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Mastering Sales Funnels: Unlock the Secrets to More Clients and Better Engagement
Mar 24, 2025
Today we take a look at the SmallBizFluence Find Your Freedom event, teaching you how to get more clients, more money and have time for the life you love. Get access to more than 3 hours of great small business content here. https://smallbizfluence-event.trainercentralsite.com/course/smallbizfluence-2023-find-your-freedom#/home
In today's show we watch just one piece of that content. Brian Hawkins, the marketing manager at Ghost Bed, a company that sells beds and uses sales funnels extensively, describes a sales funnel as a way to score big by providing value, rather than trying to go for the sale right away.
The focus should be on building a sequence of personalized experiences that add value to the customer before asking for a sale. Hawkins also emphasizes the importance of not being too aggressive, as this can turn customers off.
Instead, he suggests giving the customer something of value, such as a case study success, the solution to some kind of pain point, or something that shows third-party endorsement.
Hawkins also suggests that setting up a sales funnel is not as complex as people may think. Small businesses have an advantage in knowing their customers best. It is just a matter of putting in the extra work to nurture customers to the finish line.
#smallbiz #smallbusiness #sales #salesfunnel #salesfunnelexpert
0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Presentation by Brian Hawkins from GhostBed
1:18 - Defining Sales Funnels
2:07 - Balancing Sales Pressure
2:26 - Building Personalized Experiences
3:10 - Setting up a Sales Funnel
4:06 - Small Businesses and Sales Funnels
4:46 - Accessible Tools for Small Businesses
5:29 - Challenges in Implementing Sales Funnels
6:21 - Starting Simple and Overcoming Perfectionism
7:11 - Personalizing with Storytelling
8:13 - Engaging Customers through SMS
9:11 - Including Storytelling in Sales Funnels
10:16 - Encouraging Engagement
10:57 - Sales Funnels as CRM and Data Collection
11:42 - Using Survey Tools for Customer Insight
12:17 - Timing and Engagement in Sales Funnels
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
we are going to talk a little bit about
0:03
find your freedom
0:05
15 videos about 13 speakers in all
0:07
includes things like time management
0:09
they're you know 15 minutes apiece
0:12
but they contain a lot of information
0:15
on things we all want to do make more
0:18
money bring in more clients and spend
0:20
less time doing it you can get the
0:22
entire library to watch at your leisure
0:24
so you can watch it next week next month
0:26
next year you can take it out every year
0:28
and watch it for inspiration you can
0:31
register for it by the library there's a
0:33
lot of content there and uh we hope
0:36
you'll enjoy it foreign
0:37
[Music]
0:44
hessinger and this is small Biz in 15
0:46
the show where we bring you small
0:48
business news and tips to make your
0:50
small business better today Brent Leary
0:52
managing partner of CRM Essentials and
0:54
Monique Johnson founder of live video
0:56
lab and the move experience discuss the
1:00
find your freedom small business event
1:02
we're going to watch one of the videos a
1:04
video we were watching is part of that
1:06
find your freedom event and we're going
1:08
to launch a presentation by Brian
1:11
Hawkins he is the marketing manager at a
1:14
company called of all things ghostbed
1:17
which sells beds but they use sales
1:20
funnels extensively and uh we're gonna
1:23
watch it a little bit right now if you
1:26
were to Define it in a very very simple
1:28
way for somebody who says what exactly
1:31
is it what am I supposed to do how would
1:34
you describe a sales funnel
1:36
uh sales funnel is you know you're
1:40
trying to get a home run you know but
1:42
you bat singles you know you don't try
1:44
to go for the sale right away you only
1:47
have to you know what's the 300 average
1:49
to be able to get to so just focus on
1:51
batting singles and providing value and
1:54
the nice thing when you're building the
1:55
sales funnel is the emails will tell you
1:58
if they're opting out
2:00
red flag you didn't deliver value you
2:03
know so uh you're out you know when when
2:06
they opt out that means that you're too
2:08
aggressive and a lot of times people
2:10
think that oh I've got to put pressure
2:12
I've got to and that that relates to the
2:14
whole thing I don't want to be in the
2:15
sales funnel you know I don't want to be
2:17
pounded with information and so you know
2:20
part of that process there is to build a
2:23
sequence of personalized experiences
2:25
that add value and so there's kind of a
2:28
give to before you take one you know so
2:30
you're gonna pitch two balls before you
2:32
give a strike so give them you know give
2:35
them meatball give them something of
2:36
value to be able to connect with you
2:38
know give some kind of case study
2:40
success some kind of pain Point let them
2:43
you know read some of your articles some
2:44
of your Publications something that
2:46
shows a third-party endorsement and
2:49
provides value to them it's kind of a
2:51
shareable asset a shareable story you
2:53
know before you kind of Hit the hard
2:55
ball here of trying to be able to close
2:57
them and so
2:59
um yes you gotta ask for the sale you
3:01
know but in a funnel it's it's people
3:04
are trained so hard to be just pound the
3:07
list just pound pound pound pound Pound
3:08
and you know nobody wants that uh you
3:12
know and so the reality is all these
3:14
case studies that say you've gotta you
3:16
know really step up and put the pressure
3:19
uh you know there's a little bit of hold
3:21
back on that but how do you go about
3:23
setting up a sales funnel you know how
3:25
do you how do you make sure it's working
3:26
and bringing the prospects you want it
3:29
it seems like there's so many
3:31
complexities to it and and maybe people
3:34
get a little um intimidated maybe it's
3:37
not as hard as people think uh
3:40
at least if they follow the right steps
3:42
can you give us an idea because I know
3:43
you've been involved in sales funnels
3:45
from way back um tell us a little bit
3:48
about how I mean in generalities so I
3:50
came from the agency background and then
3:52
went in-house working in e-commerce
3:54
product uh b2c
3:58
um B2B and I think the agency model is
4:01
to sell the Hocus Pocus you know create
4:04
this funnel that is this imaginary uh
4:07
and it it's a belief in this big
4:08
retainer to be able to that you can't do
4:10
it yourself and as small businesses the
4:13
reality is you know your customer best
4:15
you know it better than the agency
4:16
better than this ux that's going to try
4:18
to tell you that they have all the bells
4:19
and whistles uh to create this magical
4:22
funnel because they know red is better
4:24
than blue and this word is better than
4:26
that you know and you know all this
4:28
stuff can be tested and the reality the
4:31
cost and the structure of it has come
4:33
down so much uh that small businesses
4:36
have the advantage it's just putting in
4:38
the work to be able to know your
4:39
customer and know the flow and know how
4:41
to connect with them you know through
4:42
that journey and I think that's where
4:45
the difference is coming is the tools
4:46
are available they're much more
4:48
affordable and the solution's there it's
4:51
just you know putting in the extra work
4:53
that you're out here competitors aren't
4:55
doing to have the advantage to be able
4:57
to nurture those customers to that
4:59
finish line I agree with a lot of what
5:01
he's saying
5:02
um and I'm just wondering yeah are you
5:05
it feels like to me a lot of small
5:07
businesses
5:09
they they know there's technology out
5:13
there is is it a question of them
5:16
just not knowing exactly what to get or
5:20
how to use it once they get it or is it
5:24
just they are still looking for the
5:25
Magic Bullet you know I bought it isn't
5:28
that the hard work
5:29
I think there's there's a lot of stuff
5:31
that goes into why all these things are
5:34
still I mean this isn't new
5:37
part but this stuff isn't new anymore
5:39
right so the things that you mentioned
5:42
Brent number one is
5:44
um they think the hardest the hardest
5:46
part like you said is buying the
5:47
software or signing up for whatever
5:49
software right they think oh okay this
5:51
is gonna magically happen and then
5:54
number two I think a lot of times
5:56
because of the market sales funnel
5:59
funnels are trendy right and there's a
6:02
lot of companies that's what they they
6:04
lead with and unfortunately they think
6:06
that it needs to be complicated right
6:09
because quite frankly a sales funnel can
6:11
just only be two things two steps right
6:13
it doesn't even have to have the upsells
6:16
and down cells and I think
6:19
what people kind of get caught up in is
6:22
perfectionism instead of progress right
6:24
start with something simple and then
6:28
you can start adding more steps or more
6:31
things that you want to do but a lot of
6:33
times I feel like
6:35
um business owners in general
6:36
unfortunately we get caught up in the
6:38
complication of things making things
6:40
perfect tracking all these things want
6:43
these different data and a lot of times
6:45
it needs to be started where instead of
6:48
thinking oh oh whoa is me with this
6:51
blank sheet of paper think of your end
6:53
goal and then work backwards people are
6:56
looking for help not to be relentlessly
6:58
sold to and I think that that's that's
7:01
probably a key to this so you know one
7:04
of the examples of personalization here
7:06
uh so I work for ghost that it's a it's
7:08
a fifth generation family business
7:09
Family Values it's got an amazing story
7:12
it started with the Werner family that
7:14
had Warner ladder um and so people trust
7:17
Werner ladder you're you're you know
7:19
your 40 feet up on your roof you better
7:21
trust that ladder and so the story and
7:23
the history of the family business
7:24
really personalize and when we send
7:28
emails and especially SMS people don't
7:31
like marketing text messages you know
7:34
um but when it's personalized and it's
7:35
from you know the owner's daughter the
7:37
fifth generation in the company you know
7:39
one of the things that you you see your
7:41
success is based on do they opt out or
7:44
do they engage if they engage your
7:46
sender score goes up so almost you're
7:48
getting a promotion so one of the
7:50
examples that we did for Black Friday
7:52
typically the response rate is really
7:54
low especially in tax
7:56
people don't like it it's they feel it's
7:58
intrusive you know unless you're
7:59
providing value in a short text message
8:02
so one of the things um it actually did
8:04
on this Black Friday promotion for us
8:06
was uh she said
8:08
hey you know you didn't buy a ghost bed
8:10
uh let me know you know uh what I can do
8:13
maybe I can come up with a special deal
8:15
you know it was a very hey you know why
8:17
why didn't you buy what you know it and
8:20
it was very blunt you know very sincere
8:23
but people you know they felt like oh
8:26
that email you know that text is coming
8:28
from you know Ashley in the company
8:30
who's you know her dad started it and
8:33
you know yes it's automated to send out
8:36
the message but she got hundreds of
8:38
replies right on the peak of Black
8:40
Friday when people are buying now it was
8:42
phrased in a way yeah I want a deal let
8:45
me talk to her about it but it made that
8:48
personal connection and so now you went
8:50
from an automated series to a
8:52
personalized Series so small business is
8:55
all about personal you're you're close
8:57
to the people that you connect with so
8:59
take the automated solution and create a
9:02
personalized experience to be able to
9:04
engage with you so create those
9:06
open-ended questions that will engage
9:08
and actually you're rewarded for that
9:10
the the tools that you use to send the
9:13
higher your engagement rate the better
9:15
your delivery the better all the stats
9:17
are telling you you know you're hitting
9:19
over 300 batting average
9:21
um you know by personalized in that
9:24
experience it's something that we always
9:25
do but it takes it from it's some big
9:29
marketing company on some Big Marketing
9:31
list to
9:32
hey I'm the owner
9:34
you know what can I do for you uh
9:37
connection so the two major things that
9:39
I'm getting from what he's saying that I
9:40
love is that
9:42
um the example with the the SMS saying
9:45
you know the fifth generation daughter
9:46
of a store like that's storytelling yeah
9:50
how can you go about including in
9:52
storytelling what storytelling does is
9:55
it it it it it incorporates emotion
9:58
people buy off of emotion not the
10:00
features and all the things that you're
10:02
throwing at them how can you include
10:04
storytelling
10:05
tap into that emotional
10:07
um ecosystem
10:09
the person's more likely to buy without
10:11
you having to necessarily sell and then
10:13
the other part was just um the
10:16
engagement factor I love how and both
10:18
Brett and I were shaking our heads
10:20
vigorously when he was like you know
10:23
start asking open-ended questions that's
10:25
developing a relationship that allows
10:27
you know people are saying oh you know
10:29
people aren't engaging with my content
10:31
and things think about the types of
10:34
questions or even if you're including
10:36
questions and the types of questions
10:37
that you are creating so that you can
10:39
start including um engagement it's sort
10:42
of a way of collecting information about
10:44
your about your customers too isn't it
10:46
if you talk a little bit about how sales
10:48
funnels can also be a way of gaining
10:50
information insight about your about
10:52
your customers maybe yeah definitely the
10:54
sales funnel is creating a CRM you know
10:56
it's creating a database of knowledge
10:58
and so every time that they trigger a
11:00
certain land you know landing page on
11:02
your website a certain experience that's
11:04
a check box you know you're starting to
11:06
learn oh they're in this industry oh
11:08
they're in this pain they're in this
11:09
region you know all those things can be
11:12
collected as data points that you're
11:13
starting to understand that customer and
11:15
while that question was pretty blunt you
11:17
know like hey you know what did I do
11:19
wrong here you know I've you know you're
11:22
in my funnel I've given you everything
11:23
here but today's the day to buy it's
11:26
Black Friday
11:27
you know you know it some people might
11:30
come off a little harsh but it comes off
11:31
sincere and that that gets you a little
11:33
bit of knowledge and one of the things
11:35
that we did is you know obviously in the
11:37
mattress industry there's always a sale
11:38
you know and you have to kind of you
11:40
know you're creating that
11:42
um but we actually switched providers
11:43
for our pop-up software because we
11:46
switched to a software that actually
11:48
gives us more survey and tools and so we
11:50
can now live get a pulse of what people
11:53
are doing on our website based on the
11:55
surveys and a lot of times that told us
11:57
a different story that told us when
11:59
they're in Market you know we you know
12:01
we think that like well you're here on
12:03
the site you're ready to buy now well
12:05
that might not be the case there might
12:06
be six months you might be nine months
12:08
especially for small business you know
12:10
they might be on that top of the funnel
12:11
middle down and as we start to identify
12:14
with the survey that's going into our
12:17
funnel to say okay we'll pull the brakes
12:19
you know if you're you know if you're
12:21
not in the market right now
12:24
um you know you can kind of understand
12:25
okay how to engage because again you
12:28
don't want them to hit the stand button
12:30
you don't want them to opt out you know
12:31
you want them to have a reason to come
12:32
back to you I like that business about
12:34
finding out about about learning about
12:37
the customer a lot of times people talk
12:39
about you know sales funnels and email
12:41
and all this kind of thing like it's
12:43
like it's not very personal you know
12:46
um and maybe if you have automated stuff
12:49
and you hire somebody else to do it
12:51
maybe it's not very personal but it
12:53
seems to me that you can find out a lot
12:54
about people too
12:56
um
12:58
when the pandemic hit and everybody
13:02
couldn't go to the stores and Shop like
13:04
they normally did remember you used to
13:05
go to a store you could use this stuff
13:07
it's called Cash and yeah way back when
13:11
back in the day
13:12
walking to the store nobody knows who
13:15
you are you pick up a couple of items
13:18
buy it with cash and leave and nobody
13:20
knew who you are when you were there
13:22
what you bought how much of a you bought
13:24
how much you spent but when things got
13:27
digital when everything went virtual and
13:29
we couldn't go in the stores all that
13:32
data that you couldn't get to because it
13:35
was just analog it became digital and
13:38
once anything becomes digital it becomes
13:41
trackable and so everybody
13:45
companies small and big
13:47
they love this because whether they cut
13:50
data is the the new oil or something
13:52
like that because you can take data and
13:55
make money from it so that's why
13:57
everybody is trying to collect as much
13:59
uh data as they can off of every
14:02
interaction off of every click well
14:05
that's it for another episode of small
14:07
business 15. thanks again to Brent Leary
14:09
and Monique Johnson please like And
14:11
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14:14
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14:15
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