Elements of a Sales Funnel and How to Optimize It
Elements of a Sales Funnel and How to Optimize It
The common wisdom is that you’ll get a better quality of customer if you charge even a small price for your front-end product. The subscription products are one way to keep people interested and keep revenue coming in is to create a product that has a recurring monthly benefit that people subscribe to and pay for each month.
The Back-end Products are used once people purchase your initial product, you can offer them several additional products that are more profitable for you than the initial product. You might charge $97 for a more advanced product, and $297 for the next level, etc. If your front-end product is an eBook, you can typically charge 50 to 100% more for a physical copy.
The key is to make it as easy as possible for them to order again, so it’s important to have a shopping cart system that remembers their details, so they don’t need to enter them every time.
You should also test the order of the offers you’re presenting. You can do this using split testing. This has to do with how much the first up sell will be. Many people say the first up sell should be less than the initial sale, but it may be difficult to turn a profit this way. You’ll need to test which style works for your market. So people don’t feel like they’re being deluged with special offers, you can create a progress bar that tells them their position in your system. Make sure the pages for each offer are different. You don’t want one offer to look similar to the one the customer just came from.
Split up products or services that are $100 or more into payment plans. This way customers can pay a reasonable monthly amount. The amount of re-billing attempts that fail is easily offset by the increase in conversions.
Use sales intensification methods to add urgency. This means offering them a one-time buy that will expire when they leave the site. If they pass up that offer, you can present them with it again as a second chance at some point in the future.
A thank-you video/message after the initial sale and before the special offers can go a long way toward making your customers feel welcome and valued. It then introduces them to your special offers that are only available right now.
Use navigation links appropriately, reducing the navigational choices as they get deeper into the sales funnel, particularly in the checkout process. You might have noticed that when you enter the checkout process on most sites, you suddenly have no navigation links. They don’t want anything to distract you from completing your purchase.
Elements of a Sales Funnel and How to Optimize It - To learn more about this author, visit Charles Godbout's Website.
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The front-end Products are the first products you sell. They may not even make a profit. You need at least one, preferably two or three. These can cost anywhere from nothing to hundreds of dollars, but they need to be as broadly appealing as possible. One method is to offer a very low-priced product that is an extremely good value, something that will blow the customer away. You can also include a free trial of a subscription product. This helps build the initial relationship with the customer and prove the quality of your products using an extremely low barrier to entry. Another option is to offer a free-trial subscription as your front-end product.
The common wisdom is that you’ll get a better quality of customer if you charge even a small price for your front-end product. The subscription products are one way to keep people interested and keep revenue coming in is to create a product that has a recurring monthly benefit that people subscribe to and pay for each month.
The Back-end Products are used once people purchase your initial product, you can offer them several additional products that are more profitable for you than the initial product. You might charge $97 for a more advanced product, and $297 for the next level, etc. If your front-end product is an eBook, you can typically charge 50 to 100% more for a physical copy.
The key is to make it as easy as possible for them to order again, so it’s important to have a shopping cart system that remembers their details, so they don’t need to enter them every time.
You should also test the order of the offers you’re presenting. You can do this using split testing. This has to do with how much the first up sell will be. Many people say the first up sell should be less than the initial sale, but it may be difficult to turn a profit this way. You’ll need to test which style works for your market. So people don’t feel like they’re being deluged with special offers, you can create a progress bar that tells them their position in your system. Make sure the pages for each offer are different. You don’t want one offer to look similar to the one the customer just came from.
Split up products or services that are $100 or more into payment plans. This way customers can pay a reasonable monthly amount. The amount of re-billing attempts that fail is easily offset by the increase in conversions.
Use sales intensification methods to add urgency. This means offering them a one-time buy that will expire when they leave the site. If they pass up that offer, you can present them with it again as a second chance at some point in the future.
A thank-you video/message after the initial sale and before the special offers can go a long way toward making your customers feel welcome and valued. It then introduces them to your special offers that are only available right now.
Use navigation links appropriately, reducing the navigational choices as they get deeper into the sales funnel, particularly in the checkout process. You might have noticed that when you enter the checkout process on most sites, you suddenly have no navigation links. They don’t want anything to distract you from completing your purchase.
Elements of a Sales Funnel and How to Optimize It - To learn more about this author, visit Charles Godbout's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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