What Is a Sales Funnel?

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Coco Creative
  • Date Published
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We gave studied sales funnels/customer retention paths for years, and there is a science to them.

Developing Your First Sales Funnel

We have studied sales funnels/customer retention paths for years, and there is a science to them. They all involve a lot of testing, and they take time to implement. But once they are fine-tuned, they create HUGE customer lifetime value. That lifetime value often makes the time and effort it takes to set up a Customer Retention Path more than worth it.

In order to create a successful customer retention path, you need to know what products to offer, what order to offer them in, and what price points to use. It takes dedicated trial and error to get this knowledge, but a well-designed sales funnel can completely transform the nature of your business.

The best way we’ve found to put together a sales funnel is to start with your lead product. What is the first item that most people will buy from you?

Then, figure out what product or service you offer that will complement that product. Outline the next 3 or 4 or 5 products or services that are congruent with the initial product your customer buys from you. Next, try emailing a sales piece out for each product or service. You’ll want to mail them a week to 10 days apart.

In marketing automation, Ryan Deiss, co-founder of Digital Marketer, often describes the sales funnel as a multi-step, multi-modality process that moves prospective browsers into buyers. It’s multi-stepped because lots must occur between the time that a prospect is aware enough to enter your funnel, to the time when they take action and successfully complete a purchase.

Your customers need to go through the following stages:

  1. Awareness
  2. Interest
  3. Decision
  4. Action

Think about that the next time you’re building out a sales funnel. This complex and intricate concept in business can literally take you from a complete unknown to a global powerhouse quickly through the art of scaling out a highly-converting offer. Don’t try to take shortcuts or implement hacks, and put in the time if you’re looking to eventually reap the benefits and results.