Day Twenty-Eight – Funnel

Have you heard of a sales funnel? I hadn’t until a few years ago, and I can’t believe I was ever in business without understanding this concept. Unbelievable. Yet I know there are hundreds, thousands - millions of people in fact - who are going about trying to build a small business without having any concept that resembles what a sales funnel is. Is it true that 80%+ fail at building a small business? Yes, and it is not a surprise. Ignorance is the reason. A sales funnel, if this is your first knowledge of the thing, is a way of constructing the path you create to part people from their money. It grates people when it is described this way, and I totally get that. It is like talking about the hand, without understanding how it integrates with the rest of the whole you. A part is not the whole, and speaking too much about parts dishonours the whole… A sales funnel is one piece of a coordinated whole. That’s why my plan is in 12 steps, and this is Step 10. You design your own sales funnel – nothing is accidental when it comes to the flow of engagement between a person first bumping into your service, through to the day they decide to pay you to help them. The image of funnel is based on the idea that out of 100 people, it is unlikely that more than 20 will actually buy your service. However, at the start you don’t know who they are, so to get the 20 you must find a 100. Put them 100 in the funnel, 20 come out. Get it? Ultimately, your sales funnel is a numbers game: this many in guarantees this many out. Once you have perfected your message-to-market match – by offering a niche/avatar a service they clearly seek – your next step is to create compelling reasons for them to buy. A great sales letter, as I have written previously, simply throws back at them the compelling reasons they already have within you. You don’t have to make this stuff up – just ask your niche/avatar what they want, and give them that! Give them a solution to the problem they have identified on their own. Your Task – Identify Your Sales Funnel Worksheet: How Do I Create An Alexander Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a consciously designed system to choreograph your professional relationship with people interested in your services. To create it, first you must decide upon the milestones in that relationship: what are the key developmental stages of your relationship going to be? 1. Recognition of You 2. Show interest in You 3. Demonstration of like to You 4. Demonstration of trust in You 5. Commitment to You Here's what that would look like if it were a social relationship at a party… 1. See her/him across the room 2. Exchange warm smiles 3. Go over and start talking 4. Exchange phone numbers 5. Promise to ring Then this process will repeat itself at several different levels: Stage One – Go out together Stage Two – Get engaged Stage Three – Get married Stage Four – Have /adopt a child Stage Five – Kids take over family business! What to Do Next So you understand that in terms of ordinary relationships. Now you are taking on a professional relationship, but the same underlying human stages of development apply. Rather than think of stages, let's call them "milestones". Events that mark a developmental stage in your relationship with your students. In this kind of relationship, you have something of value, and you exchange that for their money. There is an implicit understanding that the student is in control of the relationship and can end it any time he or she wishes, no questions asked. In fact, so can you. This is not a love affair! This is business… So with that as a background understanding, now it is time to figure out the key milestones in the development of your business relationship with your students… Go to the Worksheets Directory and download the documents I have prepared for you. Take your time – this is a project to move you into next month.