So you have a business. You sell your photography or videography services. You met people and hope they will pay you to take their portrait or film their event. I am sure you have noticed that not everyone you try to sell to actually buys from you. And hopefully you understand that even if they don’t buy from you today, they may buy from you tomorrow. One way to understand this concept is through this nifty graphic of a sales funnel!
The idea of the sales funnel is that people enter the top of the funnel, and they exit the funnel when they buy from you. During their “sales journey” through the funnel, the people are in different stages of the sales process and have different needs. Business will be awesome when you understand the sales journey that your potential customer goes through. With that understanding, you will know what your potential client wants at each stage of their sales journey, and you can be ready to provide it. Also, you understand that that everyone is not ready to buy from you right now, but with some help from you, they can be ready to buy in the future. Usually, that is called nurturing your sales leads.
Here is what you need to focus on.
1) Attract
You need to get people into your sales funnel. Attracting people to enter your sales funnel could be something such as liking your Facebook page, joining your newsletter, subscribing to your RSS feed, following you on Instagram, etc. Once you are connected to these people, they have entered your sales funnel. You need to decide how they will connect with you, and then you need to work on getting people there.
2) Lead Nurturing
As you get people into your funnel, you need to nurture them, so they move further down the funnel to eventually getting the sale. How do they move down the funnel? Talk to your clients and ask them about the process they went through to hire you. Understand the steps they took, the places they went to get answers (online/offline), the questions they had, the emotions involved, etc. Break that down into your sales journey.
Now it’s time to improve your sales journey by adding value to your leads at every stage possible. Adding value helps move your leads through the sales funnel. This may come in the form of a tip sheets, a blog post answering frequently asked questions, an invitation for a free consultation/planning session, etc. Look at your sales journey to decide what extra information you can provide to your potential clients and where it would be best for them to access that information.
3) Close the Sale(Convert) & Delight
Once your lead has purchased your services, make sure you deliver as promised and more! You want that customer to not only be happy with their purchase, but to be so happy that they just can’t help to tell their friends about it. Delighting your customers will come from understanding your customer. Ask you customers what they liked, what you could improve, etc. Really listen and use what you learned. You can then delight your customers by adding a little something extra to the final product, delivering early, or whatever that extra zing is that surprises and makes your clients extra happy.
Understanding the sales funnel and the sales journey your clients go through will help you be a better sales person and will help your business grow. So go out there, talk to your clients, and figure out that sales journey.
Checklist to Understand & Get Sales with your Sales Funnel
▢ Decide how you want to get people into your sales funnel. Blog, social media, newsletter.
▢ Put calls to actions on your website, emails, and social media to get people to that channel.
▢ Set up a process to get people you meet into that channel as well. Maybe you ask them if you could add them to your newsletter. You invite them to like your Facebook page.
▢ Talk with your customers to understand how they moved through the sales funnel.
▢ Write down your customer’s sales journey.
▢ Look at the sales journey, and find ways you can better add value to your potential customers at the different stages.
▢ Create the tips sheets, make updates on your website, etc.
▢ Find ways to delight your customers. And do it!
We would love to hear what you do to nurture your leads in your sales funnel. Comment below!
If you want to go further to develop your business, sign up for our business coaching class.
