Unless you live under a rock, you probably come in contact with the term ‘sales funnel’ or ‘marketing funnel’ a dozen times a day.
It seems every day there’s a new business coach trying to sell you their ‘funnel secrets’…
I’ll go on the record right now and tell you there are no secrets… but there is a PROCESS…. and I’m going to share my best advice for creating successful funnels that can change your business.
Now I’m going to assume you already know what a funnel is.
If you’re not sure, think of funnels this way… a sales funnel is your opportunity to:
- Draw in a perfect stranger (who fits in your niche market)…
- Introduce yourself…
- Make a great first impression…
- Get them to know like and trust you..
- and then get them to have enough confidence in you that they give you their name and email address or pull out their credit card and make a purchase.
Not any easy thing to do right?
Although lots of stuff needs to happen inside your funnels to turn a perfect stranger into a paying client… creating a high-converting funnel is not all that complex.
The following keys are presented in order so as you go through, know that the process starts at the top of the funnel or as I call it, “the stranger phase”
Step #1: Map Out Your Fishing Ponds:
If you want to catch trout, you’d first have to find where the trout swim, right?
And if you wanted to catch salmon, you’d have to know where salmon swim.
And chances are good that you’re not going to find these two different fish in the same area.
This example applies perfectly to finding new clients.
Your ideal clients congregate in certain areas.
Before you even think about creating your funnel, you need to map out where your clients are.
This could be physically or online.
Do your clients hang out on Facebook? Do they belong to any forums? What do they spend their time doing? Do they give their time to charity, churches or other have hobbies?
It’s your job to become an expert in your ideal client and predict where they’ll be.
If you’re unsure where they “hang out,” you need to do more research and learn more about your clients.
You should know what their lifestyles are like, what their fears and problems are, what their dreams and desires, are and what turns them on and off.
Knowing this information levels up your ability to market and communicate powerfully with your audience.
Once you can identify the ponds your clients swim in, you’ve just completed the hardest part!
Step #2: Create the Perfect Bait
When I was a kid, my brother and I used to love going fishing off a rock jetty in Southern California.
We had no idea what we were doing, we didn’t have good equipment and we never caught anything… we really just like being out there.
One day, we watched a couple of older gentlemen using a bag of frozen corn and peas for bait.
They would add them to their hooks instead of using traditional bait.
These gentlemen caught fish after fish after fish. It was incredible.
So what did my brother and I do the next following weekend? We started using frozen corn and peas… and within minutes, we started catching fish.
The bait worked so well that we were catching fish every time we casted out.
Even though we still had no idea what we were doing, we stumbled across the right bait – and that’s all it took to be successful.
You’re ideal clients require the perfect bait as well. Chances are, you’re not going to stumble across the solution….. and you’re probably not likely to even guess what it is.
The best way to find out what your clients want… is to ask them!
Fish can’t talk, but people can. If you’ve already identified where your clients congregate, now you can ask them directly what they want.
The best way to do this is by using a short survey.
You can create a 1-3 question survey asking them directly:
-What are the biggest challenges to your health and fitness goals?
-What is the ideal solution to these challenges?
Once you create your survey, keep posting it until you get at least 50 replies.
And the best part about this step is, the very same people filling out your survey are perfect candidates for your program.
Once you have these answers, create an easy to ingest solution, like a short ebook, checklist, resource guide or video.
This is your lead magnet.
Your prospects should be able to go through your entire lead magnet in an hour or LESS (unless it’s a video series).
In other words, keep it simple and short.
Step #3: Leverage Technology To Build Your List
Now that you know where to find your clients and you have an idea of exactly what they want (because they told you), now you can create the perfect solution and put it behind an opt-in wall.
This is where the top of your funnel begins.
First, you have your top page or landing page, which is usually called an opt-in page or a squeeze page.
This opt-in page should contain a powerful headline, benefit statements detailing why they need your resource and imagery that represents it in a valuable way (like an ebook cover).
In order for your prospects to claim their copy, they’ll need to “opt-in” (give you their name and/or email).
This funnel is as simple as this:
Opt-in page –> Thank you page
Now once the emails get added to your list, you can and should email your new prospects often with great content and invitations to join your programs.
There are several different platforms that build these pages for you with a few clicks, my favorite is Clickfunnels and you can get a free 14-day trial here.
After a few weeks of having your opt-in funnel go live, you’ll have some metrics to see how your pages are performing.
The first metric to pay attention to is your conversion %.
To find this out, just take your total visitors divide by total number of opt-ins.
If your opt-in rate is less than 20%, look at improving your opt-in page copy and images.
Remember to focus on the benefits of why it’s important and advantageous for them to download your lead magnet.
The next step is going to be about creating an offer that your new prospects need and want…
Step #4: Big Solution, Big Profit
So we this is where we’re at:
->You’ve identified the pools your ideal clients congregate
-> you surveyed them directly to learn what their problems and ideal solutions are
-> You created an opt-in page to offer your lead magnet and capture email leads
Now that you have a flow of steady leads coming in, the next question is: what do we do with them now?
Think about this: why did your prospects opt-in to your lead magnet in the first place?
Because they’re looking for solutions to their fitness problems!
Since they’re in pain and you offered them a compelling proposition (email in exchange for resource), they took that first step….
Getting them to take the next step, becoming a client, is much more challenging.
There’s only one thing you need to turn a prospect into a paying client…
CONFIDENCE.
If your paid programs inspire enough confidence in your prospects mind that they can overcome their pain and accomplish their goals – they will pull out their credit cards (or cash).
So your job is to demonstrate the effectiveness of your program and to make them feel confident.
What inspires confidence more than anything else?
Before and after pictures!
If you have them, use them on every single page of your marketing. And never stop collecting them.
If you don’t have any before and afters, plan to run a 4-8 week program, make it a one-time special promo price, have before and after pictures be a requirement of the program and in 4-8 weeks you’ll have a handful of great social proof to use.
Now we have to talk about the actual program you want to sell.
A big mistake I see fitness businesses make is selling training vs selling solutions.
If your website and price sheets are offering sessions or monthly classes as your product… you’re selling features.
Features are judged on price and you’re likely to attract clients who will not value your services.
Instead of selling features, sell benefits and results.
If you know what your prospects problems and goals are, simply create a packaged solution that will help them get there.
It’s easier to sell a packaged solution than it is to sell a package of sessions.
An example of a packaged solution is a 28-Day Mind & Body Transformation…
include how many sessions they’ll need and everything else that is needed for success. Package it up for a single price and sell that.
You’ll see a big improvement.
Now let’s get to the final step….
Step #5: The WOW
Alright let’s review where we’re at:
Pool of ideal clients -> ideal solution lead magnet -> opt-in page to capture leads -> sell packaged results
The final step that adds magic to every step and will amplify your results is providing the WOW.
Regardless if you have 1 client or 100, you can always provide a wow experience.
For me personally, everything changed in my business when I changed how I looked at my sessions…
Instead of training clients, I committed to making each session an event!
It became my goal to give my clients something positive to talk about when they left my gym.
This way they were advertising for me at work, to their friends, at their church… everywhere.
Providing the WOW will also build your reputation as the go-to person for fitness.
Right now, you should take an honest inventory of the experience you’e providing.
Where can you make improvements?
How are you ending your sessions?
What’s the energy like, is it uplifting?
Are you giving your clients an opportunity to talk about you?
You’re a great trainer, now it’s time for the rest of the world to find out!
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About the author:
Steve de la Torre is the founder and creator of the Fitpro Inferno Podcast and Fitness Leads on Demand.
