Why your Sales Funnel Sucks

Sales funnels are awesome, but only when you know how to use. them. Here are the reasons why your Sales funnel probably sucks:

#1 Your Follow-Up is Poor or Inconsistent

This is, by far, the most critical mistake.

I won’t even start an ad campaign on Facebook until I know the “email follow up” and phone lead sending is integrated into my sales funnels.

Why? Because leads are going to seep through the cracks.

This is what I tell all of my clients before I commit to working with them:

“If proper follow up is not going to be given to the leads, I’d rather NOT work with you.
Think about it, you will not see the value in paying me or spending
money on ads if you aren’t getting REAL results.”

We can spend all the money in the world on leads but if the right follow up is not in
place, what’s the point?”

What to do: A Quick response is More than HALF of the battle

There is typically a 15-minute window in which you have the person’s attention (magazines, radio, etc) after they interact with your sales funnel. Whether you do traditional advertising or digital advertising.

After that, the chances of converting them into paying clients drops exponentially.

If you’re using online platforms there are tools such as Zapier webhooks and Actionetics (through clickfunnels) Which make your lead sending and email automation lightning fast.

On a side note, I always recommend having your “best closer” receive the leads.

#2 You Didn’t target the Right Audience

If you’re advertising to fishermen about a Brand new spring dress” you’re not going to see many conversions.

You can blow through an entire ad budget by picking your audience wrong and chances are you’ll lose every time.

When you do any kind of marketing (radio ads, billboard, internet marketing) you have to make sure you are targeting the right audience.

How to do it:

Brainstorm

Get ideas for things that your audience could be searching. Go to Answerthepublic.com for ideas.

While you are researching think about how your audience talks, where they live, how they live, what they believe, etc. If you have a Facebook Business Manager account, go to Audience insights and play around with different demographics

Start broad

If you have a decent budget there is no problem dropping $200-1000 to test out different ads to “buy data” from Facebook.

You can always target and retarget people who said yes, but most importantly you know who your target audience is.

Don’t fix what is not broken

Go with what is proven.

Study the competition and where you fit into the market. It is ok to “spy” on your competitors to a certain extent. Know what the “going rates” are for your services and adjust them accordingly.

Make sure your copywriting and offer are exceptional. For tips on improving your offer, go here.

#3 Your Leads haven’t said “Yes” Already

Hot Leads vs Cold Leads.

When someone is already “warmed up” to your offer, all you have to do is call them up or send them an email and ask for their credit card details. Remember that it is so much easier to charge someone money the second, third, and fourth times; as opposed to the first time, as long as you deliver.

You don’t want to have to fight your potential clients or chase them around to get them to pay you. Here are some tips:

How do you warm your leads to your Products and Services?

Provide them value up front.
Don’t push on the more expensive stuff first. Get them to spend a small amount of money with you and show them what your products or services have done for other clients/customers. IF it is truly valuable, they will have no problem spending more and more money with you.

#4 Your Website is not Optimized for Conversions

Make sure that your website is designed to get you leads and more importantly sales.

Follow these steps if you haven’t already:

If you don’t already have a website go pick one up at Namecheap or Godaddy (Namecheap is the best and most reliable domain provider that I run all of my websites from)

Again, Just Bite the $97 bullet and go get Clickfunnels to build out your website.

If you just starting out and are really unsure about Clickfunnels, at least get professional hosting from a trusted site like www.siteground.com or www.greengeeks.com (NOT hosting from a domain provider like Namecheap or GoDaddy) and use the ELEMENTOR plugin to customize as fast and as best as you can on a basic WordPress site.

The most useful Integrations for leads

If you don’t have the money for Actionetics through clickfunnels, use Zapier (the middleman between all integrations) and Aweber (perfect for email follow-up automation).
Also, use Clicksend (online SMS lead sending provider) to get the leads to you fast.

Don’t make excuses. Watch the tutorials, read articles, and put the time in to learn how to integrate everything

If you don’t have the time, simply ask a pro (like myself) to help you with the whole setup and lead automation process.

***You can always upgrade/integrate later or buy a different domain that links to your main website through clickfunnels.

Does “FREE OFFER” suck for all Sales Funnels?

Free estimates and services are one of the most commonly flawed “sales funnels” for businesses. And here’s why:

What happens after you offer a free product or service?

As far as I’m concerned you don’t have a REAL functioning business until someone is paying you for a product or service.

A local business owner once told me that he had offered free sessions at his gym through Groupon.

The problem was, he wasn’t getting those “leads” to come in an enjoy their session but they weren’t turning into paying clients. He soon abolished the process and nicknamed these leads the “Groupie Grouponers.”

You see, when you get people coming from Groupon, often times they are people who are searching for a deal or a sale. I know this firsthand because my Mom was “The Coupon Lady.” She taught me how to save and spend properly (my family grew up with limited funds).

The problem when you go after these customers is that THEY ONLY WANT THE DEAL.

After that, they vanish.

But there is a way to give something away for free that benefits both parties:

How to Properly give something away for FREE

Qualify your potential clients

You have to “qualify your client.” Ask yourself honestly: Can they actually pay you for my products and services?

When you are looking to target an audience you have to think about who your dream client is.

How much money do they make per year? where do they live? what are their hobbies?

Make sure you have a follow-up System for Upsells

You need to make money from them eventually. Have an email follow up in place to help you with the upsells, BUT make sure the product or service is VALUABLE to them.

There is no faster way to fail in business than leaving money on the table and leaving customers dissatisfied.

Be A Professional Finisher!

I can’t stress this enough.

Remember that you’re in it for the long term. Passive leads and passive income.

Never stop delivering high-quality content for your clients. The one thing that will keep your company alive is creating long term value for your clients/customers.

Make sure that you go the extra mile to help them feel good about doing business with you.

Conclusion

Your Sales Funnel sucks because you’re planning and execution is off.

But with a few tweaks and a little spending on tools and testing, you can take your business to a whole new level.

As always, if you need help in this process or professional consultation, contact me here.

If you got the Sales Funnel portion down and want to why your offer is not converting, learn how to perfect your offer by reading this follow-up article about “Why your Offer Sucks.”

Talk soon,

David

***See affiliate disclosure here.