Where’s My Profit?
This is a question that plagues small business owners in MANY — if not ALL — phases of their company’s growth. So, for all of November, we’ll have a concerted effort here on our blog to ANSWER that question for you. Where’s My Profit?
Great question.
To answer it we have to take a long, hard, OBJECTIVE look at your marketing and/or sales funnel.
So for the rest of this article, I’m going to focus on two different groups: Those who have a sales funnel created, and those who are “wingin’ it.”
Let’s start with those who DO NOT YET have a prescribed, detailed sales funnel. This is you if you have not prescribed and choreographed the different steps in your own sales funnel. If you don’t have a multi-step sales funnel — Create one. Here are the core components of a solid sales funnel:
- An introduction point. How will clients or patients find you initially? What will they be looking for? What is their pain? What’s top of mind for them?
- A bait offer — this is something that lures your prospect into the sales funnel itself. Keep the free offer simple and direct and specific. It should require very little commitment on behalf of your prospect. They’ve now raised their hands and initiated a step into your funnel.
- Indoctrinate them. This delays the sale, but it gives you a chance to properly position yourself, add value to your prospect, and demonstrate integrity, commitment and expertise.
- Asking for the Sale. Make the offer.
- Follow Up.
If you DO have a sales funnel, work to find the leaks. Each business owner must look to see where prospects are dropping out of their sales funnel. This is easy for me as a strategist to see — in other people’s business. However, it’s critical we learn to identify those leaks in our own. The good news is that every leak has a fix. First, we have to find them… which is really simple:
Look back at your last 20 prospects with an objective eye and ask:
Where did you Lose them?
Look for the exact phase / stage / step that you lost the client. When did they say no or disappear? What was the LAST interaction you had with them before everything went COLD?
Was it after your initial conversation? Stop talking and listen. Don’t pitch, serve.
Maybe it was after they said they’d think about it — and instead of going home with a check, you walked in with your head hung in defeat? Build in some strategic follow up in your sales funnel — and tell prospects about it ahead of time. Make it expected and appreciated.
Look closely at your last 20 prospects. Your experience with them will help you clearly identify where your existing sales funnel needs some work.
Next time… we’ll go a bit deeper. So, please comment below or send me an email with your questions about sales funnels and where YOUR profit may be hiding… =)
P.S. I’ll be doing a deep dive on this topic on #SmallBizChat on November 12th. Check it out: http://succeedasyourownboss.com/smallbizchat-november/
Comments
