You’ve heard of the hard sell.
That sales approach that’s equal parts immediate and aggressive. The used car salesman. The timeshare guy. They box you in and want you to buy now. Immediately. Right away. No thought allowed.
And while forceful sales tactics can have their place, it can be a pretty unpleasant experience for the customer.
Plus, it makes them not like you, which is never good for sales.
Selling is about trust. About building relationships. About truly helping a person.
The overly aggressive hard sell makes it tough to develop a long-term level of trust with a potential client and ensure repeat business.
There’s a much better way that doesn’t involve arm-twisting.
A way to build trust and appeal to those most likely to purchase your product and create confidence that keeps them coming back.
It also helps you build a network of loyal fans eager to buy into your philosophy.
Oh, and did we mention that you can build this relationship automatically?
Funnel Your Fans
If you’ve ever struggled with generating quality leads and consistently growing your consumer base, don’t worry. You’re in very good company.
In fact, every client we work with has a lead problem. They’re always in feast or famine mode, with too many or too few leads. This means their cash flow is all over the place.
Why is this?
Most slow growth and lackluster sales are due to very little understanding of how to appeal to the right individual. They try to sell to everybody instead of their ideal client. That perfect client that will ALWAYS be interested in what they’re selling.
This often leads to the mistaken belief that if you bring in a big volume of leads, you can hard sell enough of them to generate viable sales totals.
That is absolutely not true. And it ends up costing businesses a TON of money.
The reality is the larger your volume of leads, the bigger the headaches you’ll face, especially when you realize you’re trying to sell people on a product or service they have no intention of purchasing.
These unqualified leads are a waste of your time and money.
Instead, you need a system that can target the most viable leads, and then build trust with them to the point that the final sale is much easier.
You need an Automated Marketing Funnel
Well with an automated funnel, you can:
- Target only those potential clients whose needs align most closely with what you or your firm offers.
- Qualify that initial group of prospects to hone in on the most qualified leads (i.e., the ones most likely to make a purchase).
- Build a rapport and trust with your targets by providing them the information they require to make an informed decision.
- Spend more time on the actual closing of a sale by allowing the three automated steps above to funnel you the most viable would-be customers.
The brilliance of an automated funnel is that it helps you attract those most interested in what you have to offer and then nurture that initial spark of interest into a sale.
In other words, with your targeted advertising, you’re attracting those buyers who are already inclined to like what you’re selling.
You’re starting out ahead of the game, instead of struggling to convince the disinterested and uncommitted volume prospects.
Qualifying is Key
The primary advantage to the automated funnel is that it ATTRACTS the right prospects – those people who are legitimately interested in what you’re offering. This then allows you to massively simplify your sales pitch and improve the efficiency of your marketing pipeline.
The first step is to clearly define your perfect customer. Who do you want to work with? Who is your dream client? How old are they? What is their disposable income? What do they like and dislike? What are their problems and challenges?
You can’t target your marketing until you know who you want to target.
Once you’ve defined your ideal client, then you can get your marketing message in front of them, and only them.
An excellent place to start is with Facebook Ads.
Their platform allows you to dig deep into the micro level of not just baseline demographics, but people’s personal tastes, behaviors, and interests or hobbies.
Need to reach households with two college degrees, making over $100K, who like to travel and do yoga, and plan on having kids one day?
Yeah, you can build an ad to reach those folks. That’s how hyper-targeted you can get.
When they click on the ad, they’ll be sent them to a landing page where you give away a free resource (checklist, webinar, training, etc.) that gets you their contact info in return.
If you go the route of a landing page, be sure to keep it on point to maintain a narrow funnel for your lead to follow.
The advantage to this is pretty clear.
By understanding the demo you best serve, creating a focused ad that zeros in on this group that sees a similar benefit, and then offering a small reward in exchange for their contact information, you build a list of really well-qualified leads.
You’ve also done so in the most efficient way possible.
Build Their Trust
Your relationship building doesn’t stop once you’ve gotten their contact info. You need to continue to qualify them, as well as help them know and trust you.
The great thing about the funnel is that at each step, you’re further ensuring that these are your ideal clients. Yes, some people will drop off, but that’s okay. They wouldn’t buy from you anyway.
Those that don’t drop off will be systematically educated and informed as they move down the funnel. They’ll understand their pain points more, as well as how you can help solve them.
They’ll begin to see you as the expert and realize that only you can help them get past their hurdles.
You’ve identified their pain, and now it’s time to cure it.
Depending on your business, you can tailor this step in a way that works best for your company and goals.
You can send out an application or questionnaire to better know your customer and customize their experience (ex. homebuyer looking to work with a real-estate agent).
You follow-up with a webinar that expands upon the information you’ve already given them.
You can schedule a phone call where the client can ask questions and you can dive deeper into how you can help them.
The world is your oyster.
The goal here is to increase confidence and emphasize the advantages that you have over your competitors.
Close the Sale
Thanks to your automated marketing funnel, by the time you’re ready to close the deal, you’re done with the heavy lifting. The prospect already knows you. If you’ve educated them properly, they trust you and view you as the expert. They know you can solve their problem.
Instead of a hard sales pitch, it’s more of an agreement. You offer to help, they accept.
In fact, with some marketing funnels, the deal can be made in the midst of developing the relationship. After all, your sales process began with the finely tuned ad to reach those who may benefit the most.
That’s the beauty of the automated sales funnel. From the start, your “selling”, and by creating a powerful, automatic system to advertise, qualify, and educate, you allow yourself more time and energy to focus on what’s most important.
Turning what was once a hard sell into something far easier.