Why tough times are the best times to create a sales funnel
Find more prospects and grow your business with these tips
We all know and appreciate how much work is needed to reach out to potential customers and convert them from prospects into paying customers, but when pandemics and changes such as Brexit come along, it can prove to be even tougher. But does that mean that you should cut back on your efforts or increase them?
Many business owners manage this in a conflicting or paradoxical way. While we accept that more effort is needed in challenging times, our natural fear leads us to cut costs and reduce our progress in creating a sales funnel, and this is a HUGE mistake.
Think outside the box and be brave!
When times are more challenging, potential customers need more care and attention.
They need more convincing that they should spend money. This requires investing effort in prospecting to find new customers as well as building trust with them.
If your competitors aren’t slowing down on their marketing activities and you are, then this could be fatal for your business as your sales opportunities dry up.
On the flip side, if they are cutting their marketing efforts then now is the chance for you to be brave and invest wisely in business growth.
Do you have a sales funnel?
When it comes to sales growth, it’s important to have quality leads - or put another way - potential customers who are genuinely going to buy rather than waste your time and not buy anything - but the quality versus quantity debate isn’t that simple.
To consistently generate sales, it’s important to have a sales funnel and the more prospects you have in a sales funnel, the more sales you are likely to generate.
Even with good quality leads, only a small percentage of them will buy. If, for example, you have a conversion rate of 25% and you have 100 prospects, then that’s a lot more sales than having only 15 or 20 prospects in your sales funnel.
Use sales funnels to build resilience
In his book Fanatical Prospecting, Jeff Blount talks about the 30-day rule.
The effort you put in during the next 30 days impacts your sales for the next 90 days as there is often a delay in customers making a purchasing decision.
Building a solid sales funnel based on effective marketing is a great way to protect your business from sales during tough times.
If the market conditions become more challenging, you will already have a pool of prospects to convert, rather than having to rely on finding new prospects.
Ways to build a sales funnel
There are various ways to build a sales funnel. And at aprompt, we would be happy to discuss the best way for your online business to create sales funnels depending on your target audience and services you offer.
The first part of creating a sales funnel requires reaching out to your customers or having them find you and then capturing their contact details. To reach your target audience at a time when they are more likely to buy, being found in Google Search is a MUST.
Other ways to reach your target audience include using online advertising and building up a long-term fan base through platforms such as social media and podcasts.
If a potential customer doesn’t contact you straight away to make a purchase or get a quote then a lead generation process will help you to still capture their contact details. A lead generation process involves offering a freebie such as an eBook or how-to guide in exchange for an email address.
Another form of lead generation involves hosting a webinar and this has grown in popularity during Covid.
Ready to grow your sales funnel?
It might be tough times, we get that. But the only way to survive and thrive is to keep going. In the words of Winston Churchill...
If you’re going through hell. KEEP GOING.
How to be found in Google
At aprompt, we specialise in helping businesses get found in Google and to ensure that website visitors become your paying customers.
Start growing your sales funnel today with our support. Get in touch with our website designers in Wiltshire.
