This week we’ll be dealing with one of the most important topics for an online business - nay, any business.

This is such a core concept that I’m genuinely surprised I haven’t covered it before.

I was casting around for an idea for the week (as I do every week!!), chatting to my business partner. He went back through all the past Playbooks (40+ now…wow) and found a massive gap.

Sales funnels!

Knowing your sales funnel is hyper important for any business. And … I just haven’t discussed it in a Playbook! I feel remiss!

This week we remedy my mistake.

Over the week we’ll cover

• Part 1: Why you need a sales funnel

• Part 2: The common thread

• Part 3: Lead Magnet to Tripwire

• Part 4: Core offer and Upsales

• Part 5: Premium offer

Why you need a sales funnel

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is a marketing model that describes the journey potential customers take from first becoming aware of a product or service to making a purchase and beyond.

It’s the spine of any business.

The funnel is divided into stages that guide prospects through a structured process.

Here’s the sales funnel I personally use

1. Audience: The broadest stage where potential customers are attracted through various marketing efforts such as social media, content marketing, and advertising. The goal is to create awareness and build a large, engaged audience. (My audience channels are Tiktok, LinkedIn and Twitter)

2. Lead Magnet: At this stage, valuable free resources (e.g., e-books, webinars, free trials) are offered to the audience in exchange for their contact information. This converts the audience into leads by capturing their interest and details. (I use past Playbooks here)

3. Tripwire: A low-cost immediate offer is made to the leads to encourage them to make a small initial purchase. The tripwire offer is designed to be an irresistible deal that requires minimal financial commitment, helping to convert leads into paying customers quickly. (Mine is $20)

4. Core Offer: Leads who have made a tripwire purchase are then presented with an initial, often lower-cost product or service designed to convert them into regular paying customers. This stage aims to validate their interest and establish a purchasing relationship. (Mine is $69/year)

5. Upsell: After the core offer purchase, customers are presented with additional offers that complement the core product or service. These upsell offers are designed to increase the overall value of the purchase by encouraging customers to buy more or upgrade their purchase. (Mine is $197)

6. Premium Offer: Existing customers are offered higher-value products or services, such as premium memberships, advanced training, or personalised services. The goal is to upsell and deepen the customer relationship, increasing their lifetime value.

That’s mine. Once you know the basics you’ll start seeing them everywhere and will be able to learn best practices. To expedite use this prompt:

Uncover and present [creator/company]'s sales funnel
With special reference to audience, lead magnets, tripwire offer, core sale, upsale(s) and premium offer
Get pricing

If I do this with Dickie Bush for example I get a report on his funnel. Here’s an extract

This is gold dust intel. Run the process on some competitors and see what you can dig up. The more you do the better able you’ll be see the hidden mechanisms people use.

Bit complex isn’t it?

You might look at all of this and think “why do I need all these step? Why can’t I just sell my product?”

The short answer is trust. Or, lack of it!

Trust on the internet is low. That’s for good reasons. There are lots of fakers out there.

Because of this when we do business online we need to build trust bit by bit. Our funnel is the marketing mechanism we use to do so.

At each stage of the funnel we are asking for a little bit more trust

• we start asking for a like or follow

• next we ask for an email

• then a small low cost item at $10 or so

• followed by higher priced core items and premium offers

Each step asks for a little more trust.

And once they give it to us we make sure they know they made the right decision.

At each stage we will sell to less people. But the price increases as we move people down the funnel, building trust and escalating sales.

The alternative is running advertising straight to our product. This sometimes works - in eCom for instance. But if your business is - for example - executive coaching then running an advert to show a complete stranger your $5000 coaching package is not going to work.

Over this week I’ll show you how to work out your sales funnel. This requires working out the common thread between your offers and then sequencing offers to carry prospects along the funnel. That’ll be in Part 2.

Then I’ll talk specifically about how to create, host and connect the core elements of a funnel:

• lead magnet

• tripwire offer

• core offer

• upsale

• premium offer

I’ll talk about how we move people along from step to step to dramatically increase your average customer lifetime value.

This works whether you sell products, services or a mix.

We’ll dive in in much more detail in the next Part.

Keep prompting,

Kyle