How to Use a Sales Funnel the Right Way

All businesses need a sales funnel. 

A sales funnel is a systematic process used to convert visitors to leads to customers. The easiest way to describe it to think of your sales funnel as an inverted pyramid. 

The big end of the pyramid is on top. Your job is to generate leads and get them to enter the top of your sales funnel. People enter your sales funnel by “opting-in” to your website. This happens when they type in their name and email in your contact form. 

How a Sales Funnel Works

Once they enter your sales funnel, your auto-responder takes over. You will have pre-written messages that are uploaded into your auto-responder. Your prospects will receive your messages at a frequency you determine. I recommend daily email messages.

As leads filter through your sales funnel, a few things will happen. Some people will unsubscribe. Others will do nothing. Some people will buy a low cost product. Some leads will buy every product you recommend. And others might buy one or two products.

Either way, your sales funnel provides immediate profits for your business, so you can afford to keep advertising and keep generating leads.

Your Emails

Your emails should be educational in nature, not just a sales pitch. More importantly, your sales funnel will (1) get rid of the tire kickers, (2) build a relationship with your leads, and (3) generate multiple streams of income for your business.

Each email will build upon the previous email. For instance, your first email is a welcome message. Your next email might be a “tip of the day.” Next, you could offer a low cost $9.95 product. Your next couple messages will be educational in nature.

Next, you offer a $19.95 product. After you do that, you send a few more educational emails. Next, you offer a $29.95 or $39.95 product. You keep repeating this process until you finally offer your “signature, high end product” at the end. This should be a $197 to $4,997 (or more) product or service.

The ultimate goal of your sales funnel is to help offset or eliminate your advertising costs, so you can generate leads for free. In addition, your sales funnel will help you build a relationship with your leads, which will eventually generate paying customers for whatever your primary product or service is.

This could be your network marketing opportunity, business coaching, a paid monthly newsletter, consulting, or anything else you decide to sell. When used properly, an effective sales funnel will help you make money on auto-pilot.

Hypothetical Example

Here is a hypothetical example, used to give you an illustration. This is for educational purposes only.

Let’s suppose you pay $3,000 to generate 10,000 visitors to your website. Of those 10,000 visitors you generate 1,000 leads. That means your cost per lead is $3 ($3k/1k).

Of your 1,000 leads that enter your funnel, 100 leads purchase your $9.95 eBook that you recommend. That puts $995 back in your pocket right away. And another 50 leads purchase your $30 eBook. That puts another $1,500 in your pocket.

And of your l,000 leads 20 purchase your $297 e-course. That puts another $5,940 in your pocket. Here is your profit and loss statement, based off the example above.

Sales:

• $995 eBook 1 Sales

• $1,500 eBook 2 Sales

• $5,940 e-Course Sales

• $8,435 Total Sales

Expenses:

• $3,000 Advertising

Profit:

• $5,435

Not only did you generate $5,435 in profit, but you also generated 1,000 leads for free. In the future, you can market a variety of products and services to your leads. This will produce additional income in the future.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, all smart marketers use a sales funnel when marketing their business. The easiest way to create a sales funnel is to upload messages into an auto-responder. Once you do that, you simply need to add an opt-in form to your website and roll out your advertising campaign. I hope that helps.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you. 

About the Author

Chuck Holmes is an author, blogger, business coach and network marketing professional. He helps network marketers and small businesses generate more leads, both online and offline. Learn more about his opportunity.