Traditional VS Modern Sales Funnels
Traditionally, sales funnels look like this:
How often do you present your lead with your core opportunity after inviting them to coffee? If you answered “often”, don’t worry, you are not alone. A lot of marketing and sales teams jump into their “big commitment” offer and skip the “small commitment” offers.
“Small Commitments” are the elements that shift traditional sales funnels into modern machines that convert leads to customers. The modern sales funnel includes small commitments that deliver specific value:
Traditional sales funnels jump from prospecting to coffee to the core opportunity. A modern sales funnel includes smaller commitments, known as “tripwires”, to create a flow of events that correspond to real-life relationships. Tripwires are no-cost to low-cost offers that require an investment of time and energy from your leads and most importantly, they deliver value to your lead before you introduce your core opportunity.
Tripwires are effective because your leads have already “bought in” before you introduce them to your core opportunity. They have already put in the time and they have received value from your organization — they trust you and they are ready to be “sold”.
I know what you are thinking: “My company doesn’t have a tripwire!”… And, in spite of what you may think, I guarantee you do. Tripwires are easily crafted by splintering off pieces of your core offering, or by “productizing” a component of your sales process.
For example, in our business, we are able to offer analysis on clients website SEO for a low-cost fee and offer them an eBook on how to automate their marketing process for free. We standardized it, added more value to it and lo-and-behold, we had something that was worth paying for! In fact, in true tripwire fashion, we hard considerably discounted our fees so as to ensure that clients receive a lot more value for what they spend.
Modern Sales Funnel VS Ideal Sales Funnels
An ideal sales funnel is based on content that is relevant and provides specific value to a particular customers’ need.
As with all inbound marketing activities, you want to provide value to your leads at every touchpoint. In the ideal marketing funnel, your efforts are specific, coordinated, and targeted – your leads will unconsciously recognize your efforts and will move from “stranger” to “lead” through enjoying your valuable content.
If you are able to provide value to your lead, they are much more likely to move along their buyer’s journey with less resistance and with more interest in your product or service.
Are you interested in seeing an example and learning how marketing automation can help you amplify your results? Send us an email to let us know when you are free to speak to one of our consultants.
