How else were we supposed to get you to read a blog post about the sales funnel then by baiting you with a delicious sugary carnival treat and then promptly turning the tables to a more useful conversation about the inbound marketer’s best friend!?* The concept is polarizing…the I-can’t-live-without-it sales funnel… or perhaps more accurately for some, the bane-of-my-existence sales funnel. The latter attitude is probably due in large part to a misunderstanding of the sales funnel in general and how the sales funnel can be appropriately leveraged for successful and highly automated (yes, I said automated) lead nurturing.
The truth is that a whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not even identified their sales funnel… no surprise there especially considering you aren’t rewarded with a warm funnel cake. However, you are rewarded with warm leads…what more could you ask for!?
Most of you probably know the three levels of the sales funnel: top of the funnel, middle of the funnel and bottom of the funnel. But what do these levels mean to your bottom line?
Top of the Funnel (TOFU)- This is the awareness stage of the sales funnel where unqualified leads have begun their research or due diligence to help solve a need, pain point, want or desire. In this stage, you need to educate the lead with regards to their unfulfilled need, not on your solution…that comes next.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)- This is the evaluation stage of the sales funnel. In this stage, the leads recognize that your product or service can fulfill their unmet need and are now in the process of determining whether your solution is the right fit for them. Here you need to further educate the lead and start positioning your company as the need-slayer. The big cheese. The go-to guy. The make-it-happen maven (last one I promise). The MOFU stage gives you the opportunity to fully capture the lead's attention, and help them make a decision by proving to the lead how your company can help solve their problem through the products/services you offer. Prove to the lead why your company is the best choice to meet their needs and the battle is almost won. (Don't get excited, I only said almost. Keep reading please!)
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)- Congratulations, the lead has decided that it's time to buy and it looks like you're about to cross the finish line. It is now your job to incentivize them, push them to take action, and close the sale.
So now that you understand the stages of the sales funnel, how do you use this information to create a workflow for lead nurturing and politely but persistently guide these leads through the sales funnel? With TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU offers!
Using content assets and offers such as those listed in the graphic above, you can easily nurture leads through the stages of the sales funnel to eventually close them as a customer. The offers suggested for each stage of the sales funnel match the primary function of each level (TOFU-educate, MOFU-prove, BOFU-incentivize). Whitepapers and Ebooks educate the lead to increase their awareness. Product webinars and case studies speak to how your company can help solve the leads' problem and aid in the evaluation stage. Free trials, coupons, and consultations help the lead make the final decision to purchase. By providing offers targeted to each level of the sales funnel, you're streamlining the sales process and eliminating the often fruitless time spent by your sales reps spend trying to qualify leads (here's a nice big pat on the back and round of applause for you courtesy of your sales team!)
Putting a lot of thought and planning around which of your content assets fit into each stage (or should be created to fit each stage) of the sales funnel can help you to engage in effective lead nurturing. Automated workflows can be developed to communicate with those leads taking advantage of your offers. Try to picture this:
Your name is Pete (or Paula for all the ladies). You own an organic dog food company and want your latest product, Sunshine Salmon Dog Nuggets, to be sold in pet stores across the country. You decide to promote a "Reasons Why Salmon is the New Chicken" whitepaper as your TOFU offer. The workflow you develop could automatically send an email advertising a free sample of your Salmon Nuggets (MOFU offer) to everybody who dowloads your whitepaper from your website. Anybody who takes action to obtain your free sample will then be sent an email offering an in-store product demonstration (the BOFU offer) and tasting (dog-tasting that is!) if they provide just a few more pieces of information. Additionally, you can customize these workflows for your various target audiences or personas, to ensure you're telling each lead exactly what he/she wants to hear. The way you speak to Dr. Pop's Pet Shop may be quite a bit different than how you'd speak to the buyer for a major Pet Supply chain. Workflows let you be crafty and swift without spending a lot of time or resources. (Are you having a hard time handling all this excitement? Because I get a little twitchy when I think about workflows. Just sayin'.)
Take a company offering marketing services, much like Stratus Interactive, who may find it beneficial to create a sales funnel workflow for each of their services like website redesign, social media marketing, lead generation, etc. The offers in each of these workflows are tailored not only to the overall topic but also to each stage of the sales funnel. The website redesign sales funnel offers and workflow may look something like this:
TOFU- EBook on the negative effects that a poorly designed website can have on your overall business performance
MOFU- Case study on a successful website redesign complete with identification of the problem, tactics used and the actual results realized
BOFU- Free 30 minute website redesign consultation with the company’s experts
So, whether you're Pete, Paula, or a SMB like Stratus, once these sales funnel offers and workflows are developed, the whole lead nurturing process becomes extremely automated and the sales process becomes way more efficient. Stay tuned for our next blog post on the sales funnel and automated lead nurturing.
*Stratus Interactive does not believe in or utilize the bait and switch sales tactic…except for strained comedy attempts in their blog writing initiatives.