Every business sells something. Your goal as an entrepreneur is to get someone to pay for something by providing them value. The process of sales may seem random, but it is a highly curated affair.
A sales funnel is a process that converts a “random human” into someone that pays something from your business. Each business has a very different sales funnel, so learning the overall process is more important than understanding your individual business’s particulars. Once you know the process, you can tailor it to accommodate your business.
This article will divide the sales funnel into four distinct sections- people, listeners, spenders, and customers. These sections are just my interpretation. You can rename these or borrow someone else names. Let’s review my version of a sales funnel, and then I will give you a couple of examples of how it works in the real business world.
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People. Finding people is where all business starts. People do not know about your brand and have no interest in buying anything from you. You will need to get their attention. The best way to do this is to target the audience that can use your product the most. Please read “New Business? Identify, Target, and Memesorize Your Audience.” You will need to grab their attention, usually through advertising. The book “Ca$hvertising” will give you basic and advanced tips on advertising techniques.
Listeners. Now that you have their attention, what is next? Most young business owners try to go for the sale at this point. And most of them fail to make the sale. Now that you have their attention, you will need to provide value to the customer. By providing value, you will get an audience that knows, likes, and trust you. Providing value consists of tutorials, videos, blogs, reviews, and giving out lots of free information.
It might sound counter-intuitive to give away free information, primarily if you sell information. If you are a corporate lawyer, you may give out information on the law. The idea is that when people finally decide that they need a lawyer, they will know, like, and trust you more than anyone else out there. They say it takes 7-11 “touches” before someone makes a buying decision. During this phase, you can also begin email marketing.
Spenders. At this point, the listeners may want to spend money. They are ready to buy your product or something similar. They may have become a spender because of your information, or someone they know, like, and trust (a friend) may have referred them to you. But beware, you still want to continue providing value. They will probably even shop around, so you want to ensure that your prices are competitive. The good part of this stage is that once someone makes a final purchase, they can return directly to this stage.
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An excellent example of this stage is books from my favorite author Robert Kiyosaki. I bought his first book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” and proceeded on to buy seven more of his books. I am still in the Spenders stage for him and his books. If he releases something new, I will buy it on the first day.
Customers. You finally made a sale. Don’t get too excited- you still want to ensure that you provide value. If you fail to meet their expectations, they will not become repeat customers. If you have customer service, make sure that it is top-notch. Suppose you can get them to write a review or testimonial, even better. Remember, once they make a purchase, they will return to the spender’s stage. If you can do that enough, you might be able to keep them in the customer’s setting, like Robert Kiyosaki and me.
My version of a sales funnel is a fundamental outline. I will continue to go more in-depth over time. Right now, I want you to start seeing the process of a sales funnel. What are companies you know doing to grab your attention, provide value, and make you a spender?
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Now, I would like to give real-world examples of a sales funnel. The first example will be how a real estate agent uses a sales funnel. I read about this in the book “Sold.” The next model will be my sales funnel for my Kindle books. I started to chronicle my exploits in the series “magEzine.” Let’s review these two different sales funnels.
Real Estate. A real estate agent uses a sales funnel that starts with a very “random stranger.” Often the real estate agent has to talk to many people to find a potential lead. Once they have a lead, they will need to provide a presentation of some sort to convert the lead into a client. Now that they have a client, they will need to deliver value by finding a great house and price. If they can do this, they have a customer, and as long as closing goes through successfully- they will have a sale.
Over time, the real estate agent builds a list of former clients, referrals, references, and goodwill associates to forward them hot leads. These will allow them to start at the “lead” section of the funnel instead of “random” strangers. They also can hire assistants to handle clients throughout the client-to-customer phase; this allows the agent to continue to find and convert leads. The sales funnel stops without generating new leads.
My Kindle books. I started selling books on Kindle last month. I have learned a lot, and the more I am involved in this world, the savvier I become. The significant part about Kindle is that people start as spenders. People rarely go to Amazon who aren’t considering making a purchase. However, just because someone wants to spend money doesn’t mean that they want to buy what you are selling.
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At this point, I have to give many of my books away for free to allow people to get to know, like, and trust me. Luckily, readers of the Kindle Unlimited program can read my books under that program. So I can get paid that way, and I also make a token amount of actual book sales.
My goal is to get people into my book ecosystem and keep them engaged by releasing new content. The book is equivalent to a magazine. Eventually, I want to start putting some sponsored ads in my books, so people have the option to visit some of my partners. But right now, I am still in the listener’s phase. I will be here until I have readers coming to the platform just to read my latest books. I will get there one day. In the meantime, I will continue to provide value.
Knowing your sales funnel is a crucial part of your business strategy. In my opinion, the most critical aspect is to focus on how to provide value. Once you have a method to provide value (YouTube, Blog), then advertise to that platform. Do not try to promote directly to your products at first. Let them consume your content and slowly move them along your sales funnel. You want to build lifetime customers, not quick hits that never return. For more on advertising, read the books “Ca$hvertising” and “Sold.” Good luck out there.
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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