Why businesses succeed
First there are universal truths that govern the success or failure of any business. We've talked about the logistics business, funnel businesses, cars, beds and more.
We've seen processes that allow us as business owners, to remove ourselves from the delivery, to focus on important promises and our vision.
The logistics owner was committed to delivering large, bulky products, to anywhere in the world in 48 hours. They could only do that by happily telling 99% of people “our service isn't for you”.
The list of customers and items that needed delivery, that they couldn't help, is infinitely longer than the list of people they could help.
Small delicate items? No thanks. Long term shipping over a few months? Again, we can't help.
Large bulky items roughly the size of an oil tank, to be delivered to the middle of the English countryside, from another country, in under 24 hours? Perfect.
The owner wouldn't have been able to deliver each stage of the process themselves. They can't do that. As soon as they do that, they're restricting their ability to help more people.
Who do you want to end up with?
As funnel builders, we too have universal laws that we have to adhere to, if we want a bigger business. And remember, scale doesn't have to mean hiring staff or taking on salaries.
We've also seen that customers are attracted to better versions of themselves. They don't want what you have, they want what they haven't got. In the future, where do they want to be? What do they want to see, do, feel, have or become?
Your job as a funnel builder is to specify the journey, who you start with, and who you'll end up with.
Unless we've got a crystal clear view on who we can help and who we can't help, we'll always struggle with attracting customers.
And when it comes to money, there are two sides to the argument. First, you are allowed to charge as much as you need, to give the customer the future they want.
Second, customers will gladly pay anything for a better version of themselves, that they want badly enough.
The same people that tell you they can't afford your services, are happily getting into debt for new cars, holidays and mortgages. When people say “that's too expensive”, what they mean is that you haven't clearly demonstrated how much better their life will be, when they buy.
Will your funnels deliver everything that customers want? Of course not! And that's OK! You must turn down 99% of the market to start working with the 1% that desperately want what you have.
A population of 120 000 people is a small city in England. 99% of people, 118 800 people will not want a quick and easy meal with their family and kids on a Sunday.
118 800 people won't want a few hours respite from cleaning and cooking, or a great family memory that they'll remember for ever.
1% of that city will want exactly that. 1200 people will want to take their kids and family to a pub/restaurant and eat some hot food, without any cleaning and to let their kids play in the park.
Ignore 100%
You don't WANT 100% of the market. Hell, we've already discussed how you couldn't serve any more leads now. Just like the logistics business owner who does all the work, there is a limit to the number of people you can serve.
The stronger the want, the clearer the future and benefits, the more likely people are to work with you.
Your funnel business could help people that want to spend less time at the office. Or help people who want to sell a business. It could help people who want to be a best selling author on Amazon Kindle.
When you shout from the rooftops (blog posts, podcasts, books, interviews, videos) that you help people get a thing that they want, you'll never be without customers.
The hard part of course making the leap. Setting those ideas in stone and committing to your new direction and purpose.
Let's break some eggs
The fear of getting it wrong or upsetting people. The fear of turning people away or not doing a good job. They all stand in your way and prevent you from taking that next step.
It's scary, I agree. It's like committing to a relationship or a long term loan. That fear has prevented millions from taking the next step, towards something that will make them happy.
This is how The Funnel Business Gameplan was born. I worked so hard attracting customers to my funnel business, that I almost broke down. I didn't have anything to show for all my work, and graft.
I had all the tools, plugins, software and platforms. I had the knowledge and the ability. I even had customers. But my business wasn't growing. Every single month seemed the same as the one before. No more profit, nothing left in the bank.
And then I found something incredible that totally changed my business. Within a year we were moved out of my Mum's spare room and into our own house.
I was speaking internationally and had a book coming out. I couldn't really tell why things were better so I sat down with a pad and a pad and I thought.
What was I doing differently from every other funnel business? I was building websites and email marketing systems still. The product hadn't changed. The systems and services hadn't really changed. What was I doing now?
And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. In fact, three things hit me.
First, nowhere, and I mean NOWHERE on my own business website did I mention the word funnels. Literally not one place did I say “we build marketing funnels”.
In the about section I didn't talk about selling marketing funnels. Marketing funnels wasn't mentioned in our services page or product testimonials either.
My site JUST focused on WHO I was helping. We just talked about the customer and how they could get what they wanted. At the time, it was offline membership businesses who wanted to scale their business by offering online courses.
We talked about how they could sell courses, create course content, scale revenue per employee, grow an email list.
But nowhere did we say “we build marketing funnels for offline businesses”.
Secondly, we didn't want to work with everyone. I realised that I was able to help offline businesses transition into scalable, modern online course businesses. What they WANTED was to jump on the growing trend of online courses. We helped them do that.
We couldn't help e-comm businesses sell more physical products. We couldn't help authors sell more books. I just wanted to help offline businesses feel that they still had a chance in these new markets. I turned down more work than I took on.
I knew my niche and could define it. So many other funnel businesses defined themselves by what they did. Which no one really cares about. Instead, I defined myself by my audience. I was empathetic to their wants and dreams.
I cared about them and showed real emotion when talking to them. I wasn't trying to tell customers how great I was, I was listening to how great they are.
When I wrote out those steps, I was at a networking event. It cost me £997 for the day but I was so clear on what I had done. I couldn't help myself.
It wasn't about building better funnels. It wasn't about learning the latest tactics and tools. It wasn't even about whether I was the best funnel builder out there.
I want to give that system to you. The exact process and steps that I used to grow my funnel business, find more customers and scale my income.
With it, I've been able to increase my prices and still close more deals than ever. I have more time than ever to work on other areas and spend time with friends and family.
Most importantly however, it gave me clarity on what to focus on and do.