A sales or marketing funnel is the exciting (and much desired) journey that your potential customers go through from first learning about your product or service to deciding to purchase all the way to their loyalty and constant repurchase of said product or service. It can be a long and arduous journey. Thankfully, there are ways to make your marketing funnel more effective, more efficient, and much more profitable. Emma Friendship-Kilburn of EmmPower Sales and Marketing shares her advice on what you should avoid with your sales funnel.
What Happens If I DON’T Have a Sales Funnel?
It’s a tale as old as time that business simply cannot continue without a consistent stream of potential new clients. Ancient blacksmiths would have gone out of business if nobody wanted to fight, and any business could go the way of the blacksmiths if you don’t have enough hands to shake. Without a constant stream of new opportunities to keep on top of and relationships to maintain, it would be very difficult to thrive if something were to happen to your existing client base.
Marketing Can Make or Break Your Business
Think for a second about starting a new business. Most people will be enthusiastic and motivated and focus on all the pretty bells and whistles like the uniform, business cards, logo, vans, the building, office decor, etc. But, how will they actually get work that will require them to use all of those bells and whistles? Well, marketing, of course; but what is marketing in this sense?
Even if your marketing team has the best office on the top floor, or even the entire floor, marketing cannot and should not happen in isolation. Neither can sales. Simply put, the marvellous marketing team and the super sales team have to join forces if you want to keep your business afloat. They have to be working and cohabiting perfectly with one another. This means no bad blood between John from marketing and Jenny from sales and absolutely no competition. This sales and marketing harmony is a golden ticket to more clients.
One reason why so many businesses fail in the first 1-3 years is because they have no idea how to attract new clients. You can have a killer opening and sell to all your friends, family, and co-workers for the first six months, but you need constant calls coming in that can be turned into clients. Enthusiasm, a nice smile, and a friendly manner can get you through those first few months, but then you have to up your strategy to get more people coming in.
The Biggest Mistakes You Can Make With Sales Funnels
1-Having Poor Data
A major aspect of starting a new business is knowing exactly who your target client is. That ancient blacksmith knew that he was selling to fighters and warriors and probably didn’t expect to sell an axe to a nanny, so you need to find your warriors. Not knowing your target audience has bigger implications, such as not getting the messaging or sales pitch right, not knowing which questions to ask, and not knowing how to ultimately close a deal.
It’s a very Utopian idea that anyone can buy from your business, but unfortunately, we live on Earth not Utopia. This is why niching is such a big deal. Finding your niche means you know exactly who your customers should be, how you will approach them, and how you will eventually make them interested in your services. This will take some experimenting and testing, but it’s very much worth it.
All businesses have one target in mind: the ideal client. If you can’t think of your ideal client – also known as ideal client avatar or ideal target client – then you won’t know who you’re selling to. For example, the ideal client for a supplement business would be a very muscular gymgoer who wants to get his 200 grams of protein and creatine in and needs your supplements or powders. The ideal client for your extremely durable and extremely sharp chef’s knife business is, well, a chef, or at least someone who is extremely passionate about cooking. But, how do you know these details about a client?
It all boils down to having real, genuine conversations with people. Whether it’s your current clients, future prospects, or previous clients, getting details, data, and feedback from people throughout the course of the engagement is a massive advantage in finding your ideal client. You need to know what people like, what their problems are, and how you can solve them. Problem? Athletic man needs a quick 30 grams of protein. Solution? Your delicious supplement. Problem? Chef or cooking enthusiast has a problem chopping artichokes. Solution? Your incredibly sharp chef’s knife. You have to lighten people’s loads, meet their pain points, and solve their problems.
Pro Tip: Use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management software)
It’s always a plus when you can save time and effort using software and a CRM is no different. CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot and others make it easier to handle all the client data you have instead of manually doing everything on spreadsheets and documents. You know which client needs what, which client has a special case and which client needs something extra. A CRM makes your decisions more well-informed using statistics and other data, so you don’t have to rely on just memory for your customer interactions. The best thing about the whole thing is that it will take you through everything step-by-step, so why not give it a try?
2-Are You Handling Your Prospects Like Gold?
Your prospects are very much more important than any asset in your company, and as such, they have to be treated like an absolute gift. After all, a business deal is a human interaction, and you’re far more likely to have a successful one if you’re treating the other party gently and making them feel like they are of value. They call it a client relationship because it is very much a relationship that you have to build, nurture, and maintain. But, how do you do that?
How Do I Build the Perfect Client Relationship?
Get To Know Your Client: You need to genuinely be interested in your client, their needs, and their problems. An easy tip is not to talk about yourself in the first 10 minutes of meeting a client; make it all about them. Forget the aggressive hard sales tactics and just have a genuine conversation.
Make Friendships: Every business interaction is a good opportunity to make friends, and the more friends you have in many fields, the easier it will be to create a sales funnel. This is where networking comes in, but you have to think of it less like a business conference and more like a party. This kind of mentality helps you understand prospects better and gives you that perfect window to make a sales pitch when appropriate.
Contact After Networking: Networking events give you the opportunity to get plenty of people’s cards and contact info, but how many do you actually follow up on? It might feel awkward, but there’s an art to contacting someone you’ve met in networking. You just need to hone in on something mentioned during your previous conversation, look it up, and give them feedback on it. You can even just send them an email regarding that thing that stuck with you from the meeting with the subject line, “Saw this and thought of you.” (Yes, it works in business the same as it does in dating.)
3-Not Getting Your System in Place
No matter how small or large your business is, you need to have systemised processes in place. Your processes should include not just the actions you take and the methods you follow but also the kind of software you might be using to back this up (again, like the CRMs). Make sure you have a holistic approach where you make sure that other marketing is happening simultaneously.
A good way to do this is by documenting everything. There are things you can automate, but the more records and documents you have, the easier it is to run things. This can help you repeat what works and leave aside what doesn’t. The better your system, the more your foundation will grow.
Having systemised processes means you should record everything, have a CRM connected to your email, and have a follow-up reminder system in place so you’ll know when to follow up on your clients, remember what you had talked about before, and know what you will be talking about next time. If you’re speaking to tens or hundreds of people a week, your system will help the human aspect of your interactions. In an ironic way, using a system can actually make you more human, as it gives you reference points, helps you with your memory, and takes away a lot of the labour by automating your processes.
Takeaway
Having a great sales funnel is a major pillar of any successful business. However you attract your clients, it’s about communication, communication, communication. Form genuine interactions, stay in contact, get your systems in order and always remember that for a ship to keep sailing, it needs constant winds, and in the case of your business, the wind means constant prospects.
Last Updated on December 20, 2024
