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Critique Of My Sales Funnel

Marketing, social media, advertising

Lee Wright

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I keep hearing over & over how a business needs to have a sales funnel. I've tried in the past without luck but maybe my execution was poor. Here's how I understand a sales funnel:
  1. 97% of customers are not ready to buy right now (sounds about right. I get 2.5% conversion from my website.)
  2. So you offer visitors something of value (e.g. free guide) that they give you their email address for.
  3. You drip feed them useful content via email.
  4. This keeps you top of mind when they eventually are ready to buy.
  5. My hope is that this could double my overall conversion rate to 5%.
So I've created a PDF report. I think it's pretty useful.
https://sydneypahire.com.au/guide-to-outdoor-wedding-sound.pdf

I've linked it up to the sendinblue.com mail service so it sends a link to the guide & adds them to the auto responder list. I don't have further steps yet. I just want to see if people will subscribe to the first step.

I've created a opt-in form here:
Portable Battery Powered PA Hire Sydney

I've also created a landing page for traffic from other sources like Facebook or Google Ads:
outdoor-wedding-sound-guide - Sydney PA Hire

Here's my Facebook Ad targeting newly engaged (3 months) within 15km. 4 clicks but no subscribers yet.

1602722803255.png

1602722723413.png

Appreciate people's ideas.
 
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NewManRising

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I keep hearing over & over how a business needs to have a sales funnel. I've tried in the past without luck but maybe my execution was poor. Here's how I understand a sales funnel:
  1. 97% of customers are not ready to buy right now (sounds about right. I get 2.5% conversion from my website.)
  2. So you offer visitors something of value (e.g. free guide) that they give you their email address for.
  3. You drip feed them useful content via email.
  4. This keeps you top of mind when they eventually are ready to buy.
  5. My hope is that this could double my overall conversion rate to 5%.
So I've created a PDF report. I think it's pretty useful.
https://sydneypahire.com.au/guide-to-outdoor-wedding-sound.pdf

I've linked it up to the sendinblue.com mail service so it sends a link to the guide & adds them to the auto responder list. I don't have further steps yet. I just want to see if people will subscribe to the first step.

I've created a opt-in form here:
Portable Battery Powered PA Hire Sydney

I've also created a landing page for traffic from other sources like Facebook or Google Ads:
outdoor-wedding-sound-guide - Sydney PA Hire

Here's my Facebook Ad targeting newly engaged (3 months) within 15km. 4 clicks but no subscribers yet.

View attachment 35275

View attachment 35274

Appreciate people's ideas.
I've done a bit of email marketing. I've created landing pages, sign up forms, and wrote the content for the emails. I've also managed a few accounts so I was able to look at stats.

Your understanding of the funnel is correct. However, when I used to send out emails, whether broadcasts or part of an autoresponder, I definitely tried to persuade to get sales throughout the email series (not necessarily at the end).

When results were poor I would look through the content and think about what's missing.

Am I offering anything of value? Am I acting desperate? Perhaps, the email list/leads aren't very good and I need to refine the list? And there are techniques for this too.

Aside from this, you would need to test your ads and landing page and make some tweaks if they are not performing as you'd like.

That's all I really got. The thing with marketing is you have to change things up and see what works.
 

Lee Wright

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I've done a bit of email marketing. I've created landing pages, sign up forms, and wrote the content for the emails. I've also managed a few accounts so I was able to look at stats.

Your understanding of the funnel is correct. However, when I used to send out emails, whether broadcasts or part of an autoresponder, I definitely tried to persuade to get sales throughout the email series (not necessarily at the end).

When results were poor I would look through the content and think about what's missing.

Am I offering anything of value? Am I acting desperate? Perhaps, the email list/leads aren't very good and I need to refine the list? And there are techniques for this too.

Aside from this, you would need to test your ads and landing page and make some tweaks if they are not performing as you'd like.

That's all I really got. The thing with marketing is you have to change things up and see what works.
Thanks @NewManRising. Yes whether I'm offering something of perceived value is my biggest question. A free PDF report seems so 2005 to me but I just don't know what else I could offer that gives instant gratification, demonstrates my expertise & actually helps people.
 

Stargazer

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I just can't imagine brides - who, let's face it, sort out the wedding - being interested in reading a guide about audio equipment.

Surely the target is DJ's, venues, etc?

Example. The Bride will want catering. She isn't going to be researching the best outdoor barbecue to use, she is just going to research catering companies. They are the ones who would review the Barbecues .


Anyway, aside from that thought and nothing to do with funnels, what I would do is get in touch with all the great venues outdoors, or indoors with outdoor facilities, catering companies, DJs, marquee hires, outdoor photographers etc etc and create the www.theoutdoorweddingcompany.com.au which is free for you to nab. (plus the .com for future licensing abroad) Or similar type of name as a bride will look for a theme eg outdoor weddings and then you pop up positioning everyone as the experts

That sort of thing.

Dan
 
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Black_Dragon43

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I keep hearing over & over how a business needs to have a sales funnel. I've tried in the past without luck but maybe my execution was poor. Here's how I understand a sales funnel:
  1. 97% of customers are not ready to buy right now (sounds about right. I get 2.5% conversion from my website.)
  2. So you offer visitors something of value (e.g. free guide) that they give you their email address for.
  3. You drip feed them useful content via email.
  4. This keeps you top of mind when they eventually are ready to buy.
  5. My hope is that this could double my overall conversion rate to 5%.
Okay, I build funnels for a living, and have helped people scale to 1M and beyond using them. I also teach other people how to build funnels through my course. So that's my background.

The first issue here is that you have a bit of a mistaken understanding on some points, which is causing you to take the wrong actions.

The reason why you go lead magnet first is because it typically takes more than just one touch to sell someone something. You could pay for ads to reach that person 8 times, but that is 8x as expensive as paying for ads once and getting their email to be able to reach out for free for the next 7 touches.

That is point number one. You use a lead magnet in order to NOT have to pay ads to get your message to reach to your target audience. You reach out for FREE via emails. Otherwise, believe me, there is ZERO difference between ADS and EMAIL. Both are just two VEHICLES that carry your message to some people. One is a paid vehicle, the other one is free. You want to use free. Please write this down so that you remember it.

Now, second point. If you're just starting out, your goal is not to "drip feed them useful content", but to get sales. This is called "direct response" in marketing. So the second rule you MUST follow is that each email MUST have a sales message. Yes, you can put in useful stuff in there too, but each email MUST have a sales message as well, and MULTIPLE CTAs - generally I aim for 3-4 links per email.

The idea of staying top of mind till they're ready to buy is mistaken in your case. If they grab this lead magnet about a wedding, they're either planning one, or about to have their wedding. In either case, there is a small timing window that they would be interested in. Say at most 1 year and a bit. After that, you must throw them out of your list, because they will be useless sitting there and you'll be paying for them (that is unless you plan to sell other stuff to them).

Now, the third point, but perhaps the most important.

Nobody cares about an audio guide. Nobody thinks about audio systems when they have or plan a wedding. Most people think the audio is just going to be there, and the DJ will take care of it.

Your chance of getting a mass market to take this guide is almost 0, even if you give it free.

You must identify an actual pain-point that your target market actually cares about. Then you must relate your audio equipment as the solution to that pain-point.

A much better lead magnet: "7 Steps to Make Your Wedding The Best Day of Your Life" OR "How To Be 100% Sure That EVERYONE Remembers Your Wedding" OR "5 Easy Steps To Having The Most Memorable Wedding"

Now this is something people care about. They dig this shit. They're going to want it (especially women who tend to also be the biggest consumers/spenders). And they're going to get it.

Among the other useful stuff that you teach them in there, you open their eyes about having a quality sound system in place.

"One of the biggest mistakes people make at their wedding is failing to create a memorable experience with their music & lightning. Especially in an outdoor environment, you need to make sure that the sound is evenly distributed, there are no reverberances, and the music can animate participants to create the right partaaaaaaay atmosphere. No one likes a dead wedding, where poor sound quality prevents people from getting into the mood of the celebration. And this is the biggest day of your life - you want to make it the best. The number one thing you have to do, is make sure that your DJ gets the BEST sound equipment. You want to look for the one and only Lee Wright's Brand of Sound Speakers - they will rock you to heaven, and create the perfect atmosphere for your wedding"

Get it?

Ok. Good.

Fourth point, if your conversion rate (and by that I mean people who buy off your website) is 2.5%, that is already good enough. Most sellers online have 1.6% conversion rates on average, so you're doing good. Yes, you could get to 4-5%, but I think your effort is better spent elsewhere first. Your best bet isn't on increasing conversion rates, but rather on tampering with the other factors.

Jay Abraham right? 3 ways to grow your biz: more customers, higher average order value, more repeat buyers. You've already worked on more customers. That is the conversion rates bit. Now work on the other two.

Higher average order value -> use funnels. After they buy a speaker, what UPSELLS & CROSS-SELLS are you hitting them with? Do you have 1-click upsells and cross-sells?

Repeat buyers... is there any repeat sale that you can make? Some item that they may need on an ongoing basis that is relevant?

Do you have a REFERRAL program? Maybe hand them a discount coupon when they purchase, that they can gift to another couple. That makes them look good, gets them to be able to make a free favor to another couple and get them indebted to them (so they have an interest in your success), and gets them bringing more customers through your door.

You have to think through these questions.

Some people like @BizyDad (and my other haters) here complain that I'm promoting my funnel course, but the fact is that most of you guys are having problems because you're jumping from tactic to tactic without a global, strategic understanding of what you need to do in order to grow your business. That's where learning from an expert is actually useful.

Hopefully the above gives you sufficient pointers to move ahead.
 
Last edited:

Chapas

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Okay, I build funnels for a living, and have helped people scale to 1M and beyond using them. I also teach other people how to build funnels through my course. So that's my background.

The first issue here is that you have a bit of a mistaken understanding on some points, which is causing you to take the wrong actions.

The reason why you go lead magnet first is because it typically takes more than just one touch to sell someone something. You could pay for ads to reach that person 8 times, but that is 8x as expensive as paying for ads once and getting their email to be able to reach out for free for the next 7 touches.

That is point number one. You use a lead magnet in order to NOT have to pay ads to get your message to reach to your target audience. You reach out for FREE via emails. Otherwise, believe me, there is ZERO difference between ADS and EMAIL. Both are just two VEHICLES that carry your message to some people. One is a paid vehicle, the other one is free. You want to use free. Please write this down so that you remember it.

Now, second point. If you're just starting out, your goal is not to "drip feed them useful content", but to get sales. This is called "direct response" in marketing. So the second rule you MUST follow is that each email MUST have a sales message. Yes, you can put in useful stuff in there too, but each email MUST have a sales message as well, and MULTIPLE CTAs - generally I aim for 3-4 links per email.

The idea of staying top of mind till they're ready to buy is mistaken in your case. If they grab this lead magnet about a wedding, they're either planning one, or about to have their wedding. In either case, there is a small timing window that they would be interested in. Say at most 1 year and a bit. After that, you must throw them out of your list, because they will be useless sitting there and you'll be paying for them (that is unless you plan to sell other stuff to them).

Now, the third point, but perhaps the most important.

Nobody cares about an audio guide. Nobody thinks about audio systems when they have or plan a wedding. Most people think the audio is just going to be there, and the DJ will take care of it.

Your chance of getting a mass market to take this guide is almost 0, even if you give it free.

You must identify an actual pain-point that your target market actually cares about. Then you must relate your audio equipment as the solution to that pain-point.

A much better lead magnet: "7 Steps to Make Your Wedding The Best Day of Your Life" OR "How To Be 100% Sure That EVERYONE Remembers Your Wedding" OR "5 Easy Steps To Having The Most Memorable Wedding"

Now this is something people care about. They dig this shit. They're going to want it (especially women who tend to also be the biggest consumers/spenders). And they're going to get it.

Among the other useful stuff that you teach them in there, you open their eyes about having a quality sound system in place.

"One of the biggest mistakes people make at their wedding is failing to create a memorable experience with their music & lightning. Especially in an outdoor environment, you need to make sure that the sound is evenly distributed, there are no reverberances, and the music can animate participants to create the right partaaaaaaay atmosphere. No one likes a dead wedding, where poor sound quality prevents people from getting into the mood of the celebration. And this is the biggest day of your life - you want to make it the best. The number one thing you have to do, is make sure that your DJ gets the BEST sound equipment. You want to look for the one and only Lee Wright's Brand of Sound Speakers - they will rock you to heaven, and create the perfect atmosphere for your wedding"

Get it?

Ok. Good.

Fourth point, if your conversion rate (and by that I mean people who buy off your website) is 2.5%, that is already good enough. Most sellers online have 1.6% conversion rates on average, so you're doing good. Yes, you could get to 4-5%, but I think your effort is better spent elsewhere first. Your best bet isn't on increasing conversion rates, but rather on tampering with the other factors.

Jay Abraham right? 3 ways to grow your biz: more customers, higher average order value, more repeat buyers. You've already worked on more customers. That is the conversion rates bit. Now work on the other two.

Higher average order value -> use funnels. After they buy a speaker, what UPSELLS & CROSS-SELLS are you hitting them with? Do you have 1-click upsells and cross-sells?

Repeat buyers... is there any repeat sale that you can make? Some item that they may need on an ongoing basis that is relevant?

Do you have a REFERRAL program? Maybe hand them a discount coupon when they purchase, that they can gift to another couple. That makes them look good, gets them to be able to make a free favor to another couple and get them indebted to them (so they have an interest in your success), and gets them bringing more customers through your door.

You have to think through these questions.

Some people like @BizyDad (and my other haters) here complain that I'm promoting my funnel course, but the fact is that most of you guys are having problems because you're jumping from tactic to tactic without a global, strategic understanding of what you need to do in order to grow your business. That's where learning from an expert is actually useful.

Hopefully the above gives you sufficient pointers to move ahead.

That was an awesome post. Thank you for that! Everything you state makes a lot of sense, yet I tend to forget it from time to time. Need to implement some of these things.
 

BarKogan$

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I keep hearing over & over how a business needs to have a sales funnel. I've tried in the past without luck but maybe my execution was poor. Here's how I understand a sales funnel:
  1. 97% of customers are not ready to buy right now (sounds about right. I get 2.5% conversion from my website.)
  2. So you offer visitors something of value (e.g. free guide) that they give you their email address for.
  3. You drip feed them useful content via email.
  4. This keeps you top of mind when they eventually are ready to buy.
  5. My hope is that this could double my overall conversion rate to 5%.
So I've created a PDF report. I think it's pretty useful.
https://sydneypahire.com.au/guide-to-outdoor-wedding-sound.pdf

I've linked it up to the sendinblue.com mail service so it sends a link to the guide & adds them to the auto responder list. I don't have further steps yet. I just want to see if people will subscribe to the first step.

I've created a opt-in form here:
Portable Battery Powered PA Hire Sydney

I've also created a landing page for traffic from other sources like Facebook or Google Ads:
outdoor-wedding-sound-guide - Sydney PA Hire

Here's my Facebook Ad targeting newly engaged (3 months) within 15km. 4 clicks but no subscribers yet.

View attachment 35275

View attachment 35274

Appreciate people's ideas.
Thanks for this amazing post !
 
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Lee Wright

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Thanks @Black_Dragon43 . I was hoping you'd chime in. I've read some of your other posts.
The first issue here is that you have a bit of a mistaken understanding on some points, which is causing you to take the wrong actions.

The reason why you go lead magnet first is because it typically takes more than just one touch to sell someone something. You could pay for ads to reach that person 8 times, but that is 8x as expensive as paying for ads once and getting their email to be able to reach out for free for the next 7 touches.

That is point number one. You use a lead magnet in order to NOT have to pay ads to get your message to reach to your target audience. You reach out for FREE via emails. Otherwise, believe me, there is ZERO difference between ADS and EMAIL. Both are just two VEHICLES that carry your message to some people. One is a paid vehicle, the other one is free. You want to use free. Please write this down so that you remember it.
Yes I much prefer to put some work in up front & build something that brings in free or mostly free leads. That's what I've always liked about SEO, Google My Business & content marketing in general.
Now, second point. If you're just starting out, your goal is not to "drip feed them useful content", but to get sales. This is called "direct response" in marketing. So the second rule you MUST follow is that each email MUST have a sales message. Yes, you can put in useful stuff in there too, but each email MUST have a sales message as well, and MULTIPLE CTAs - generally I aim for 3-4 links per email.
There seems to be two schools of thought on this. One is that you mostly provide value & build relationship without trying to sell & the other is as you say, not being shy to make offers along with value.
The idea of staying top of mind till they're ready to buy is mistaken in your case. If they grab this lead magnet about a wedding, they're either planning one, or about to have their wedding. In either case, there is a small timing window that they would be interested in. Say at most 1 year and a bit. After that, you must throw them out of your list, because they will be useless sitting there and you'll be paying for them (that is unless you plan to sell other stuff to them).
This comment caused me to actually have a look at my stats (I have a great database with several thousand bookings). Interestingly the average time from booking to wedding is 46 days & the median is just 23 days. That doesn't tell me how long it is between customers looking for a solution vs booking one but the time between initial enquiry & booking is normally less than a week. My initial plan was a series of 5 weekly emails but I think I need to compress that down.
Now, the third point, but perhaps the most important.

Nobody cares about an audio guide. Nobody thinks about audio systems when they have or plan a wedding. Most people think the audio is just going to be there, and the DJ will take care of it.
Yes audio is something people just don't think about & they often leave it to the last moment compared to booking the caterer, the flowers etc. DJ's are rarely used here for ceremonies but for receptions yes big time.
Your chance of getting a mass market to take this guide is almost 0, even if you give it free.

You must identify an actual pain-point that your target market actually cares about. Then you must relate your audio equipment as the solution to that pain-point.
I had thought about having a cartoon where there's a wedding ceremony by the harbour but the celebrant's tiny system can't compete with the noise from the wind, seagulls & party boats (actually realistic) with the caption "Should have got the 2020 Outdoor Wedding Guide" or perhaps "My celebrant said it would be fine." Would something like that demonstrate a pain point?

A much better lead magnet: "7 Steps to Make Your Wedding The Best Day of Your Life" OR "How To Be 100% Sure That EVERYONE Remembers Your Wedding" OR "5 Easy Steps To Having The Most Memorable Wedding"

Now this is something people care about. They dig this shit. They're going to want it (especially women who tend to also be the biggest consumers/spenders). And they're going to get it.
These are powerful sounding headlines but I don't think I can deliver on them. "Hi, I'm a nerdy sound guy. I'm going to tell you how to create an awesome wedding....." If I was a wedding planner then this would be perfect but as a sound guy I want to stick to something I have cred with.

Among the other useful stuff that you teach them in there, you open their eyes about having a quality sound system in place.

"One of the biggest mistakes people make at their wedding is failing to create a memorable experience with their music & lightning. Especially in an outdoor environment, you need to make sure that the sound is evenly distributed, there are no reverberances, and the music can animate participants to create the right partaaaaaaay atmosphere. No one likes a dead wedding, where poor sound quality prevents people from getting into the mood of the celebration. And this is the biggest day of your life - you want to make it the best. The number one thing you have to do, is make sure that your DJ gets the BEST sound equipment. You want to look for the one and only Lee Wright's Brand of Sound Speakers - they will rock you to heaven, and create the perfect atmosphere for your wedding"
I like it.
Get it?

Ok. Good.

Fourth point, if your conversion rate (and by that I mean people who buy off your website) is 2.5%, that is already good enough. Most sellers online have 1.6% conversion rates on average, so you're doing good. Yes, you could get to 4-5%, but I think your effort is better spent elsewhere first. Your best bet isn't on increasing conversion rates, but rather on tampering with the other factors.

Jay Abraham right? 3 ways to grow your biz: more customers, higher average order value, more repeat buyers. You've already worked on more customers. That is the conversion rates bit. Now work on the other two.

Higher average order value -> use funnels. After they buy a speaker, what UPSELLS & CROSS-SELLS are you hitting them with? Do you have 1-click upsells and cross-sells?
I can't actually think of anything to upsell. We do offer a delivery/setup service but it's 3 x the price so it's a big upsell & by the time I pay a contractor & do all the extra planning it's not worth it.
Repeat buyers... is there any repeat sale that you can make? Some item that they may need on an ongoing basis that is relevant?
I can't think of anything. I feel like that's a real limitation to lifetime value of our customers. They're not having another wedding anytime soon. I haven't had much luck crossing anyone over from one type of event to another. E.g. wedding to 30th birthday event.
Do you have a REFERRAL program? Maybe hand them a discount coupon when they purchase, that they can gift to another couple. That makes them look good, gets them to be able to make a free favor to another couple and get them indebted to them (so they have an interest in your success), and gets them bringing more customers through your door.
I don't but I do like the idea. That could work. Have you seen that sort of thing work for others?
You have to think through these questions.

Some people like @BizyDad (and my other haters) here complain that I'm promoting my funnel course, but the fact is that most of you guys are having problems because you're jumping from tactic to tactic without a global, strategic understanding of what you need to do in order to grow your business. That's where learning from an expert is actually useful.

Hopefully the above gives you sufficient pointers to move ahead.
Thanks for your input. I'll check out your course too.
 

Lee Wright

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I just can't imagine brides - who, let's face it, sort out the wedding - being interested in reading a guide about audio equipment.
I just had a look at my stats. It 52% brides that contact us so there's still a decent number of dudes too. How influential each one is in the decision making process is another story.
Surely the target is DJ's, venues, etc?
Well not DJ's as they do the reception not the ceremony but yes venues are great if you can be on their preferred supplier list. We had one like that that used to give us tons of work till they closed down. I'm just not sure how to get in good with them.
Example. The Bride will want catering. She isn't going to be researching the best outdoor barbecue to use, she is just going to research catering companies. They are the ones who would review the Barbecues .
Yes I agree but if they were going to self-cater then she might research the best barbeques to hire. We have a lot of DIY customers who ask us what gear they should hire. If it was only a done-for-you service then yes the equipment becomes less relevant.
Anyway, aside from that thought and nothing to do with funnels, what I would do is get in touch with all the great venues outdoors, or indoors with outdoor facilities, catering companies, DJs, marquee hires, outdoor photographers etc etc and create the www.theoutdoorweddingcompany.com.au which is free for you to nab. (plus the .com for future licensing abroad) Or similar type of name as a bride will look for a theme eg outdoor weddings and then you pop up positioning everyone as the experts
I know there's companies out there like these that have clients that would be perfect for me but I can't think of any reason why they'd refer me to their clients. There's nothing in it for them. I did actually set up a specific domain name a couple of years back www.premiumweddingsound.com.au + .com to focus on weddings but coudn't get a single customer.


That sort of thing.

Dan
 

Black_Dragon43

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Thanks @Black_Dragon43 . I was hoping you'd chime in. I've read some of your other posts.
Yes, I know, you are one of my followers. I pay closer attention to the people who follow me, just like I pay even closer attention to my students and so on.

There seems to be two schools of thought on this. One is that you mostly provide value & build relationship without trying to sell & the other is as you say, not being shy to make offers along with value.
Yeah, the old "brand advertising" vs "direct response".

MJ says chase value, not money. In my personal opinion, what MJ really means to say is that people only pay for things they find valuable, and if you don't understand that, it's going to be hard for you to make money. I agree with that.

HOWEVER - there is a mistaken interpretation, again, in my opinion, that very frequently emerges from the "chase value" distinction. And that interpretation is that we're going to put flowers out, and think we're Mother Theresa here, and we're going to provide value, make the world a better place and people are going to love us for it.

I will tell you what.

That works.

VERY RARELY!

The world is full of IGNORED GENIUS.

Van Gogh died poor.

He couldn't even buy food for himself.

And yet his paintings are selling for HUNDREADS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS today.

The world is selfish. If you don't GRAB THE MONEY, nobody willingly gives it to you.

Look at people like Grant Cardone... "Yes, you've got an objection, SIGN HERE BITCH!"

That works better than "providing value, building a relationship, and not selling".

In fact, if YOU had to make a $100K bet on someone, who would you bet on?

Would you bet on the BEAST who focused on closing and grabbing the money, or the shy guy who provided value, built a relationship, and never asked for the sale?

I know who I'd place my money on...

And yet, this forum is chock-full of BROKE people, who are going to STAY broke because they provide value, but don't take any for themselves. Some people here get upset at me "Uhh why are you insulting so many people?" - Because it's F*cking true. How many people here make over $100K/year (let's not even mention $1M+/year)? Probably less than 100. 100 out of 50K+.

That's 0.2%.

Why are most failures?

Let me give you an anecdote.

My course.

Last night I checked this, and I have 7% of buyers, some who bought the course 1 year ago, and were sent one free update as well. They NEVER downloaded the course. NEVER. And the download expires in 3 days. And they had two chances, with the update as well, to download it.

They NEVER emailed me to request access.

So they bought it... they had 30 days to ask for their money back... and they couldn't even be BOTHERED to download what they purchased. And 1 year later, they STILL have not emailed me to get access...

Can you believe that?! They threw $100 for NOTHING! And they don't give a F*ck about it.

Most people are hopeless. I tell you. Hopeless. NO CHANCE. ZERO!

So my point... don't build relationships, get the money.

The book the Challenger Sale also found statistically that the "relationship builders" are the WORST salesmen. The best were "The Challengers" -> those who drove the deal forward and got the money. People don't willingly part with their cash... The second best... "The Lone Wolves"... the assholes who just grabbed the money, smacked the prospect over the head (metaphorically speaking), and left the building with their pockets full!

This comment caused me to actually have a look at my stats (I have a great database with several thousand bookings). Interestingly the average time from booking to wedding is 46 days & the median is just 23 days. That doesn't tell me how long it is between customers looking for a solution vs booking one but the time between initial enquiry & booking is normally less than a week. My initial plan was a series of 5 weekly emails but I think I need to compress that down.
Yeah, that makes sense. People look for this just before the wedding. I said 1 year, because I don't know of anyone planning a wedding for longer than 1 year, so that's the only period they'd be possibly interested in this.

Yes audio is something people just don't think about & they often leave it to the last moment compared to booking the caterer, the flowers etc. DJ's are rarely used here for ceremonies but for receptions yes big time.
Exactly, so you can't get them with audio, you have to relate audio to something they DO think about, and show them why they NEED audio to get the thing they really want done.

I had thought about having a cartoon where there's a wedding ceremony by the harbour but the celebrant's tiny system can't compete with the noise from the wind, seagulls & party boats (actually realistic) with the caption "Should have got the 2020 Outdoor Wedding Guide" or perhaps "My celebrant said it would be fine." Would something like that demonstrate a pain point?
Yes, it would demonstrate it much better than what you have, but why would they want to get an audio guide if they see that? If I see that, then I imagine I'd want to SOLVE the problem, the quickest way possible. The quickest way is to go to whoever is organising my wedding and tell them "I want you to make sure that we have the right sound system so that everyone can fully enjoy the music". And that's for the smart people... but just like we said, most people are NOT very smart. So in all likelihood, they will FORGET about it by next morning. Even if they grab the guide... believe me, at least 40% will not even bother to READ the guide.

That's why you need MASSIVE email outreach, hitting them again and again with the same points, and going after the sale time and time again.
These are powerful sounding headlines but I don't think I can deliver on them. "Hi, I'm a nerdy sound guy. I'm going to tell you how to create an awesome wedding....." If I was a wedding planner then this would be perfect but as a sound guy I want to stick to something I have cred with.
How do they know you're a nerdy sound guy? You could even publish the guide under a different brand, with a different brand name that implies instant authority. Or you could find someone who is a wedding planner, and create a partnership. You share the email list, and he appears as the author. All that you want is to be able to market to the list.

But you can do this yourself. You're just limiting yourself. These beliefs are holding you back. You CAN tell them how to create an awesome wedding if you study it. Read about it. Read other guides. Collect the best information from each, and put it together. You can even say in the introduction (which virtually nobody would read), that you've produced this by studying the best practices of what makes for really memorable weddings. You'd be providing MASSIVE VALUE to your market, who cares that you're a nerdy sound guy?
I can't actually think of anything to upsell. We do offer a delivery/setup service but it's 3 x the price so it's a big upsell & by the time I pay a contractor & do all the extra planning it's not worth it.
So you're basically telling me that this sound equipment is ALL they need for a successful wedding? If not, then why don't you provide the rest of it? What could you provide next that would be useful to them? You need to look to expand your business and your offering, otherwise you'll struggle scaling this.
I can't think of anything. I feel like that's a real limitation to lifetime value of our customers. They're not having another wedding anytime soon. I haven't had much luck crossing anyone over from one type of event to another. E.g. wedding to 30th birthday event.
Okay first idea: packages. You have a package wedding alone. Package of wedding + 1 year anniversary. Package of wedding + 1yr anniversary + 5 year anniversary. And you'll be amazed that some people will buy the most expensive packages, and divorce by then, or not even bother about the anniversaries... *facepalm*

Another idea - expand your offering. Stop thinking about yourself as the "sound guy", start thinking yourself as the guy who helps people have successful, magnificent weddings. Sound is currently the only thing you do, but there's no reason to remain stuck there.

Third idea - start building partnerships with wedding planners and other businesses that organize weddings and people already go to. Give those guys a percentage of earnings, or give them the equipment cheaper than anyone else. Make the deals secret by contract so your competitors don't find out.
I don't but I do like the idea. That could work. Have you seen that sort of thing work for others?
Absolutely. People are selfish, they dig these things. "Uhhh we have to give these guys a present, they plan to get married, so let's give them the voucher and we'll also buy something else, that should be enough honey, what do you think?"
 
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ShepardHumphries

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Point 1
When people buy your product, what are they REALLY buying? What is the emotion or feeling that they are buying? They might back up their purchase decision with science and data and technical details, but what are they REALLY buying.

I don't care how many years of experience my mechanic has, or "that my camshaft defibulator megabyte is worn out because ya'll have been runnin' 10w40 weight antifreeze, and that tends to rupture the voltage bass booster." I want simply want the "security" and "comfort" of knowing that I won't break down and that I can get where I am going. What do folks planning to get hitched want?

Point 2
On another note, thinking NLP kinda stuff, might "audible" types be more interested in your products? Visual or kinesthetic folks might not be as good to target? Not sure how you target "audible" types...
 

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