I know, I know. You’re sick of the jargon. Open rate, lead bait, segmentation… You just want to convert more leads into paying clients.
Am I right?
I thought so.
Well, as luck would have it, that’s exactly what a sales funnel does.
What Is A Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is the step-by-step journey a prospect makes from person-who’s-never-heard-of-you to paying customer.
As soon as someone out there notices your business, service or product, they enter your funnel at the top and filter through a series of marketing actions towards the bottom, where they make their buying decision.
Businesses using sales funnels understand their target customer, know how best to reach them and build systems that convert these leads into loyal customers.
Do I Really Need A Sales Funnel?
Let me put it this way.
Would you rather…
A: Sit tight, wait for word of mouth to land you your next clients and have no idea where your money’s going to come from in six months’ time.
B: Have a system that attracts the right people, meets their needs at every stage of their customer journey and reroutes them if they fall out of the funnel so you never lose a lead…
I know which option I’d go for.
Digging deeper into how customers flow through the steps of your sales funnel means you can nail relevant, effective messaging. Consistently giving your customers what they need to feel positive about buying from you means that when you ask them to commit, they will!
The Four Stages Of The Sales Funnel
AIDA.
It’s useful jargon, I promise. The acronym helps to make the stages of a sales funnel easy to understand (and even easier to remember).
A - Awareness
This stage sees your cleverly crafted content draw in the leads you want. Your goal is to let people know you exist. Ads, blogs and social media are all great tools for this.
If what you pump out there grabs your target audience’s attention they’ll likely become curious about what your business does. At this point, your potential customer may not even know what they need, so tell them!
I - Interest
Once your potential customer has seen what you’ve got to offer, they’ll want to learn more. They like your product or service but are not ready to buy just yet.
In this stage the goal is to nurture the relationship, build trust and generate a high level of excitement. It’s this strong interest that will compel your customer to act later on.
In the Interest stage, storytelling, product comparisons and customer testimonials can all help to:
- Tell your prospect why they need you
- Provide more information about your brand
- Promote the benefits of your solution, and
- Cement your authenticity and integrity.
D - Decision
Filtering through to this stage means your prospect now understands their issues, knows you can solve them and is ready to buy.
You might think it’s a done deal. It’s not.
In the Decision stage, it’s vital to put work into standing out. Keep sending them content, but consider including (relevant) freebies to really get them on side. Strong sales pages that engage your prospect and make it easy for them to act are also a must.
A - Action
In the Action stage the goal is to provide your potential customer with the chance to make a buying decision.
Don’t despair if they don’t make the leap this time around. The beauty of the sales funnel is that you can put measures in place for every eventuality; you can fill every hole. No sale? No worries. Enter them into a nurture email sequence to let them know you’re there if you need them.
Where Will I Find Time For This?
We all know time is precious. And designing and implementing a sales funnel can sound like a huge job.
You might be wondering if there’s any point. Why work out your sales funnel if you won’t have time to lead people through it? Let alone shepherd any leads falling out of it.
Plenty of small businesses use marketing automation platforms to solve this issue.
With your customer’s whole journey mapped out and content created for each stage, your chosen platform then sends out the right stuff to the right people at the right time, so you don’t have to.
Okay, So Where Do I Start?
All you need to do to implement a sales funnel is follow these four simple steps.
1
Create A Landing Page
The single role of this page is to entice prospects to opt into your email list. Your landing page should include a lead magnet, opt-in form and a clear call to action.
1
Nurture Your Subscribers
Through this step you need to build your relationship and enhance trust with nurture emails.
1
Make It An Easy Choice
After a while, your prospect will land firmly in the Decision stage. A strong sales email campaign should overcome their objections and push them towards committing.
1
Bag The Sale (And No Isn’t No Forever)
When someone doesn’t buy from you, that usually means ‘not right now’. Don’t take it personally, and definitely don’t get rid of those warm prospects.
Put in place a specially designed nurture email series to keep your business front of mind.
Sales Funnels Are All About Relationships
Your prospect will buy from you when they trust you, feel heard and understand you can solve their problem. The tricky thing is that people’s needs change along their buying journey.
And that’s where the sales funnel comes in.
Designing a sales funnel means you can give your potential customers exactly what they need at exactly the right stage, increasing the chance of them parting with their cash when asked to.
Feeling a little overwhelmed at the thought of mapping out a complete customer journey? I get it. Book a call with me to get your sales funnel automated and start converting more leads.
