3 Essentials to Filling Sales Funnels
Many business owners are professionals that decided to branch off and create a business built on their reputation, solid work ethic, and quality professional skills. While there’s no doubt potential exists to be successful, it is a common gap between the services they provide clients and the client acquisition process that causes them to have an uphill struggle to finding their success. While hiring a marketing company can get the phone to ring, and paying for advertisements on social and search platforms will generate sales, there are some steps that should be completed by your business and management to accelerate your marketing efforts.
There is a saying in marketing that goes “you can do it yourself, or you can pay to have it done for you.” Brand new businesses don’t necessarily have the bankroll to put into marketing that doesn’t reap rewards. Taking a few small steps and putting in a little effort can stretch your budget and increase your success rate. At the beginning, scheduling in the following activities will be well worth your time, increase your return on investment, and create loyal customers that not only return to your brand, but refer it to their friends and family to you for many years to come.
What is a Sales Funnel?
Every business has a sales, and resell, funnel. The funnel is the process your sales team will use to generate new and repeat business. As a lead progresses through the funnel they need to be nurtured, and the way that your team communicates and connects with the sales funnel will be a direct impact on conversion rates. The first step of this, and arguably the most important step, is filling the funnel with qualified customers and buyers. The better quality leads you fill your funnel with, the better your sales results, the happier your customers, and the more seamless your business will operate.
Now that you understand, generally, what the sales funnel is, it goes without saying that the more leads you fill your funnel with, the better chances that you have to generate sales and revenues. A great way to think about this is that it’s like a baseball player being at bat. The more pitches they receive the better their chance of hitting a home run. That being said, it is utterly important that the leads filling your funnel are of great quality. Leads that don’t fit your business can cause you to waste time, and ultimately to lose money as a result. The same goes with the efforts you put behind filling that funnel. Putting your time and energy into the tasks that pay you back will ensure that you accelerate your success rate.
Follow These 3 Tips to Fill Your Sales Funnel
1. Create a Customer Profile or Buyer Persona
Entire businesses are built to provide you with better insight into your ideal customer. Why is this so important? Mainly because it allows you to fill your sales funnel with the right customers. What is a customer profile? In short, it is a document that describes your ideal customer. To create that properly you must first begin with data and markers that will allow you to identify, describe, and segment customers to be nurtured in a way that evokes a positive response, specifically purchase behavior. Grouping different types of customers further allows you to penetrate their needs, anticipate their reactions, and personalize experiences in a way that speaks to them as a group and individually. Unless you started a business that does just this, you should find a marketing partner, like Hunter Marketing, to walk you through this process. The more effort you put into knowing who your customer is the less time, energy, and money you will waste chasing after the wrong ones or just flat out leaving money on the table.
2. Network whenever possible
Connecting with and meeting with other business owners will allow you to do more than elicit them into your sales funnel, it will allow you to tap into their rolodex. When networking it is essential to ask for the specific people you have identified in your funnel. Even if the people and businesses you connect with can refer one customer per year you have to consider their ability over a lifetime of 10, 20, or even 40 years. Someone that can refer 5 customers a year for 40 years will send you 200 customers. Maybe someone can only send you one customer every other year, but they’re the best customer you have ever had. Treat every opportunity to network as an opportunity to meet the person that introduces you to your ideal client. Make room for this activity in your calendar and be sure to give networking the time and attention it deserves as a sales and partnership opportunity for your business. If done well, networking can be a catalyst for sales and revenue growth for your business.
Find a networking event using the calendar at the #1 Networking Event site in Las Vegas, Nevada at Network Vegas.
3. Promote Positive Word of Mouth
A positive word of mouth is generally considered referrals. The process of how individuals influence the buying behavior of your target market could be a lucrative part of your business. Historically a positive word of mouth was one neighbor speaking to another. While social influence can generate more business, it doesn’t necessarily happen directly or in casual conversation. In our technologically advanced world, this recommendation and interaction will most likely take place digitally. The most well known variety of digital recommendations are called influencer campaigns. The introductory offer used to push influencer campaigns can be as simple as a free sample, free consultation, or free analysis. It may also be a complex affiliate program designed to financially incentivize an individuals ongoing recommendation or referral. In either case they should provide consumers with a desire to engage with your brand. People that have been influenced by positive word of mouth campaigns are more likely to already have a favorable opinion of your brand, shorter lead to conversion time, reduced cost of acquisition, and in many instances we find that they spend more money and refer more business.
