Attempting to sell something to another person seems simple but is quite complex. Very rarely do people just buy things without establishing some form of relationship—either with the product or the brand.
Your mission as an entrepreneur is to turn people “off the street” (leads) into people who purchase items from you (customers).
Ideally, we want this to happen passively, without our need to advertise or spend time. We will call the final process a sales funnel.
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Welcome back to the Becoming an Entrepreneur Series (Part #1, Part #2, Part #3, Part #4, Part #5), where we convert leads into customers passively.
The top of your sales funnel. I learned about the sales funnel from the book “Sold,” which is about becoming a real estate agent.
The top of your funnel is people “from the street” unaware of your product or service. They have no clue what you do, who you are, or what product you sell.
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How do you find someone like this and make them into raving fans? There are many ways to start this process, so let’s review them.
- Advertising. Most businesses attempt to use advertising to grab someone from the street and turn them into customers. It is very costly, and measuring your success can be tough if you blast your ads via television or radio.
- Content. My favorite method is creating and distributing content via various platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Medium, and Facebook. Content gives you discoverability via the platforms’ organic traffic and search.
- Organic Search. When you create blog posts, you can also get organic searches through Google and Bing. This is free traffic; however, the world of SEO is brutal if it is your only meal ticket.
Converting a stranger into a lead. Once someone hears about your brand or product, that is just the start. You’ll need to start “warming” them up to make a sale.
There are two ways to warm up your lead: 1) have a ton of content and 2) follow up with them via email.
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Leads can work through your content at their leisure if you have a massive backlog. Through your educational and testimonial posts, they will begin to believe in your product and service.
You can also build rapport through email. It is tough to grab someone’s email without having some form of lead generation product, like an ebook or document.
Once you have their email, you can add value by sending the information directly to their email. Email is still the most powerful marketing tool because of the ability to reach your future customers directly.
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How to warm your leads up correctly. The majority of your content or emails should be educational. Every few posts can then be a hard sale attempt.
An excellent book to read is “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” by Gary Vee. Inside, he explains the mindset of sending educational content, then following up with a hard sale. If you add enough value, your leads will take the sale attempt in stride.
Positioning your products for making a sale. Now that your leads are warmed up, it’s time to offer them your products or services.
You always want multiple options so your customers can make the right choice for themselves. You don’t want to overwhelm them, but you have three simple options.
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Most software-as-a-service have their options: bronze, silver, or gold packages, for example. You can also throw in a platinum package for your Superfans.
My sales funnel. Let’s look at my sales funnel quickly. I am a writer who can leverage multiple writing and social media outlets. Review your brand, and see where your content can thrive best.
- Finding new people: I use Google Search, Facebook search, Kindle Unlimited, Amazon Search, Medium, and LinkedIn to find new strangers.
- Warming up leads: I have tons of content that people will follow. The more they read, the more they know, like, and trust me.
- Sales options: People can read everything I write for free. Once they become serious, they can download my free pdfs or visit Amazon for my free rotation of Kindle books. Once they read a few books, they may buy more ebooks or an expensive paperback.
- Keeping them as a customer: Luckily, I keep releasing books. My books are so short that the paperbacks make fantastic gifts that others may actually read.
The final step of the sales funnel. The final stage of your sales funnel is selling more products to your warm customers. They already know, like, and trust you, so it’s time to give them more products to purchase.
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Don’t overestimate how much some of your customers will spend. Most people will want to spend $10, a few $100, but a couple may spend $1,000.
You want to offer products at each tier. Many people want to spend money on you and your cause, so give them the options they want.
A good book on sales funnels is “1-Page Marketing Plan.” You’ll make better business decisions if you understand your sales funnel early in your entrepreneurial journey.
Using sales funnels to your advantage. Once you understand the sales process, you can tailor your content to maximize each stage.
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For example, you can leverage affiliate marketing early in your process. While your leads build trust, you can still profit by recommending someone they know.
For example, I can write a review for a Dave Ramsey or Robert Kiyosaki book—adding my affiliate links to the page.
I can offer my books as my leads move down the sales funnel. Eventually, I will offer my own online course or merchandise for them to purchase.
Conclusion. The key to your success as an entrepreneur is adding value. Don’t worry about giving away content or capturing bad leads.
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You are searching for your Superfans—from the book “Superfans.” You may have to give away 2,000 books to find one Superfan. However, the lifetime value of that Superfan may be over $2,000.
A Superfan will purchase your highest-tier products and give you word-of-mouth advertising—vital to your growth.
Your Superfan is probably affluent and has wealthy friends and family. I say affluent because they usually appreciate value more than people who always want things for free.
You’ll always have free-loaders, but don’t let them discourage you—they are not your target audience. Always think of your journey as a path to finding Superfans, and you’ll make great decisions along the way. Good Luck!
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