Why a simple sales funnel will grow your business

What are you most looking forward to after lockdown?

For me, it’s meeting new people again.  I’ve really missed having conversations with people I don’t know, discovering what they think and understanding myself better along the way.  And I’ve missed making new friends.

A digital sales funnel lets you make friends with future customers who have a problem to solve and think you might have a solution.  And social distancing never gets in the way.

In this blog, I’ll explain what a sales funnel is, why they work and how they work.

The best way to think of a sales funnel is as a step-by-step process which enables potential customers to make purchasing decisions.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  A sales funnel sounds ‘salesy’ and inauthentic.  And digital marketing is complicated, expensive and never finished.  Ergo, it’s impossible for a small or medium size business to compete with the big guys.

I can honestly tell you that is not the case. 

But before I tell you the essential components of a really good, lead generating sales funnel I want to explain WHY it works.

Have you ever been rushed into making a commitment to meet someone or join something before you felt sure about it?  I’ll exaggerate here to make the point.  How would you feel if you’d just met someone at a work event and they ask you out for a date?  WTF… you think. You barely said hello and you know nothing about them.  Of course, you feel awkward and unimpressed.  You’re just plain not going to do it. Right?

A lot of websites make that same mistake.  They expect visitors to make a commitment before they’ve established a relationship.

It’s like they’re proposing marriage before even asking their visitor out!

All relationships follow the same stages. They build and earn trust very slowly through 3 phases.  It’s how a person interacts with another person and a brand.

1.     Curiosity  (can this brand help me survive – save money, cut costs, improve my status, help me become the person or business I wish to be or own?)

2.     Enlightenment (how will this brand help me survive? What does the product or service actually do?)

3.     Commitment (why should I trust this brand? I’ll put some skin in the game if they offer me something first.)

You might find it helpful to think of your funnel as a relationship funnel, rather than a sales funnel.  The purpose is to build a relationship so that when a prospect is ready to buy, your brand is top of mind, already familiar and trusted.

So we’ve covered why a sales funnel works. 

Now I’ll tell you HOW it works. 

Most businesses don’t have a sales funnel because they think it’s too complicated, expensive and pushy. 

We’ve dealt with pushy.  And now I can tell you it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.  In fact, if it doesn’t 10X your revenue in a year I’d be surprised.

A simple sales funnel has several components. 

1.     A one liner which is one sentence that triggers curiosity about your brand

2.     A website that serves as a landing page where you repeat and expand upon the message in your one liner

3.     A lead generator that gets you an email address

4.     Emails that you send out to the email campaign

It’s automated.  So that you can run your business while your sales funnel is gathering and qualifying leads from your idea clients or customers. 

I’ll say it again. 

Few businesses build a sales funnel. The ones that do will do well coming out of lockdown. 

Contact me at juliet@captivate.uk or 07772313966 to find out more.