Click here for your free trial.