The sales funnel, also known as the revenue funnel or sales process, is the process by which prospective customers move through the buying cycle. Having a sales funnel that is well-designed and properly implemented can assist a business in converting leads into paying customers.
It is critical – and difficult – to create an effective sales funnel. One that assists you in identifying the appropriate buyer early on and makes purchasing your product a pleasurable experience.
If you’re about to build sales funnels for the first time, this article will assist you in understanding the various steps involved in the process. Those steps may differ depending on the sales model used by various businesses.
Well earlier we had tried to connect with Kinner N Sachdev who is currently the CEO and Co-founder of a company called Knorrish. They are a platform that enables anybody to launch their online course business, especially the creator economy entrepreneurs that are booming right now. He completed his education at Newcastle University UK where he also launched his first venture and was eventually awarded business world entrepreneur under the age of 35.
Let us take you through this interview with what Kinner N Sachdev had to say regarding how to build sales funnels using content.
Avi Arya: Why do you think content making has gone crazy around the world where people are creating online courses and making money. Can you shed some light on that?
What you ask is super relevant today. After the pandemic, I believe that a lot of people have found out that the knowledge that books used to deliver like things that you used to read and learn was shifting online because screens are becoming an important part of all our lives. We can’t live without these screens and if you could transfer knowledge in any domain through the screen, the opportunities for impacting the lives of people who watch that content and learn from that content that you put out there are immense.
You could truly impact people’s lives and what I have seen over the last two years is that 25,000 to 30,000 businesses are getting launched through our platform teaching people. And you’ll be amazed that these people come from all kinds of domains, so when you ask me are these people are specialists? Are these people some kind of experts? Not all of them!!
Some of these people just knew how to do something well and they started getting in front of the camera, sharing that with the world in a structured format and that’s all it takes.
So here the platform is the online board game that’s right in front of you. You don’t have to know technology because there is a code-free, no-code environment that you could use and just start building your empire.
Avi Arya: Thousands of celebrities, coaches, tutors, and trainers have launched online courses across the world. But only a few succeed and can build a multi-million dollar business. Why is it so?
You’ll be surprised to know that 80% of the time is spent on marketing and sales by a lot of these entrepreneurs that can crack the code. Some of these would-be engineers. So they’ll have somebody else who would be taking that burden off running that marketing, but one of the key people in the company right from day one has to be focused on marketing.
Now if you think that you could run marketing and build a large engine on free content or organic alone, it doesn’t work!! I’m going to share a few examples so that we get a better idea. So we have celebrity chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor running his Sanjeev Kapoor Academy with us and he can build big businesses because they run ads. He spends on marketing with a keen eye on returns.
A lot of these people like Sanjeev Kapoor that actually can run that kind of numbers are spending close to 40 to 50%. Now what I want to kind of do here is talk about a couple of success stories as to how these people can utilize funnels.
So what I would do is, I would go on to the Facebook ad library and type Sanjeev Kapoor Academy. Now you land on this page where they show all the active advertisements running for the platform. Here you would see that multiple ads are running and these ads throw offers. And some of these ads even have Sanjeev himself talking about some kind of secrets to success, there will be multiple ads running in multiple languages and all of these ads would have a call to action.
Now at this moment, I’m having a look at this Diwali offer and when I click on this, I get directed to the page where Sanjeev talks about building a profitable food business from home with the master chef. There is the discount mentioned as well.
So this is the first point of introduction to a funnel. What he did here is called a landing page funnel, where you have a landing page and you drive traffic from Facebook ads to the landing page and that’s all this funnel does and there’s nothing beyond it. It just picks somebody and gets them to buy and that’s it!!
Now the key here is the basic landing page. This will drive traffic either from your YouTube influencer-base video followers or Instagram or your ads and get them to come to a landing page and the landing page going to give them CTAs. So this is what makes a basic landing page funnel.
Avi Arya: How do sales funnels work?
As we all know the sales funnel is nothing but the journey that potential customers go through on their way to making a purchase. There are several steps to a sales funnel, which are typically referred to as the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel, although the exact steps vary depending on the sales model used by the company.
Beginning with the first time a prospect hears about you and continuing until the moment when he purchases from you, he moves through different phases of your sales funnel. Based on your buying personas, your niche, and the types of products and services you sell to your prospects, this journey will be unique for each individual.
Before you begin building your sales funnel, you must have a clear business vision, build an eCommerce marketing strategy, and then define your target audience to work toward the growth of your company. If, for example, you are looking into how to start an online clothing store, you must follow a set of steps to grow your business and ensure its long-term success. You are free to include as many stages as you want in your sales funnel as you wish.
So basically a sales funnel is divided into four stages,
- Awareness
- Interest
- Decision
- Action
-
Awareness –
This is the first stage, which is referred to as the “awareness” stage because it is during this stage that people become aware of your solution, service, or product for the first time. They may also become more aware of the problems that they need to solve as well as the possible solutions to those problems. This is the first time someone hears about you through an advertisement, a Google search, a social media post, word-of-mouth, or another form of online traffic source.
You can call the awareness stage something that a prospective customer learns about your company for the first time. Possibly they came across one of your advertisements, read one of your blogs, discovered your website through a Google search, or heard a colleague discussing your product or service.
-
Interest –
In this stage, an individual who has learned about your brand will assess it based on their level of interest in it as well as the solutions you offer.
Here the prospect is actively searching for solutions to their problems and methods of achieving their objectives. They turn to Google in search of solutions. They’ll think about the problem they’re attempting to solve and conduct competitive research to ensure that your offering is the most effective solution available.
-
Decision –
Now that the prospect is aware of your company and the solutions it offers to solve the prospect’s pain points, they are more likely to investigate further. Information such as pricing and packaging options will be provided to the prospect. Sales pages, webinars, and phone calls are all extremely beneficial at this stage in assisting prospects in making a decision.
-
Action –
Now that the prospect is aware of your company and the solutions it offers to alleviate the prospect’s pain points, they are more likely to investigate further. Information such as pricing and packaging options will be provided to the prospect. Sales pages, webinars, and phone calls are all extremely beneficial at this stage in assisting prospects in making a decision.
Now Coming to how sales funnels work? There are a few steps that one needs to follow to create a sales funnel for their business:
-
Create a landing page
The landing page is frequently the first point of contact between a prospect and your business, as well as its products and services. There are a variety of ways for users to arrive at your landing page. They might click on an advertisement or link on the social media page, download an e-book, or sign up for a webinar.
Your landing page should include a clear description of your company as well as the distinct advantages of your product or service. Because the landing page may be your only opportunity to impress prospects, the copy must be strong and compelling. A way to collect the prospect’s contact information should also be included so that you can continue to communicate the importance of what you’re offering them.
-
Offer something that helps your customer
To get a prospect’s email address, you must offer them something in exchange. You could, for example, provide a free e-book or whitepaper with useful and informative content to your customers.
-
Nurture the prospect
If your prospect has expressed enough interest in your product or service to provide their email address, you should nurture them with content that explains your products or services. Maintaining regular contact (once or twice a week) is important, but you don’t want to overwhelm them with information. Verify that the content meets their primary requirements and overcomes any potential objections.
-
Close the deal
The best way to close the deal is to make your best offer – one that is hard to ignore or reject – and then wait for the prospect to respond. For example, you could offer your customers a product demonstration, a free trial, or a discount code.
-
Keep this going
At this point in the sales funnel, the prospect has either decided to become a customer or has decided not to purchase the product or service being offered. In either case, you should keep the lines of communication open and the process of building relationships going.
If the prospect becomes a customer, you should continue to build the relationship by educating them about your products or services, engaging them regularly to build loyalty, and providing them with excellent service to ensure that they remain valued customers. Continue to communicate with the prospect through regular emails even if they do not purchase anything. Work on converting them into customers by implementing various email nurturing series.
-
Enhance your sales funnel
Even if you’ve successfully built a sales funnel, your work is never finished. Always be on the lookout for ways to improve and optimize your sales funnel, as well as identify where prospects are dropping out. Concentrate on the areas where prospects transition from one stage of the sales funnel to the next stage of the sales funnel.
Start at the very beginning of the funnel. Examine how well each piece of content is performing concerning the others. Whether or not you capture enough prospects with your initial content is up to you. The purpose of your content is to drive prospects to take action by clicking on the call to action (CTA). You should change that element or try something new if they aren’t doing so.
Examine your landing page’s effectiveness. You should make your offer and call to action (CTA) consistent with the content (blog post, Facebook ad) that brought the prospect to your landing page. Do prospects put their trust in you when it comes to their contact information? Test every element of your landing page, for example, the headline, images, body copy, and call-to-action to determine what is working and what is not.
Every offer in the action stage of your sales funnel should be tested. Different offers should be compared to each other. Keep track of how long your customers stay with you. Calculate how frequently customers return to your store to purchase your products or services. Do customers return more than once, and do they purchase additional products or services as a result? Keep track of how many times they recommend your company to others.
Conclusion:
Your work does not end with the creation of your sales funnel. This is the point at which everything begins.
Once everything is in place, it is critical to track and analyze your results. Select your key performance indicators (KPIs) first, and then create a measurement program. Take the time to develop a sales funnel that reflects both your desires and the desires of your target audience.
Optimize it over time, adapt your approach to different stages of the sales funnel, and figure out why your efforts aren’t producing results.
If you want better results, gather data from various sources, analyze it, and make adjustments to your funnel. Such questions will assist you in determining where you need to make improvements to your sales funnel. After that, concentrate your efforts there.
A smooth flow of people from the top down to the action stage will ensure that your company remains healthy.
Kindly drop your valuable comments in the comment section and let us know how this interview with Kinner N Sachdev has helped you in building sales funnels.
Meanwhile, you can also join our Internet Moguls Of The World School, where we help you to set yourself up for success, learn the key digital business concepts to thrive, and build an online business so that you can have more time for your family, more peace, and more financial freedom.
You can also follow our Internet Moguls of the World Podcast to learn more about starting your digital venture.