Why every business needs a sales funnel

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is a system that makes sales online without having to talk to that person before they buy. Think of it as a sales person who is always capturing leads and converting to customers even while you sleep. A sales funnel captures leads via opt-ins from a form or landing page of a website and takes the lead through a nurturing sequence that eventually has an offer to buy. In order to receive an email address from an opt in, the business must provide some kind of freebie. Freebies include a pdf, checklist, book, video, etc.

There are two  parts to a funnel. There is the front end which is through a series of web pages like ClickFunnels. Then there is the back end which is done through an email marketing software like Active Campaign.

If the funnel provides so much value, the lead converts into a sale. This is what all businesses want obviously. It doesn’t just stop at one sale though. The best thing about a front end funnel is that there can be upsells as the funnel will work through several web pages offering different things as they progress down the funnel. If the person has bought once in the beginning stages of the funnel, there is more of a chance that they will buy again down the funnel.

When an email is captured, a series of email sequences have to be set up so that more sales can happen in the future. It is not just selling one thing to a customer and then the selling stops. It is more than that. A business can keep selling down the line so long as they are providing good value and solves a customer’s problem.

Opt-ins are so crucial for businesses because without it, you can’t funnel anyone through your sales process. It’s very hard to convert a customer without a funnel.  Cold calling is an example of a business not having a funnel and those calls rarely convert into sales. If you want customers, you need a sales funnel and you need to set it up at the beginning stages of your business. A sales funnel generates passive income, as you only need to create the frontend funnel or email sequence once, send traffic to it, and let it run forever.

Sales pipeline stages

You’ll notice that a funnel’s shape is wider at the top and tapers at the bottom which is the same structure as a sales funnel because at the top of the sales funnel is where a business is building awareness via branding and marketing activity and can reach many people. The second part of the sequence is the leads, which is captured when a customer wants a free offer that has been created by the business, which is also known as a freebie. They’ll have to drop their email in order to receive the free offer. Those that give their email are more interested in what the business has to offer than those who don’t. The funnel eventually becomes smaller because only a few of those that opted in become a prospect through the type of content that are delivered in the funnel. Eventually a sale is created once enough KLT (know, like, and trust) is built.

How to get started with sales funnels

There are two ways to build a funnel like I’ve mentioned before. These two ways are a series of web pages and through email marketing.

A funnel from a blog or a website is usually just done via opt-in placed somewhere on the website that could be from a popup or at the end of a blog post. The funnel then starts running through the email marketing software. There are usually a series of five to 7 email sequences to try to get the person to buy something.

A frontend funnel is done through a series of webpages and is created with ClickFunnels, a funnel building software. See the graphic below to see how a frontend funnel works via ClickFunnels. At the same time, the email marketing software is working in the backend. The email marketing software is sending out an email every single day trying to get someone to buy into the offer. The emails usually last a week long.

Russell Brunson who is one of my favorite marketers created ClickFunnels. The man is a genius and has created many different kinds of funnels to suit each type of business, which can be accessed through ClickFunnels’ template page builders. One of the best features that ClickFunnel offers is the ability to share a funnel. Someone could create a funnel and then share it with you and this funnel would be loaded and ready in your account. These are called sharefunnels and there are many businesses offering sharefunnels to different types of businesses.

With ClickFunnels, you can generate leads, run a webinar, sell products, have a membership site, and so much more. ClickFunnels offers a simple drag and drop webpage editor so you don’t ever need to know any coding or ever need to hire a developer! Anyone can build a funnel. ClickFunnels can be your sales team. ClickFunnels can be linked with your domain. It has smart shopping cart with one click upsells. Everything is organized in one simple dashboard. It also integrates with all email marketing platform. You can try ClickFunnels free for 14 days.

How can I make money with sales funnels

Most of what I’ve talked about is how to make sales for your own business with a sales funnel. Essentially, you will want to have an opt-in form on your website or a ClickFunnels account in which there is a landing page they can opt-in that takes them through the sequence. You’ll want to take your customers up the value ladder to start paying more and not just a one time thing.

Let’s take a dental business as an example. What if you provide a free teeth cleaning? For most businesses they would say no way to that idea! But for a smart business that wants to generate more income, that free teeth cleaning will have returning customers. How much did it require to gain that new customer now? With that new customer, you can keep upselling them to whitening, a retainer, etc. Many people need dentists and they usually end up going to the same one. The amount it took to acquire that customer was not very much with offering the free teeth cleaning compared to the amount of profit that can be generated from that same customer in the future. How can you apply this same concept to your business?

Traffic

Traffic is one of the keys to making more sales with your funnel. Traffic is what every business needs, no matter what kind of business it is because more traffic means more leads. More leads means more sales. If you have created a sales funnel with ClickFunnels, you can use organic and paid traffic. Paid traffic can be with Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Do you ever click on ads on Facebook? A majority of them are done with ClickFunnels. People can quickly scale their business because if they spend more money on traffic they can make more sales. If you ran traffic to a funnel and it cost you $1 to acquire a customer and you made more than $1 on the sale, that is a million dollar scenario because you can just spend more money on traffic because any sale you come in with is a profit.

If your opt in is from your blog or website only and not with ClickFunnels, then the best way to gain more traffic to your opt in is by increasing your blog or website traffic. Increasing blog or website traffic comes from writing more articles and increasing your search engine optimization.

Dot Com Secrets

If you would like more details on how this whole thing works with sales funnels, email sequences, value ladder, and so much more, you can get this free book written by Russell Brunson. It’s a  book I highly recommend everyone read that conducts business online as it will show you all the secrets to running a profitable online business and how to scale it quickly.

A sales funnel is what every profitable entrepreneur uses in his or her business. Sales funnels have been changing peoples lives as many funnels have been able to create large profits. If you are wanting to learn how to build your own profitable funnel and offer, then take this challenge and learn from the man himself, Russell Brunson. You’re just one funnel away…