What is a sales funnel? A sales funnel is a series of steps through which you put each of your prospects. It is called a funnel because it is typically big on the entry end of the funnel, and smaller at the final point in the funnel.
Imagine a sales funnel that looks like this.
Imagine you are getting 10,000 visitors per month, and 50% of them choose to opt in to your list by accepting your free give away item.
Now you have 5000 people in your funnel. Let us assume that over time 10% of them buy your initial introductory product, an ebook you have priced for $27. Now you have 500 people who have bought your introductory product.
What is the purpose of your introductory product? It is to introduce your prospect to you. It is to give them a very low priced opportunity to get to know you. There is not a lot of risk associated with buying a $27 product, for the prospect. Certainly not like buying a $5000 product.
Now, what is going to happen with the people who have bought the $27 product? Some of them are going to like it, and some of them are going to dislike it. The ones who dislike it are going to stop buying from you. But the ones that do like it will buy more from you.
So now let’s imagine that you introduce a $47 product. Perhaps 20% of the buyers of the $27 product, or 100 people, will buy your $47 product. Now, because you have eliminated the people who do not like your style after buying the $27 product, most of these people will like your product, and most of these 2nd time purchasers will go on to buy multiple products from you.
So let’s assume that 50% of the people who bought the $47 product will buy your $97 product – that is 50 people. Next, 50% of these will buy your $497 product – for 25 buyers of your $497 product. And perhaps 50% of these – roughly 12 people – might buy your $5000 product.
I will let you do the math on the total income from this original set of 10,000 subscribers. And of course keep in mind this is a hypothetical sales funnel. Your percentages will be different based on the quality of your original traffic and the strength of your products and sales pages.
And of course, this business will not all occur in the first month – it may take 12 months to move someone from the entry point in your sales funnel to the endpoint of your sales funnel. And remember that each month, you will be putting new people into the funnel, and each month, some people will move from one point in the funnel to the next. So you will have a flow of individuals at different points in your funnel.
Sales Funnel Product Series Example
A sales funnel, of course, is a series of progressively more expensive products to which you progressively offer to buyers of the last product in the series.
A sample sales funnel might look like this:
A free product (to get people into your funnel)
A $27 product (to give people a taste of your style)
A $47 product (to offer more education)
A $97 product (to give people advanced material)
A $497 product (to give people step by step cookie cutter instructions)
A $5000 product (to give people hands – on experience)
As you move the people on your subscriber list through this sales funnel, a certain percentage of people will buy your first product, a certain percentage of those will be purchasers of your second product, and so on. And from time to time you may have some individuals choose to jump a level and buy something bigger.
So What Could These Products Be?
I think you should start at the capstone product – the most expensive one, envision what that product is, and then build your entire funnel to lead into that product. Of course, most people do not do it that way. I didn’t, either. They and I basically start with the smallest product we can get a fee for, just to get started, and then once that is selling nicely, we create a bigger product to meet the needs of the people who bought the first product. And that system is ok – in a lot of ways it is market-driven.
But I propose that if you start with the biggest product in mind first, you can build a funnel that is designed to lead people to your biggest product, over time, rather than scrambling to make the next product impulsively.
I think you can go so far as to specifically target the types of individuals you think need your final product, when you do your initial traffic generation. So instead of randomly bringing people into your sales funnel, you are specifically selecting individuals who will eventually buy your final capstone product.
So what could these products be? Starting at the final product, how about:
$5000 hands-on 3 day intensive coaching program where the participant leaves with a final product they can sell.
$497 product – a step by step guide to producing a miniature version of what they would create in the $5000 seminar
$97 product – a guide to creating that product
$47 – explanation of product
$27 – introduction to product
What about you? What would your sales funnel look like if you started from the capstone product and worked down?