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tiffany@tiffanycoxdesign.comWhy Small Businesses Should Create a Marketing Sales Funnel
11 . 21 . 2017
Sometimes as small business owners we get so caught up with the everyday operations of our business we forget about our long term goals and strategy. You may be wondering, what are sales funnels and why do I need one? First let’s talk about what a sales funnel is.
A sales funnel is a well thought out plan of lead generation practices and follow up sequences for selling your products or services. This can include where you advertise, what incentives you provide, how you capture potential customer information, how you follow up with leads, etc. Creating a comprehensive plan for how you sell and follow up with potential clients and even reconnect with past clients can really help you stay on track with growing your business. Now let’s get in to why small businesses should create marketing sales funnels.
When selling your products or services do you really take the time to think about strategic talking points and what information your lead needs to become a customer? Of course you do! We all think about what we need to say in order to sell ourselves but have you put that onto paper? And would you rather be spending all your time selling or would you rather be growing a thriving business that doesn’t need a lot of hand holding?
If you are like most small business owners you spend a good amount of your time meeting with and talking to leads. And while this is a normal part of running your own business you can easily lose track of how much valuable time gets lost in regurgitating the same information to every potential customer.
Wouldn’t it be easier to automate most of that process? Perhaps when you get a lead you create a system that sends them an automated email/emails with your key talking points. That way when you do get on a call with them they already have a good idea of what you do and may have already decided to purchase your services.
Creating a multi-touch point process for your marketing and follow up will save you hours each week and also make it easier to train someone else to help you with that process.
An organized and professional business always has time to keep in touch with customers. When your business is disorganized and potential customers haven’t heard from you for months that can potentially create a bad impression.
It doesn’t have to be time intensive to keep in touch with your potential/current customers. Sales funnels help you create a detailed combination of automated and personal touch points that will keep you organized and in touch with your customers and potential customers.
Using a CRM such as HubSpot and their automated email system or even free platforms such as MailChimp will keep you ahead of your competitors when it comes to outreach.
All business owners create goals for how they’d like to grow their business and gain more customers. But a lot of us lose sight in follow through, mainly because it’s so hard to keep track of all the people you’ve talked to about your business. Creating a sales funnel can help streamline your goal tracking process and make it easier to know what step each lead is on automatically.
Let’s say you’d like to get at least 20 qualified leads per month and follow up with at least 3 touch points. With a sales funnel you can create your process for gaining leads and what ways you follow up. That will give you a step by step process to how you sell in your business. You can then track what step those leads are on in a CRM software.
Tracking every step in your sales process can also give you great insight into where your sales funnel is helping you reach your goals and where it’s failing, giving you the opportunity to change your strategy when needed.
Now that you know why you need a sales funnel it’s time to go create one! Download our FREE sales funnel worksheet by filling out the form below to help you get started on your sales and marketing plan.
