How to Use Sales Funnels and Not Feel Like An Asshole
Yes, you can make money without selling your soul.
Can you make a shit-ton of money using sales funnels? Hell yeah. Will you feel like a degenerate asshole that sold their mom to the devil in exchange for a fancy car and a banger bank account? Yup.
Is it possible to make money AND sleep soundly at night? Sure. I’m going to tell you how.
First, the basics of sales funnels
The idea of a sales funnel is that you get a massive amount of people and feed them through your funnel stages. It starts at the largest part of the funnel with the most number of people. And then you increase your offers, selling more expensive products or services, which siphons people through the funnel.
For example, you start by offering something free to get people to sign up for your mailing list. People love free things, so in theory you’ll get a LOT of people at this stage. This is the top and widest part of the funnel.
The funnel’s next stage is selling something reasonable, such as a $10–20 book. You have the email addresses, so a portion of those people will buy the book. Notice: the funnel is getting smaller. Not everyone on the mailing list will buy the book.
Next, you upsell (which most sales mentors advise), meaning you offer something additional to the customer when they put the book in the checkout cart. For example, selling another book at a discount if they add it to their purchase. If you don’t upsell, you make another offer, such as “you bought my book, now would you like to buy my video course?”
Just like the image of a funnel, things get smaller and smaller. Fewer people will buy your book than are on your mailing list; even fewer people will sign up for your video course than bought your book.
You can make the sales funnel go as far as you want, such as doing in-person retreats or personal mentoring sessions, etc., but realize you’ll have fewer people along each step because each step involves more time and money. You may have a million people on your mailing list (wow!) but only get 50 people to attend your conference.
Summary of sales funnels
- Get a lot of people by offering something free or low cost.
- When those people buy one thing, upsell them.
- Fewer people progress through the funnel.
- Those fewer people buy high-priced services/products.
- Keep upselling, keep getting fewer people, keep making more money.
Does this make ridiculous amounts of money?
Yes, sales funnels make ridiculous amounts of money. The idea is that you set up the steps ahead of time and make people’s progress through the funnel automatic. AKA passive income. People sign up for your mailing list. You automatically have an email sent to them asking to buy your next more expensive product or service. Another email asks those people to buy an even more expensive product or service.
Post an ad on Facebook, get people into your funnel, and profit. There’s a lot of work involved upfront, but once you have the funnel constructed, it builds and builds. Or, at least in theory.
The funnel is flawed
When you pour something into a funnel during cooking, everything you put into the funnel comes out on the other side. In sales, you’re losing precious ingredients — your customers. You put a bunch in at the top and get a few at the bottom. You make money at the loss of people.
Again, yes, you’ll ultimately make a LOT of money by selling more expensive things to a select few people. But what about all those other people? Where do they go? They unsubscribe out of frustration of you always pitching them more expensive products and services.
Feeding the people or feeding your pockets
Let’s keep the cooking analogy going. You can use all your ingredients to feed all the people. Pancakes are fantastic, so let’s imagine feeding 100 people a bunch of pancakes. They all sign up for a $1 pancake.
Now, you ask everyone who walks through the line if they would like to pay an extra $2 to get whipped cream and sprinkles on their pancakes. Some will pay, some will not. Instead of making $100 for 100 pancakes, you get $150 for 100 pancakes with a few of them extra-delicious.
Cool, right? But already, some people are looking around at their neighbors. They see other families’ kids with whipped cream and sprinkles while their kids are eating plain pancakes. You are $50 richer than you planned, but don’t you feel kind of like a jerk?
Take it a step further. Tell the people with extra toppings that if they pay $20 extra, they can sit at a special table. I don’t know what’s at the table. Maybe Elon Musk is sitting there. Maybe Bernie Sanders. I don’t know. But now you have $250 for 100 pancakes, yet some people are tossing sprinkles with Sanders, and other people are eating plain pancakes with envy in their eyes.
You’re rich; they’re pissed. The question is: how do YOU feel about this?
I’m the worst businessman ever
I read Think and Grow Rich and started to manifest my millions. Then I read and watched all the training on sales funnels. People began signing up for my business mailing list. I could see the plan working. My manifestation was coming true.
And then I did something stupid. I put a comment on my site that said, “if you can’t afford this service, click here, and I’ll give it to you for free.” Why did I do this? Because we’re still fighting COVID, millions of people are unemployed, and I was sitting in the corner counting my money while families were eating plain pancakes in the corner.
What happened when I gave away my services for free? Like the Grinch, my heart began to grow. One of the first people to click the free service met with me over video. He had a medical worker help set him up; he was attached to some medical device.
A funnel that losses fewer ingredients
In cooking and using funnels, you’re still going to make a mess. Ingredients will spill over the sides (you’ll lose some customers), but I’m proposing keeping as many of them as you can. In other words, serve all the pancakes the same and keep people happy.
Here’s my theory: Keeping more people happy (less envious or pissed off) will ultimately make more money. In the pancake example, sure, you’ll earn $250 for the first “eat with Bernie” event, but once people wise up to what is going on, they’ll stop coming. Instead, keep selling $1 pancakes, keep bringing people in, keep bringing repeat customers back, and make thousands of dollars doing so.
The takeaway for you
My takeaway is doing something that makes me happy — more on that in a moment. Your takeaway is this: sales funnels work, but how do they make you feel? You may be happy making money, but do you feel peace within your soul? Instead, provide something for everyone that comes to you. You can’t please them all, but you’ll get much better sleep at night.
The takeaway for me
At this point, I’m not looking for money. I’m looking to connect with people. I want to connect with you. Consider following me on Twitter @LifeisPresence and joining my mailing list. I promise not to sell you anything; I’ll send you my books for free. It’s all love! And, as always, thank you for reading.
