Inception Network

It seems that at this time each year in business, the "new year/fresh start" first-quarter marketing plans aren't working out as you hoped. You are doing the work and the marketing, but when your accountant (or you) do your BAS you realise customers are not converting into profit, yet. So what is the next step?

When I ask where you think your sales funnel is failing, the answer is... (crickets)... (more crickets)... followed by "I don't know", or even worse "What does a sales funnel actually do?"

Let's take a step back and answer the 2nd question first. A sales funnel is the trendy name for the customer journey, based on the 5 steps in buyer behaviour which was discovered in 1910. The problem is, that you run a new funnel for each social media platform, email list, networking etc,... the list goes on and on. This means that so few people are actually caught in your funnel that in reality it looks more like a flour sieve.

So why is it called a "funnel"? Well, because it funnels traffic to your website. But just like making alcoholic spirits, the wash that comes onto your website still needs to have the alcohol distilled and then filtered to remove impurities so they don't infect your other customers. At this stage, the alcohol is too strong, so you water it down with mixers and other options for repeat business, rather than just a straight shot.

For those not into homebrew, just know that distilling is the sales conversion process. Which is after your sales funnel, but if your funnel is not working there's no point talking about conversation rates, yet, until you know how well your funnel works.

How do you know if your funnel is working? Use Pirate metrics (or ask your SEO/marketing company for them).

Why are they called pirate metrics? "Cause they AAARR" (see the image below).

There are also other graphics that show all the other stuff I've been talking about, that we teach kids at school about these days as they know how to use AI that knows all this stuff even if the AI doesn't explain that.

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We found out what the O stands for in O'clock. OMG it's early!!!