#67 - Funnel With Me : Create your own client getting funnel (for service providers)

Is probably the trickiest funnel that you'll build out because there's a few moving pieces. It's not just a day one, this email, day two this email kind of thing, but it's so well worth doing it because anything that is going to save you time, increase your conversions, create a better experience for your clients and like I said, be your digital calling card is well worth putting in that little bit of extra time into.

This is the Doing It Online podcast with your host, serial entrepreneur, 6 and 7 figure funnel strategist and super nerd Kate McKibben. Where every week we're here talking nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online. But better, easier and with a ton more profit too. Are you ready? Let's do it.

Hello. Hello guys and welcome to episode number 67 of the Doing It Online podcast. I am your host Kate from hellofunnels Co and today we're doing another funnel with me episode. You guys already know that I love to give practical advice. I love to give doable advice. I don't see the point in telling you guys how to do something unless I actually tell you how to do something. So today I wanted to take you through one of my bespoke version of one of my favorite funnels. And this is basically a funnel designed for the service providers out there. So if you are a, maybe you're a funnel builder already, which is kind of who this is specifically for, but it'll work the same for if you're a marketing provider. Maybe you do Facebook ads for people, maybe you have your web designer, basically anyone who sells, you know, higher level packages in the service sort of space and is looking for a way of really just improving that flow, improving your conversion, saving yourself a whole buttload of time in the process and just making a really, really great experience. So that is what this funnel is all about. It's a client acquisition funnel for service providers. We don't have a sexy name for it. That's just what it is. And particularly for those of you who do offer funnels or automation or any kind of online nerdery, the experience of your funnel, it really is your calling card. Like you will be being judged on this. Just like if you're a web designer, you got to have an amazing website, right? If you're a kind of person who helps people to build out anything to do with marketing, then all of your marketing has to be amazing. So the best type of funnel, and as you guys know, I recommend different types of funnels for different types of offers, but for a more premium kind of offer. So we're talking here like you're not talking $10 an hour kind of services here. This is for someone's going to come in and you're going to create them a package that's maybe 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, $10,000. You need to have the appropriate type of funnel, the appropriate type of sales technique and sales method. And the best type for this kind of offer is an application funnel. Reason for this? There's a few things. First of all is that have an application funnel. It works in two ways. One, because you guys will still most likely because the way it works with services is there is definitely some bespoke elements to it. It's not usually something you can just say, hey, click here, buy this now. So you usually are going to have to jump on the phone, have some kind of sales call. So you want to make sure that if you are or someone on your team is spending that time that they're only doing it with people who are likely to buy. So you want to have less calls and you want to make sure the people on those calls are warmer and sort of, you know, more bought in, more likely to buy as well. The application funnel does that, does both. It both helps to, to warm people up, to increase their excitement, their engagement in the offer. And it also acts as a bit of a security guard for you, your team and your time to stop, you know, anyone coming through who's just not going to be a good fit, who isn't going to be the, you know, your ideal client, who isn't someone that you're going to work with. So you both have these people who are a bit more bought in. They're also again, more likely to show up. Because how annoying is it if someone books some time out in your calendar and they don't even show the application Final kind of solves a lot of those problems. It means you're. You hopefully will have less time spent on the phone. Those calls will probably also be shorter because those people, again, they're more bought in. They're already more excited, they're already warmer. I'm gonna take you through how to do that. Now. There are, well, there's five key steps, but we're gonna go through the main three today. Cause otherwise this episode will be like two hours long. But before we do that, I actually want to share something really, really exciting with you. Because today we are officially opening up our own applications to our brand new Funnel Pro certification program. Slightly different kind of process but you know, it is all a bit matrixy. I know. So now this is a Hands On 12 week certification program for aspiring funnel pros who are ready to up level their skills and confidence and step up into that next level of business as a fully booked, highly valued funnel pro. So inside we will show you everything you need to really step up in your business and become that total pro. At Funnels. We're going to teach you the strategies of the best converting funnels out there. We're going to show you who they work for, how they work and who they don't work for as well, which is really important. We have step by step lessons on all of the tech +1 click install templates to save you so much time when you're building this stuff out. And we'll teach you how to audit, optimize, troubleshoot and increase conversions with confidence as well. There is just so much goodness in this program. I can't wait to dive in live with you guys in just a few weeks and get started. So if you want more info, you want to apply now for one of the just 25 spots, head over to be a funnel pro. Com now, get all the details and dive on in. Okay, you've done that. Hit pause if you need to. You do not want to miss out. As I said, there's only 25 spots, so you've done that. Good. Let's dive on in to the funnel that's gonna help you create your own application for your business. Remember I said it was a bit matrixy. Okay, so as with any funnel, we need to know what the goal of this funnel is. And the goal for this one is to get you highly qualified people to apply for a call with you and then of course to book as well. So the question is, why apply? Why not just send people straight to a book into my calendar kind of page. And as I said before, you want to make sure that you know the people, you're not wasting your time or theirs, that you know you're optimizing your time as much as possible. So we want to make sure that they are a bit more bought in and that you also have that chance to go, yes, that is the right fit for me. No, that person is not the right fit for me. Now there are actually, like I said, five parts to this funnel. It is a little bit, it's probably the trickiest funnel that you'll build out because there's a few moving pieces. It's not just a day one, this email, day two, this Email kind of thing. But it's so well worth doing it because anything that is going to save you time, increase your conversions, create a better experience for your clients and like I said, be your digital calling card is well worth putting in that little bit of extra time. Into the three points that we're going to go through today. First up, your opt in bribes and your entry points or your, your lead generation if you don't say opt in bribe. The second one is your warm up funnel sequence and the third one is the setup of your actual application. Like I said, you can get more complex here. There are an extra two steps that we also recommend, but let's try and keep this episode under an hour. All right, so first up, your opt ins and your entry points. So the entry point is it's basically how people get into this funnel, right? Like how they, what is the first step they need to take to show interest to then have the other steps or other sequences sort of fall into place. So there is a few different ones. As a service provider, the first main one though is your contact me page or your work with me or even if you already have set up something where you might, people might be able to submit a form or give you their details in return for you sending out your info pack or your service details or whatever, you know, whatever you sort of call that your client package. So that's entry point number one. So like a direct inquiry of whichever way that is kind of set up for you. The second one, and I recommend you have both and they both come in and then the steps afterwards, you know, are quite similar. But the second one is actually some kind of value based opt in bribe. Whether this is a checklist to see if someone or their offer is funnel ready or maybe a calculator to see how much revenue or salespeople might expect to be able to make from a funnel. Or even maybe you have some, you know, your favorite funnel as a funnel map and people can download it just to kind of get a bit of a feel for how that works and then realize it's all far too complicated. They don't want to build it and that's why they need you. Those are some examples of opt in bribes. These you would have on your homepage, you know, shared everywhere, link in your bio on any of your social media. And it's just a good way that you can sort of start that relationship by giving value first. If people are sort of still a little bit like, you know, I think I want to funnel, I'm kind of Looking around to see who's going to be best for me, it gives them a little taste test first. So those are your two entry points. They both trigger off this second point, sorry, which is the warm up funnel sequence. The warmup funnel sequence is my recommendation and you can again feel free to make this your own. Like I will give you the spine, the skeleton and then how you flesh it out is really up to you. So we recommend 14 days of emails, particularly when you are offering a higher level service. Right. So you've got to make the assumption that people, when, particularly if people are requesting your info pack or requested some other way of working with you, you've got to assume that they're pretty keen, they're in the space and if you get your opt in bribe right then you're going to be able to assume that pretty safely as well. These people, they're currently, they know they need a funnel or whatever other marketing or service you have. They in the process are probably weighing up whether they do it themselves or figure out how to do themselves or they get someone else or they might be looking at a few people to help them. And this is, you know, your kind of your time to shine. So we do not want to be being shy here. These people are, they're warm, they're ready, they're actively looking. So we're going to make sure that we blow them away and that we stay top of mind. And by doing that we're going to be emailing them every day for 14 days. Now if you feel, again this is one of my rules of marketing. If you feel icky about that at all, if you're like that would annoy the shit out of me, then feel free to pull it back. But just make sure that it's not a limiting belief that's saying that like if it's, you're like that's too much. So if, if you think that that is too much, remember these emails are value emails here. We're not just sending them crap. So if you think no, that would, that I would find that annoying, I wouldn't like that. Then my next tier recommendation would be send them a really great value packed email every day for five days just to make sure that it's frequent enough that they sort of start to recognize your name when it pops up in things that you again are staying top of mind while they're in this period of making this decision. And then you can drop it back for the rest of the 14 days to every two days. But you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot by going too infrequent too quickly because you will get forgotten in a crowded inbox. Like I have it happen all the time. I have emails come through, I'm like, who is this person? I don't remember signing up for this and I'm sure that I have. But the problem is I sign up for a lot of stuff and if they're not popping in regularly enough and being memorable when they do, then I instantly go, who is this? Unsubscribe, go away. So that's why, you know, we do show up and a bit more frequently upfront. That's usually my recommendations, usually what I find works best. It helps with your open rates as well because people then they start to recognize you and as long as those emails are valuable, they're not going to resent you for them. Sure, some people are always going to unsubscribe, that's fine. Some people are like totally meticulous with their inbox and any email in it is offensive and there's nothing you can do about that. The people who are open to being communicated with in that way, as long as you're sending them value, it will, it'll all be fine. So don't stress. That's part two, your warm up sequence. Now as far as what goes into each of these emails, we have a separate podcast on that. It's actually episode number one. So scroll all the way back to episode number one. Excuse the crappy sounding background noise and stuff. I didn't have a proper microphone then, but it is gold in that episode. So go back, get that one and that will help you map out what goes into those emails. The third step in this funnel is the application itself. Now this application, like I said, it's, it does more than what you would think. It actually has multiple jobs to do. So first of all is you want to actually set, make sure that you can use this application to pre qualify people. So you want to have a couple of questions in there, preferably multiple choice answers or a yes, no answer, like not something people have to type, something that people can select a button to be able to pre qualify them and to pre qualify them in an automated way. Because if someone comes through and they are your dream client, you want to be able to recognize it if you can and not make them wait to be able to take that next step. So for those people, like I said, you want to come up with maybe one to two questions that is going to let you know, like, yep, this person is, you know, this is a dream client. I want them to be able to go straight to the fast lane. That will depending on what those questions are, if they answer them correctly, you'll set up your automation and you can use something like Typeform. You want to use one of the smarter form systems to be able to do this, but there are other ones out there otherwise even you could even use like a Google form or something. They're not as pretty. Airtable has got some forms which again allow you to have some kind of, you know, smart stuff going on or some, you know, some logic happening and you know, you can use like a zap or something like this to be able to then tell this form was submitted, they answered this correctly and this correctly. Therefore we can immediately send them the next step. Or if you use something like Typeform, if they've got those questions correct, you could send them to a different thank you page. Even that was like hey, from what we can see here, sounds like you'd be an amazing fit. You know, do you want to book in a call right now? Like get them while they're warm, don't make them jump through too many hoops. So that's the first bit pre qualifying them. And then for those people who don't necessarily answer those exactly how you want, you still want to have the opportunity to just check over the rest of their answers because not every, you know, every single client is going to be different and sometimes a dream client will be someone who maybe doesn't answer those questions exactly how you would like but and you'll be able to tell that from the rest of the questions they've answered. So for those people who don't go direct to the fast lane, you then want to have a zap or something else that triggers this is what we do is it triggers inside our system a little task to be created in our task management system which has all the details of their application a link through to be able to go and you know, tick process their application like yes approved or not approved just to make it nice and easy to make sure they don't get forgot. So that task is automatically created for someone on my team and then they see that in their tasks their to do list each day. So that's how you're sort of. That's part one of the application is the, is that pre qualifying them. The second part of the application is actually almost to act like a pre sales call like ask people those questions that typically do get asked on, on a sales call one it'll give you some Great information. But two, it still mentally helps them go through the process. Ask them like what is their biggest pain point that's relevant to, you know, to your industry or the solution you're giving. Maybe even ask them what things they've tried previously, what hasn't worked, why they think that hasn't worked, what is going to change for them if they do implement this thing that you're going to help them with. It's like helping them to kind of almost go through that mental process of this is my problem, this is why it sucks, this is why I want, this is why that would be great. And that person who's done that in their own head, they're buying themselves in. Okay, this application, it's kind of a little bit magic in the way that it works because if the people get all the way through this and you don't want to make it so super long either, like keep the questions, the number of questions short. And this is something that we actually help you out with inside our final pro program is help you to really master this application so that you get, it's not too long and scares people away. But it's, you know, it also does the job that it needs to do. Those are your first three steps, guys. You need to have some killer, you know, opt in bribes or entry points all set up. Make sure that they, they're all connected. It's going to come into your warm up funnel. And one thing I did, sorry I did forget to mention with the warm up funnel guys is obviously in those emails your call to action. So everything needs to have a call to action is for them to, to apply, to book a call. Sorry, I did forget that earlier. So make sure that you know, for Those emails, those 14 days of emails, you're giving them great value. You're letting them get to know you, get a real feel for who you are, what it's like to work with you and then you have that call to action like hey, you want more help with this? I've got a certain number of spots every month. Click here to apply for a call. We can chat about how I can help you do this in your business. And then the third step is that application and making sure you get that application right. So that, and that is like the, each of those three pieces they can take a little bit of playing with. But if you get them right, you're going to attract amazing people in. You're going to get them warmed up, get them excited, get them applying in a reliable and consistent way like this one of the best ways to keep your books full and then have that application which, like I said, it filters out the tire kickers, it filters out the people who are not a good fit. It helps to start warming people up to they start themselves buying in to this outcome and to working with you and they start becoming more and more excited about working with you. And then it means that when the people that you are jumping on the phone with, they're more excited, they're more, you know, more about them and it just makes the whole process so much easier and so much less painful. So those are three steps through application. And you know, this is of course it's a high level overview, right? Like there's a lot of stuff we can dig into and if you really would love to dive into this even to grab one of our, you know, one click install templates to get this all set up, page templates, even email copy prompts and swipe files and we actually have like done for you opt in bribes ready to just be rebranded and uploaded ready to go. Then you're going to want to make sure you hurry up and apply now for our final pro certification program because it's actually all baked in. Because it's actually baked into the program that you will go through and set this up as part of the certification. So you're going to learn how to create each piece, how to make sure it converts as high as possible and then you'll set it up for yourself. So when you come out at the end of our 12 weeks together, not only will you have up leveled your skills and your confidence and your offers, but you'll also have a killer funnel of your own ready to go and start landing new clients. It's going to be so much nerdy fun. But remember, it is by application only and we only have 25 spots. So head to beafunnelpro.com right now and apply before they are all snapped up. I cannot wait to see you all inside.

Thanks so much for listening to the Doing It Online podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today@Stealmyfunnel.com.