Why You Need A Sales Funnel In Your Life …

Posted on July 5, 2016 by admin

Warning: This “F-bomb” Can Triple Your Business This Year

If you’re interested in growing your business and have been looking for a solution for any amount of time, you’ve most likely heard somebody drop the “F-bomb”.

That’s right … FUNNEL. (ha … see what I did there ;))

All kidding aside, if you aren’t using lead generation and sales funnels in your marketing – you’re throwing out a lot of time, energy and resources in your marketing efforts that most likely isn’t giving your much of a return on your investment … am I right?

What is a Funnel?

A funnel (aka marketing funnel, lead generation funnel, sales funnel, etc.) is nothing more than a graphical representation of the customer lifecycle as a customer travels from prospect to lead to customer in your business.

What Does a Funnel Look Like?

Funnels can be laid out vertically like a traditional funnel with prospects entering at the top and customers coming out the bottom or they can be laid out horizontally with prospect entering the funnel on the left and customers popping out on the right.

Whichever option you prefer … both will allow you to track your visitors journey.

Why Is This Important?

The reason funnels are so important is for one reason and one reason alone …
ALL GOOD MARKETING IS DATA DRIVEN!

Gut feelings are great for choosing who to date or what lunch special you’d like to try today but for marketing … we want to make marketing decisions on actual, real-life data.

Let me give you an example:

Life Without A Marketing Funnel:

Statistically speaking – only 2-3% of people that visit your website will ever buy from you. If you run a retail location that mean that for every 100 people that walk in your front door – more than 97% of them will continue to walk out without breaking out their wallet.

I don’t know about you but for me … that is totally unacceptable. I’m going to market and advertise to get 100 people into my store and only two will buy? HORRIBLE.

The problem is .. without a funnel in place where we are gauging the customers interest along the way, we have no way of knowing why the 97% of the people won’t buy.

Maybe they’re just tire kickers.
Maybe they didn’t like my prices.
Maybe they didn’t like the re-heated fish I had for lunch

Nobody really knows for sure so any changes we make to our marketing strategy are going to be guesses based on gut feelings and nothing more.

That is NOT the way we want to run a professional business.

Now let’s take a look at life with a “general” marketing funnel and see what we can learn.

Life With A Marketing Funnel

Let’s say you run a local pool supply company and you are trying to kick off some killer summer sales with a large display in the front of the store for oversized, inflatable rubber duckies (don’t ask me how I know about this)

Seems like a pretty good plan because as a pool supply company (or any other company as far as that goes) the hardest part is landing the new customer – once you have them you can always upsell and cross-sell them with additional/related products and services and just generally win them over with your spectacular customer service.

So let’s take a look at what that funnel might look like

New Customer Sales Funnel Example:

Step 1: Customer walks into the store (thanks to the 4’ tall rubber duck in your front window)
Step 2: Customer looks at the rubber duck display
Step 3: Customer grabs their own rubber duck and puts it in their shopping cart
Step 4: Customer heads over to the checkout line
Step 5: Customer completes the purchase and goes home to inflate their ridiculously oversized rubber duck.

To understand the magic of the sales funnel we aren’t going to look at the actual steps, we’re going to look at the gaps between the steps because this is where the customer is making their decisions. This is where they are deciding if they are going to continue the relationship.

Let’s say our numbers looked like this…

Step 1: 100 people
Step 2: 90 people
Step 3: 10 people
Step 4: 4 people
Step 5: 2 people

Here we still have the same 2% conversion rate from prospect in step 1 to customer in step 5 but now we have more data to understand what is happening in their heads.

Here are three useful elements that we can pull out of this example:

90% of the people that came in the door looked at the giant rubber duck display. That’s great! So it would appear the Giant Rubber Duck in the front of the store is doing a good job of gathering attention.
Only 10 out of 90 people that saw the display actually put one of the products in their cart. This could be an indication that there is a disconnect between the user liking the product and wanting to purchase the product. The price could be too high. The quality may be low. Obviously if they’re in our store we can just ask them about it but even if we’re online only – this gives us two different options to test.
1. Test 1: Lower the price and see if you can get more people to purchase.
2. Test 2: Order a similar product from a different manufacturer and see if you can find one of better quality.
Of the 10 people that put it into their cart … only 4 actually made it to the checkout line with it. Again, if it is a physical store you can just keep and eye out ad ask users. If not, we can come up with some additional things to test based on the reasons people would put something back after adding it to their cart.
1. They talked themselves out of it
2. They though it was too pricey
3. etc.

So you see by having your funnel steps clearly identified, as long as you are tracking your numbers, your funnels (and sales), should always be increasing because there will always be additional items for you to test.

The really cool part is … when you track your data like this – there is no such thing as throwing marketing dollars away. Everything you do is a trackable test – your conversions either get better or worse and when you test one thing at a time – you know exactly what made the difference.

Now It’s Your Turn …

I’d love to know if you are already using sales funnels or marketing funnels in your business. Use the comments below and let me know if you’re currently using funnels and how they are working for you.

3 Business Lessons I Learned From Disneyland

Posted on February 6, 2016 by admin

A few years ago we ran the social media for a political campaign that ended up on the November ballot. Needless to say, those were some really long hours. I worked hard but missed my family so I decided to take a couple extra days off before Thanksgiving and surprise them with a few days in Disneyland.

I’ve taken my wife and daughter there many times over the years but this time the trip was different. I inadvertently scheduled our trip for one of their busiest times of the year … great. There is never really an “empty” day at Disneyland but this time was particularly packed. Even though it felt like there were 38 bazillion people there and the wait times for the rides were almost always more than an hour I still had a really good time.

This was really weird to me because I normally get pretty agitated when I have to wait. I walk fast, drive fast and talk fast so waiting in line isn’t really my thing.

On our last night there we were beat – we had spent nearly 30 hours in the park over the span of 2 days, my feet were killing me and then as I sat there eating ice cream with my daughter in the middle of a snow flurry (yes they make it snow in LA) it came to me … Disneyland isn’t just a great place to visit, it is a great business. We concluded that night with one of the best Fireworks shows I’d seen in years and hobbled back to the hotel room to collapse in bed – another successful Disneyland trip in the books.

As I was driving home the next day, I thought about my Disneyland experience and a few things really stuck out to me that I thought were perfect examples of how their business just dominates the industry.

1 The Devil’s in the Details

An average day at Disneyland can see some 40,000+ visitors enjoying the park. All of those people are eating lunch, dinner, snacks, candies, sodas all day long but you never see a mess… I mean NEVER. The reason is because most trash cans in the park are no more than 30 steps apart from each other. Based on research that Disney did over 50 years ago about how far a person would walk with trash in their hand before dropping it. They also take the extra step to make the trash cans beautiful so they blend in with the environment.

2 Customer Service is #1

The first time I took my daughter to Disneyland it was right when Finding Nemo came out. In the story one of the main characters is this laid back “surfer-dude” sea turtle named Crush and my daughter loved him. Disneyland had an attraction featuring Crush so we had to see it. The technology behind the attraction was pretty cool – all the kids come in and sit down in front of a large screen and like a movie, crush comes on, swims around and answers the kids questions. Unfortunately, my daughter had her hand up but didn’t get called on so as the session was over and everybody started filing out Victoria started crying (She was 4 at the time). Instead of ushering us out and making room for the next group of park-goers Crush came back on screen and said “Whoa .. Hey little dudette”.. Everybody stopped, turned around, and Crush took the time to calm her down and answer her question. As a parent, I was floored. To think that somebody would take the time to make sure my little girl has a positive experience like that .. It still brings a tear to my eye when I think about it even 10 year later. From that day forward – I was a fan. Anybody care to guess how much money I’ve spent on Disney over the last decade? A Bunch!

3 Always Exit Through the Giftshop

One of my favorite sayings in business is “No Money, No Mission”. Even though many of us feel like we are here to serve others, we still need to make a profitable business out of it or else the business dies .. and so does your mission. Like all things, however, there is a right and a wrong way to do it.

When you are waiting an hour in line to ride Indiana Jones Adventure you aren’t being bombarded with sales messages or vendors. They play ride specific themed music, they wind you in and out of the elaborately decorated ride and they keep your interest high by keeping your senses activated and stimulated. When it is your turn to ride you are greeted and seated by a character in costume and then you’re off.

After the ride, when you are in a “Peak State” (h/t to Tony Robbins) – they let you out either inside of or right next to a gift shop where you can buy momentos of the ride you just went on.

Not sometime … All the time.

So my question to you fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners is …

Where can you put a little Disney in your business? Comment below and let me know where your service is exceptional.

2016 Survey Results

Posted on January 22, 2016 by admin

At the end of each year we put a survey together and send it out to the members of our tribe. The goal with the survey is to make sure that the training we offer in the upcoming year matches the needs of the business owners that are on our list. In general the survey asks questions in the following three categories – What size of business do you have? What are your business goals for the next 12 months? What topics do you think you need to learn to accomplish your goals?

For 2016, here is a rundown of the results.

BUSINESS SIZE

Want to start a business	7%
Solopreneur	41%
2-9 employees	42%
10+ employees	11%

BUSINESS GOALS

Incremental growth	45%
Massive growth	35%
Increased efficiency	20%

TOPIC OF INTEREST FOR 2016

Lead generation	66%
Increasing productivity	50%
Hiring/Outsourcing	45%
Marketing automation	41%
Client retention	32%
Increasing sales	28%

LinkedIn: A Crash Course In Professional Networking

Posted on September 14, 2015 by admin

Do you dread the idea of networking groups? Does the idea of being asked “what do you do?” make your skin crawl?

You might not be a professional networking guru, but that’s okay! Social media has dramatically changed the way we connect with other professionals. There are tools out there that allow business owners to network and build connections without throwing them in a room with a funky little plastic name tag.

One of our favorite tools for networking is through the largest online professional networks, LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows business owners of all shapes and sizes find leads, employees, promotional partners and much more.

Ready to start connecting and making game-changing connections? Then check out these 3 steps for LinkedIn success.

Step 1 – Getting Started

At this point, you may have a LinkedIn profile that needs some love, or maybe you haven’t created an account yet. If you haven’t registered, it’s a quick and easy process. With just a few clicks you can have your profile up and running.

Once you have that out of the way, LinkedIn will walk you through the remaining steps. It may be tempting to just create your page and worry about filling out all the details later. But why wait? Take care of all the nitty details, so that you don’t miss any of the important elements of your profile later on down the line.

Pet professionals are selfless people. They are compassionate and put their clients, pets and everyone first. So sometimes it can be a little hard for them to talk about themselves. But don’t be afraid to brag a little on LinkedIn. Be proud of your accomplishments and skills!

Step 2 – Finding The Right People

There are a few avenues you can take in order to start finding contacts. The easiest is to import your email contacts. Doing this will send a quick email saying “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” From there, you can personalize your message or keep it short and simple.

Looking for even more contacts? Use LinkedIn’s search tool and look for previous colleagues or co-workers, classmates, or find new contacts by joining one of the thousands of LinkedIn professionals groups.

Step 3 – Start Building Connections

Try writing a recommendation, or a short blurb about someone else’s work on their LinkedIn profile. They may just return the favor. This is an excellent profile booster because it shows up under the position for which the person is writing the recommendation. You can also be direct and ask for recommendations. But you need to have a relationship with the person you’re asking.

This kind of support can really impress connections, especially as our LinkedIn “online resume” takes shape. You know how the best publicity is word of mouth? The same goes for LinkedIn. When someone endorses you or recommends you for a certain skill, the whole LinkedIn world gets to see just how talented you are!

Twitter 102: How To Build Buzz For Your Next Event

Posted on August 24, 2015 by admin

So you’ve got your event planned out. You’ve spent weeks, maybe even months planning your webinar or luncheon down to the last detail. Now how do you get the word out? One way to do it – Twitter.

In an earlier post we talked about the easy things you can do to help promote your next event with Twitter. We focused on the easily overlooked details and planning that has to be done in order to be successful with this ultra powerful social media tool.

So now we’re going to take a step further and walk through how you can use Twitter to get event guests super excited, while building buzz, leading up to and during your next event.

1 Create A Hashtag For Your Event

Step #1 for creating a Twitter campaign – create a hashtag. Sounds obvious, but don’t close your browser window just yet. It’s more complicated that just picking a phase related to your event. Here are a couple tips that are important to consider:

See who’s already using your hashtag – You may not be able to find a hashtag that’s unused by anyone but you. But if a Kardashian is using it, so are a lot of other people, which can hurt the chances of people seeing your hashtag.

Consider character length – If you want event guests to add your hashtags to tweets it has to short and sweet. You don’t want hashtags to be a burden, or make guests have smash it in to make the 140 characters. Because chances are, they’ll just chop out the hashtag and move on.

Consider the flow – A long string of words smashed together to create your hashtag can be difficult to read. #thebesteventever disorients the eyes and can easily be mistyped. Consider abbreviating or breaking up text heavy hashtags with a number like #best3days. Just make sure it’s an obvious number that’s relevant to your event so guests don’t get confused.

2 Market Your Hashtag

In a way, a hashtag is no different than a coupon or other promotional marketing tool. It needs attention and some advertising to be successful. Meaning, if you’re trying to give your hashtag some traction, you need to have a strategy in place before the big day.

3 Capture Handles

Chances are your guests are signing up for your event through an online form. And since they’re filling out their name, email address and other important information, consider adding an optional Twitter handle field. You can then either follow your guests as a way to connect, or put them on an attendee Twitter list to see what your attendees are talking about leading up to and during your event. This may take a little bit of extra work, but if you’re an active Twitter user and committed to growing your followers, this may be just the thing to give your audience a boost.

4 Create Twitter Exclusives

Twitter, like all social media, is an excellent tool to build buzz and market your event and business. But just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come. There are tons of distractions online, so you need to offer something really juicy to make people pull out their devices and engage with your business on Twitter. This could be extras, prizes–but if that’s not in the budget–great tips, information and other fun content can go a long way.

Event Quick Tip: Encourage event guest to tweet questions to you using a specific hashtag, and answer them throughout the event. Sweeten the deal by giving away a special prize at the end of the event to whoever asked the most interesting question.

5 Keep Up The Energy

Last but not least, don’t forget to stick to your Twitter strategy throughout the event. Events, especially large scale ones, can be physically draining. There are 1001 things going on at the same time, all of which need your immediate attention. But keeping up the social media energy can mean the difference between excited guests who are fired up about your event, and a dull event that didn’t leave an impression.

Make things easy on yourself by going into your event with a schedule or plan. This includes knowing how many times per day you’re going to tweet, who is going to tweet (maybe an assistant) and any other social media rules you want to stick to.

Author Archives: admin