Here lies the most important aspect of any business: the sales funnel. Some people will call it the revenue process, some will call it the sales process, but ultimately all of the terms come down to one thing, acquiring customers to keep your cash flow in the positive. Without cash flow, there is no real business.
Let’s flashback about 3 months:
I was in a meeting with a CEO of a million-dollar logistics company, and I was telling him how I can get him more customers using social media. He had what I wanted (i.e. heading a million-dollar company and making lots of money); however, when I brought up the term “sales funnel” he said he wasn’t sure what that was.
So, lets break down the sales funnel.
The sales funnel starts with the most important concept in marketing, get more attention. You can have the most incredible business, but if nobody knows about it you will never even have the opportunity to sell your product or service.
How are you getting attention?
Are you running billboard ads?
Are you placing ads in magazines?
Are you knocking on doors?
Are you calling family and friends?
Are you a genius that is running Facebook ads?
No matter what you’re doing to make yourself known, just know that that is the moment your sales funnel starts. Now, it’s time to get them interested in what you have to offer.
How do I get them interested?
No matter what your method of getting attention is, I think it all comes down to two things: appearance and verbiage.
If you’re placing an advertisement (billboard, Facebook ad, Magazine ad) what matters is the image and the wording you use to convey interest.
If your selling directly (either over the phone, or in person) the most important thing is how you look and what you say to the person to persuade them to buy.
If you’re going to get them interested, you have to be persuasive in your appearance and your verbiage. You have to be so persuasive that they desire what you have to offer.
How do I get them to desire what I have to offer?
Well, this is easier said than done, even I have trouble with this still. Ultimately you have to bring the energy and enthusiasm, you have to know where you buyer is at in the buyer’s journey, you have to know what to say and when to say it.
How do I make them take action?
Always be closing. We know that in most cases the sale is not going to be made on the first call, on the first ad, or on the first moment of attention. There are just too many variables that take away from the sale (time, money, trust, etc.) for it to go through on first contact. Don’t get me wrong, the one call close happens every day and it is very exciting. However, the fortune is in the follow up, so make sure you are following up with your prospects to maximize your sales.
That is why digital marketing is so attractive, and so effective.
Instead of a salesman having to reach out via the telephone, or instead of having to make an in-person, you can simply automate an email campaign that can follow up with your prospect according to where they are at in the buyer’s journey.
The sales funnel in a digital marketing campaign might look like this:
Step 1: Get Attention
Run a Facebook ad targeting your ideal customer using advanced targeting strategies.
Step 2: Create Interest
Have a photograph/video that captures the attention of the potential customer enough to stop and read what you have to offer. Hopefully, alongside the imagery/videography, your message will resonate with the user enough that they click on your call to action button, which will direct them to an email opt in page or sales page so that you may continue with the sales process. The sales page may have anything from a sales video, to a webinar opt in, or anything in between. Some funnels will be 7+ steps, with up sells and down sells included, others may be more basic (like a two-step tripwire funnel) where you can simply collect email information so you can follow up with an email campaign.
Step 3: Create Desire
If you the person did not purchase on the first go interaction, you can use retargeting ads to get them to desire your product enough to make a purchase. You can use testimonial retargeting ads, with each testimonial tackling a possible objection.
Step 4: Entice Action
Along with your retargeting ads, you can use email campaigns to follow up with your prospect. You can provide discount, free products/services, or whatever you feel is necessary to provide enough value for that prospect to make a purchase on your offering.
The sales funnel has been going on for thousands of years, but the online sales funnel is a fairly new concept with a lot of moving parts that can be difficult to learn quickly. If you are looking to get some help on this process than reach out to our team via the contact page or our Facebook page and we would be glad to help.