Sales funnels
We make use of the metaphor of a sales funnel (wide at the very top, narrow at the end) to monitor the sales process. The metaphor of a funnel can be utilized because prospects drop out of different stages of an extended sales process. But I prefer to use the analogy of the stair.
On the bottom, everyone who can walk (aka able to use the internet) can step up. The people who you believe may need your service or product, but to whom you've never spoken stand on the first step when they get into your universe.
But to climb up to the top the buyer (your target) has to put some energy in. So they can get an amazing view, and tell others to come and see.
Sure the view is great from the middle (some people can not afford the service just yet. Let's help them to climb higher)
By calculating the number of humans at every point of the procedure, you are able to predict the number of prospects who'll, over time, become clients.
Make sure you take care of the people who have long legs. These are prospects who jump steps, and stages, and just buy your high-end solution. In a funnel, they would be stuck behind other grains of rice, but in stairs, they can overtake places.
This analogy is not perfect. I like thinking every people is a person, just like different things to make the world fun to live in.
Some people have tried your competitors and just want the solution without having to wait their turn to go down in the funnel.
By taking a look at how these amounts change with time, you are able to spot issues in the sales pipeline and just take corrective action early.
For instance, in the event that you spot that not many mailings were answered during a month, you may be expecting that, in a couple of months' time, sales may dry out. The following month, you can ensure that more emails than usual are sent.
You can spot obstacles and dead times, or if they're an insufficient quantity of leads at any point. This knowledge enables you to decide where sales should focus their attention and efforts to help keep sales at a growing rate.
The funnel may also explain where improvements have to be implemented in the sales procedure.
If you don't have your sales procedure figured out the very first stage would be to brainstorm the sales process and make certain that it is correct and comprehensive. If you have sales and/or marketing people involve them too.
Out of this, find out the main sequential parts of the sales procedure and, from these, generate status codes. Then, label your leads using these codes (this is easier when you've got a management system like ClickUp).
Finally, work out the number of prospects of every status and calculate the change from the last month.
Money Maths
Let's say you like to earn 100k this month (whatever currency)
Let's pretend you have 3 offers. (Whatever your business is you should have 2-3 main offers, and add ons what you sale year around and "add on as bonus" in special times like BlackFriday)
100 for people who are willing to listen to you,
(A course, a signature product, basic software, not your time, it is unscalable if you give away your time now, record what you have to say and automate)
Can you find 1000 of these people?
1000 for people who are willing to buy your products
( A course with membership/ group coaching, or a personalized or bundle of products like a capsule wardrobe, In this stage you only give a tiny bit of your time like Q and A, or coaching from team members )
Can you find 100 of these people?
10k for your fans
(This is your time, a personally designed, handmade product, or 1-1 consulting/ coaching, or an experience like local kayaking lessons instead of a video)
Can you find 10 of these people?
In real life, it will be a mix. This is how you grow. You aim, for 90% of each and tada you are almost 3x your target. 100*900+1000*90+10000*9 is 270k
As you calculate every month, you can begin to comprehend where you are able to enhance your sales process.
Tip: If you can 2x your target for 3 months raise your prices.
The sales funnel/stair is really a methodical marketing procedure where you systematically qualify your prospects into clients and, additionally, refine them into hyper-responsive clients (fans).
Your client base gets smaller as your bottom line increases as you provide more expensive products to your hyper-responsive clients.
The front end may be the most dynamic facet of your stairs and the part that needs continuous experimentation. You will find, literally, endless front-end methods, restricted purely by your imagination and resources. Keep in mind that Most of these resources are also available for your competitors.
The focus at your front end would be to attract and qualify people who possess an inclination to buy your items. The best way to do that is to give out general information and put yourself in it.
Generally, the qualification happens whenever a person opts in to get something from you. It's this opt-in stage that turns your everyday web surfer right into a lead, given that they've just carried out an action indicating that they, at the very least, possess some desire to have what you've got. Collect e-mails and phone numbers and keep then locked in a safe place as gold as these are your biggest assets. When all hell breaks loose you can e-mail, and SMS everyone to come have a picnic in heaven.
Example: FB was down, I told my clients to use another channel via e-mail, and they sent an SMS 'Hi guys we hanging out in this Telegram group" and the turnup and engagement was bigger than in any of their Fb group.
There are all types of front-end marketing tools:
becoming a member of a contact newsletter,
subscribing to a blog via RSS or email notifications,
opting in together with your name and email to download a complimentary report,
registering for a totally free online service or
ticking a box to get more information in regards to a product/topic when subscribing to something (co-registration)
filling out a quiz or a test etc.
The front end involves attracting attention and enticing people into the sales funnel. But, generally, it's in the back end where, in fact, the profits are created.
Your back end consists of your higher return items. Essentially, we're referring to meeting exactly the same demand, just with alternative media. This may include information distributed via audio, visually, live or privately.
The particular distinction between your front end and the back end is about the kind of customer and the cost paid. They are willing to work on solving their problem and not just here because they are bored and you offer something free.
Be prepared that not all of your clients will travel through your system, try your complimentary materials, buy every level of service or product, or experience substantial value from what you've offered. Thats okay. There is a perfect match out there for everyone. Just give a refund and move on to those who resonate with you.
In reality, the sales process for most online businesses is actually very complex.
This is due to all the different kinds of website and social media traffic that visit the sales page, the various kinds of behavior that need to be assessed, the buy and connection outcomes, and the number of varied ways a visitor may become a buyer.
To produce a more streamlined sales and marketing process, you first have to identify each and every way people can enter your world, see where they've originated from, what their agenda is and where they're at in the purchase cycle.
Once you've collated enough information to begin making decisions, I guarantee you will see obvious points of failure in your process and they're likely to appear in two main areas:
1, Complex (people don't know how to buy, as you offer to many options)
2, Outdated (You did not have the time to refresh, write blog post, update every socials so it feels like you are not in business anymore solution is automation for that)
Initially, you'll probably feel as if there's a lot to get through, so you'll have to prioritize the changes you wish to make. Concentrate on the areas that are costing you the largest quantity of sales With effort, focus and time you can see huge improvements in the performance of your site and never have to attract one new visitor. Sounds good doesn't it?
Your primary focus is definitely meeting the requirements of the customer. Across the sales process, you do that with more and more specifically tailored products and services. Your capability to charge high ticket prices and maximize profit rests on developing quality back-end products and services.
Initially, a need may appear quite broad, however, when you dig deeper you may find that it's actually an extremely specific facet of the overall problem that many people face. Having an in-depth knowledge of the most popular issues your visitors face when trying to meet an overall need, allows you to know what products and services to offer.
Listen to the chats, and comments this will help in finding the direction.
After you have a summary of the most typical issues in your market, you could start to plan how better to deal with them. Think about delivering solutions utilizing varied media, like: downloadable video or audio, text, telephone or face-to-face conferences, private tuition or workshops.
A typical practice in the front end is to create digital goods once and, assuming it remains current, it's set-and-forget.
In later stages, you are still able to utilize digital items to fulfill your super responsive clients, but maybe with more bespoke content (a much more specialized problem), or by providing your innovative methods or supplying a bigger package of content altogether. Memberships work great in this level.
Broadly speaking, as clients move towards the back-end, they'll be prepared to receive more personalized attention. Like private coaching or small workshops. You are able to gather an extremely small number of your general customer base, who are ready to pay well and work with you in a far more personalized format.
To begin building your sales process, you'll need to look beyond that first sale and see the picture as a whole. The procedure is flexible and takes effort and testing. A great sales and marketing process will tap all of the correct triggers (empathy, social proof, trust, curiosity) in the folks who have the requirements for your product. With that degree of clarity, you'll be able to produce a perception that you provide the best answer for them and can charge a high ticket price be it 10k or 25k or 100k.
Putting Theory into Practice
Use marketing strategies to draw in your traffic and send it all to your individual capture page.
Your individual capture page /Sales page should be set up to capture the prospect's information. A capture page has an opt-in form for the prospect to input their private information so don't forget to ask for permission. These details get automatically used in your email Auto-responder. When somebody entered your sales funnel to be a prospect, they literally decided to receive some kind of communication from you.
Your Email Auto-responder enables you to construct a list of potential buyers and begin creating a relationship together.
In your first email, welcome them and thank them for subscribing to your list. Let them know the benefits they'll receive from you, such as free ebooks, free recordings, and free computer software. You're getting them to truly like you and build trust. Don't sell them anything in the very first email message.
In the 2nd email to your list give more free information about how you can solve their problems with examples as case studies, but keep it short, send them 2-3 links where they are able to visit sites to obtain more free information like blog free related products to your niche but, this time around, make your second and third links 'affiliate links', so that you can earn a commission on. This is the way you build your sales with auto-responder emails. They are still free products and services, such as: free membership to a website that provides many free items.
With each email message, make sure you are giving the client free information associated with the subject. It's this that could keep them interested.
Follow-up and Develop a Relationship through giving. Hand out your knowledge, and your expertise and guide them. You are able to do that by email and on the phone. Keep your prospect interested and updated with new information. Use Social media and YouTube videos and direct them to your site. Befriend them!
Direct them to your Main Business when you have formed a solid relationship with your leads. Since it was often said before: 'People join people'.
They join you due to your individual personality: they trust you, they like you, since you bring value to them by providing them with the information they require.
Remember, it's a popular fact in marketing that visitors frequently need to be subjected to an offer seven times before they decide to purchase. Sales may begin slowly, but just getting it started is the biggest challenge.
There's always a possibility that a prospect won't join most of your business. You still need to communicate with your prospects through emails so they will be able to join you over time. Should they not sign up to your main opportunity, you still could be profiting once they join your affiliate programs.
Measuring Success
There are several different tools on the market that can help you gauge the success of your sales efforts.
Google Analytics is a terrific way to examine how well your website is working. Once you have built-in Analytics together with your store pages, you are able to access an enormous selection of helpful reports. Google Analytics enables you to see just how many individuals are deferring at every step which ought to alert you to which areas of the process you need to improve.
Say that, for each 1, 000 people who visit your product page:
100 add the merchandise for their cart
80 of these people go to the checkout
40 of these people complete the checkout form
33 of these people confirm their order
Out of this example, it's clear that many shoppers (fifty percent) are leaving the purchasing procedure when they are asked to fill out the check-out form. This could imply that there's something about the form that's off-putting to people.
StatCounter is also a web tracking service that enables you to access up-to-date statistics about web visitors throughout several sites. Just like a standard web-stat tool, you'll have the ability to see the details of your unique site visitors, visitors that return, page loadings, and 1st-time site visitors. You can observe the information presented daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually as well as choose specific date ranges. Overall, Statcounter is a good tool while offering all you need to help make the necessary changes to your website.
ClickBank Analytics and TrendHunter provide you with the capability to interactively set-up trend charts based on different topics over customized time ranges. Data and chart tables are supplied to help you witness sales trends along with the information that supports everything in a single glance. Also, the charts could be manipulated in various ways, letting you begin to see the trends you'll need to handle your company. It's well worth taking the time to acquire and familiarise yourself with tools because they can highlight vital areas for improvement in your campaigns that you would be unable to identify in any other way.
If you feel like you need help, let me know. I specialize in problem-spotting and solving. Be next week success story :)