What Was Missing in My Sales Funnel May Be Missing In Yours

Recently, one of my coaches and I were chatting and they asked if they could look over my sales funnel. What a great ask, because, although I have much of my processes written out in steps and SOPs, I don’t have an overview of my entire marketing & sales process. I am the big picture thinker and I see all (written with sarcasm). This is the exact issue I see in businesses that want to grow and owners that want a business that could run without them. The owner, myself in this case, is the one with the big picture and knows about all the pieces they wanted to build, but does not necessarily having the ‘design schematics’ that detail how these pieces fit together.

Over the last 20 years, I have gone through this process many times for myself and for my clients. With this resent change in my focus, to help business owners build a business that can run without them, so they can plan to exit, I had forgotten to clearly articulate the details of my funnel, even to myself. This will create sales and delivery problems. How fortunate I have a team that asks great questions.

It took me about an hour to define my entire process and get it written down. What marketing channels I am using, and how often? What are the steps I follow during and after the first contact, but before the sale (e.g. nurturing)? What are the sales and intake steps and how does this lead to exceptional delivery and return clients? To get to my detailed process, I filled in this information following these basic steps.

My Marketing Channels

I thought I had 3 main marketing channels, but apparently I have 5. When I finished the entire process, I realized I actually have two additional channels; one that I used to build trust and relationships, and one that was so obvious that I totally missed evaluating it (my websites).

1. networking
2. free exit assessment (Irresistible Free Offer (IFO))
3. written articles
4. speaking
5. social media
6. volunteering
7. My websites

Then I asked, what do I use these marketing channels for? These 3 points are the outcomes of my marketing channels with the ultimate outcome to produce a sale. Some of my channels produced more than one of these results.

1. Build trust and relationships
2. Offer value for free to experience my skills, build confidence, and trust.
3. Add additional touch-points to help keep my name in front of my target market.

From Testing and Viewing to Buying

The next step in the articulation of my process was to link the marketing to the sales call. For me, this link is a succession assessment and debrief sales call. Using an assessment makes the call shorter for the prospect, and easier for me to help identify their needs, because I can prepare for the call ahead of time with their shared business details and goals.

What was missing?

I knew there were areas where technology was successfully used to automate the processes (like booking calls and sending out assessments). There are several areas where automation would make reaching out happen regularly, for processes (like payments and nurture messaging) and to help avoid missing actions (like receivables and invoicing). Better automation  for some of my program delivery (like on-boarding and monthly commitment reminders) will also reduce the number of individual manual actions that need to be taken. This will add to better communications with the team, to ensure they are reaching their goals for the work they are responsible for (like service delivery deadlines and quality).

Having this articulation in the sales and marketing process helped me see which pieces are missing, what resources are required, and what the timeline for implementation could be.

Next Steps

So, what will I do next? I have three key next steps that lead to several tasks needing to be completed.

1. Discuss what is missing with my team. Have them help define the implementation, the resources required, and identify their part in this change. Having everyone on board reduced the confusion of what needs to get done, when, and by whom.
2. Block the time for myself and my team to meet the goals set. Defining deadlines and putting work in the calendar ensures it will be completed. I have often said, “If it is not in my calendar, it does not exist.” Funny, but true. Knowing you have time set aside to complete something gives you permission to stop other things and do the work, which will increase your chance of completing your change on time.
3. Have a way to manage the accountability and measure the completion of the work. For me, it is putting a reminder in my team meetings, each month, to check in on these deadlines and to be open to changes required because of issues that occur.

For those of you doing this on your own, I recommend you find a peer or friend, with the ability to understand your goals, identify your potential challenges, be able to give you support and feedback to adjust when issues occur, and hold you accountable to meet your deadlines. I have done this work many times, over the last 20 years. Having this process in place, to help manage change has been resulted in many successes for myself and my clients. If you would like help with this for yourself, or you and your team, I would be happy to take you through my process (Succession Assessment Call)

Knowing the entire sales funnel process, from how a lead finds out about you, builds a trust and interest in your service, goes through the sales process, becomes a client and experiences your delivery, is the key to making your business run without you. Take an hour to sit down and identify the elements of your process. It is worth the time to evaluate what you have and what you need, so you can determine what you will need to do to reach your ultimate goal of being able to one day, exit your business.

Ready to share your inspirational message with the world?

My good friend, Susan Crossman, is hosting ActionTalks LIVE: The Author Event and it’s scheduled to take place  October 17-19 in San Diego. Up to 30 speakers will be delivering inspirational talks about how to create greater harmony in our world.

If you are a published author, you are eligible to apply to speak!

I’m going to be there, I hope you will too.

Want to know what the process would be for you to get ready to sell?

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The articles you read in this blog are 100% created by Barb Stuhlemmer, not by AI