Does Your Service Need A Sales Funnel?
Sales funnels are an integral part of any business. They are used to attract interested parties to your products and services and turn them into paying customers. That’s why you should make them an essential part of your marketing plan or business strategy.
Sales funnels aren’t just used for physical products. If your business is a service-based industry it will need a sales funnel since it’s harder to let the product do the talking when your product is a service.
Why Do You Need A Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is vital to your business because it allows you to create a consistent stream of repeat business and customers. Without a sales funnel strategy, you might find yourself frequently drifting between few prospects or even no clients. A sales funnel allows you to have a steady supply of both.
You must always be advertising and you must always be closing sales and dealing with customers. On the surface, it might seem like it doesn’t matter for a service-based business, especially when it comes to businesses that can’t provide their service over the internet.
However, in the modern world, awareness of almost all things is spread through the internet. This alone justifies you having an online presence for your business. The internet is certainly the best method for converting business awareness into interest and ultimately, sales. By creating the right sales funnel steps, you can ensure your marketing and sales plates are always full.
FREE Checklist: Create An Effective Sales Funnel Create Awareness
Your sales funnel stages start with making your audience aware of your business’s existence. Here you want to create marketing messages that educate your audience about your services and your niche. Examples of how this can be done include placing advertisements where your target market will see them, issuing press releases, writing keyword-rich blog posts or holding free webinars.
Turning Awareness into Interest
Prospective customers showing an interest in what your business offers is the second stage or interest phase of a sales funnel. When this happens, consumers are both aware that they have a problem or need and that you offer a solution to that. In other words, they’re qualified buyers. This also means your prospect is now looking actively for a solution and has considered your business as a place they might potentially get it.
During this stage, you’ll need a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a special offer you provide to draw in prospective customers. This can be a discount or other forms of promotional offers. Be sure to add conditions when giving a lead magnet, such as having a prospect subscribe to your email list.
The Decision Phase in Your Sales Funnel
The third phase of a sales funnel is the decision phase. At this point, the prospect has come to the conclusion that they want their problem solved or a need satisfied. They should now be looking at specific things you’re offering and which offers can provide them the best value or what would suit their particular problem or need.
Specific offers should be directed towards your ideal audience so you can maximize the value being offered to them. This is also the phase where you need to set yourself apart from all your competitors in your market. You already know the prospect is interested in the services you provide, so it definitely makes sense to devote time to landing them as a client.
The Purchasing Phase
The last part of your sales funnel template, which is the most important section, is the purchasing phase.This is the stage in which a prospect buys your service. The wider the bottom of your sales funnel is, the more money your business is bound to make. This is why it’s important that your business makes the transaction as user friendly as possible.
There can be two more phases to a sales funnel which are particularly relevant to service-based businesses.
The Re-evaluation Phase
If your business deals with contracts, it can enter a re-evaluation phase after the action stage. This is where the consumer considers the final offer made in a contract.
The Repurchase Phase
A second additional phase that’s particularly important to service-based businesses is the repurchase phase. This is when a past customer returns to do business with you. It should be every business’s objective to have a stream of return customers as this is the best way to have a steady and reliable income flow.
Free Checklist: Creating An Effective Sales Funnel
Regardless of the size of your business, you need a sales funnel. You can’t just simply focus on marketing and then switch to sales when you feel you have enough prospects lined up.
When you create an effective customer sales funnel it puts your business on autopilot and consistently turns prospects into paying customers if you structure it the right way. To learn more, download my free Sales Funnel Checklist which outlines the best practices for making your sales funnel produce the intended result, lots of traffic, lots of prospects and lots of sales.
