A Means to an End

It’s easy to get caught up in the success of a social media campaign. As more and more people follow your pages, and Like and Share your content, it can give you the satisfaction of a job well done. But you need to remember that social media is just a means to an end.

The people viewing your content represent the top of the sales funnel: brand awareness. Those likes and shares don’t mean anything unless they can prompt your audience to move through the subsequent levels, until they eventually make an actual purchase.

Lead Generation

If you want people to move from casual followers of your brand to actual customers of your company, you need to get them to do more than just view your content. They to interact with it, and with you.

Try offering them something more than just what they see on your page. Invite them to download an in-depth ebook or white paper on a topic that interests them. Encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter, so you can send them even more premium content. Offer them an exclusive coupon or discount code.

To claim these special offers, first they need to click a link and be taken to a landing page on your website. Then, they need to enter in their name, e-mail address, and other basic contact information. Now you have a direct line to the people with more than just a passing interest in your brand and what you do. And just like that, they’re no longer viewers. They’re leads.

Follow Up

Once you have your list of leads, the next step is to follow up with them. Don’t spam them or inundate them with ads they don’t want or sales pleas they won’t listen to. Take note of what they downloaded or requested from you. Now you have an idea of the specific area they’re interested in.

Start by offering them more content that’s related to that same specific area. You can also ask if they have any questions, or if there’s anything specific you can help them with. Develop a real relationship with them over time. Find out what it is they’re looking for, and do what you can to help them find it.

By taking an active interest in your target audience and what they want out of your brand, you can go a long way towards converting them to sales. Not only that, but by treating them well and making that extra effort, you can make sure you’re the first one they think of next time they need something too, and keep them as a customer for years to come.

Conversion aversion is an easy rut to fall into. But it’s not hard to get over. Just make sure your customers are cared for, from the top of the funnel to the bottom, and you’ll be increasing your sales in no time.

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The sales funnel is a tool that overviews the “buying process,” from first introduction to a product or service to an actual purchase.

The great thing about a sales funnel is that it’s trackable, which means it can shed light on where the buying process may be breaking down. It’s meant to track how many potential leads you get vs. how many of them become actual customers.

Each step of the funnel can be adjusted to try and move more people from the top of the funnel to the bottom where they actually make a purchase.

Beyond this, the sales funnel concept has some major flaws …

The Problem with Sales Funnels

The problem is, even though this is only a tool, a way of verbalizing a process of garnering business, it can easily have an effect on our thinking — and how we treat people.

For starters, the term “sales funnel” objectifies a living, breathing person into a thing that we must push  through our funnel. It takes the humanity out of a customer, and manifests a process to increase revenue, as opposed to a process to help others solve problems.

Again, I know this is only a way to verbalize a process, but the words we use have power.

And the perception that’s created with a sales funnel is almost like transforming a person into an object — like a pinball — that needs to be pushed to a particular place to produce a sale.

When you look at each person you meet as a potential “sale,” you feed the sales funnel, but the thing is NOBODY likes to be sold.

The Relationship Funnel

Instead, let’s get rid of the word altogether and create a “Relationship Funnel.” Now, instead of trying to drive a person down to a sale, instead we work on developing relationships — one person at a time.

These relationships will inevitably fall into a handful of categories:

1) People who become friends or colleagues

2) People who we learn from , or learn from us

3) People who become clients or customers

4) People you just don’t ever want to talk to ever again — for whatever reason

The people who become customers don’t become customers because we’ve “sold” them. They become customers because through relationship development we’ve learned what their problems are and they’ve learned that we can help solve them.

Take the classic networking event as an example.

With the sales funnel mentality, a person might have a goal to attain three “hot leads,” or good candidates for their sales funnel. We’re objectifying here. This is superficial, and also very egotistical — making it all about you and growing your business.

I like to call this the “hungry wolf syndrome.” Essentially, someone who walks into a room looking for a meal (sale).

With the relationship funnel, we enter that same room with a very different mindset. We’re taking every interaction as an opportunity to develop a relationship and see where it goes. And IF someone is a good fit to become a customer, our job is to see if we can help solve their problems and pain points — not push them through a funnel so we can get paid.

Now, instead of asking ourselves how many hot leads e’re going to get, we’re asking ourselves “what relationships will I develop today?”

Don’t get me wrong, many businesses are truly looking to add value to each customer and truly help. But when we use words that imply a different directive, it drives our actions in a different way.

In the words of Muhammad Ali, “what you are thinking about is what you are becoming.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a guy who sells stuff and pushes people into a funnel (that’s no fun). I prefer to look at each interaction as an opportunity to build a relationship. I’ve seen first hand how this philosophy can help build a successful business, while being perceived as an authentic professional.

And with the content marketing philosiphy solidly in place — both online and in the physical world — the more we align ourselves with relationship building, and shed the old sales funnel philosophy, the better off we’ll be.

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