What Are High Leverage Activities?

High leverage activities are activities that have greater results than regular or low leverage activities.

They’re the activities that maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your money, time, and relationships.

Pop Quiz Time!

Wait, So, What’s A High Leverage Activity?

A high leverage activity is defined by one or both of these parameters:

It’s something only you can do
Its results are worth a multiple of the energy put into it (ROI)

It’s Something Only You Can Do

Some activities can only be performed by you.

For example, if you’re the brand – you can’t hire someone to be you. Let’s say you run a podcast and you’re the host – only you can host that podcast.

Or, if you’re writing an article about a life experience – only you can write that article.

Or, if you’re meeting people and building relationships – only you can build your relationships – believe it or not, you cannot hire someone to do that for you.

Its Results Are Worth A Multiple Of The Energy Put Into It

Some activities are worth doing more than others.

For example, writing a blog post may take four hours; however, it may be read thousands of times, result in hundreds of leads, and build your authority.

Or, it may take months to build a relationship; however, that relationship may form into a partnership that leads to a revolutionary business.

Or, it can be an automated sales system – where, once it’s setup, it will continue to multiply the lifetime value of your customers.

Then, What Are Low Level Activities?

Low level activities are the exact opposite of high leverage activities:

Anyone can do it
Energy in is less than or equal to the results

Anyone Can Do It

For example, in the case of a podcast – only you can be the host of your own podcast; however, anyone can edit the podcast, upload the podcast, transcribe the podcast, create artwork for the podcast, etc.

Same with a post – only you can write it, but someone else can edit it, upload it, create artwork for it, etc.

Many chores are low level activities – does it really take YOU to clean the store? Or YOU to run errands? Or YOU to do the landscaping?

No, anyone can do those activities.

Energy In Is Less Than Or Equal To The Results

Providing a service for people tends to be a low leverage activity.

If you’re the only one providing the service, you’ll work X hours for Y dollars.

There are only so many hours in the day and you’re therefore limited by those hours and the amount of money you can make.

Sure, you could charge $300 an hour and work 80 hours per week and you’ll make a 7 figure income; however, you’re still exchanging dollars per hour. It’s going to be hard to pass that 80 hour mark without risking your health and sanity.

What if, you hired two people, took the time to train them (a high leverage activity), and had them producing the same results as you, while only paying them $150 per hour?

You could still charge a client $300 per hour because they would still be getting the same results; however, you’re no longer doing the work. You have two employees, who can do twice the amount of work as yourself, at half the cost – leaving you to go out and do the things only you can do – land big clients.

How To Make Low Leverage Activities Into High Leverage Activities

You will have unavoidable low leverage activities in your life.

Unless you figure out how to teleport, you will have to drive places.

More than likely, you will have to do some low leverage activities like grocery shopping, yard maintenance, waiting in lines, checking your email, etc.

However, many of these low leverage activities require very little focus and concentration which gives you the opportunity to multitask by …

Listening to audiobooks and podcasts.

Reading (listening) is a high leverage activity because it can expand your horizons and make you a much more effective and efficient person.

With audiobooks, all you need is your phone and a set of speakers / headphones.

Now, while driving – you can also be “reading”.

While grocery shopping – you can be devouring the latest content in your industry via a podcast.

Audiobooks and podcasts are amazing because they allow you to transform all those mundane, unavoidable, and low leverage activities into high leverage activities.

How To Figure Out Your High Leverage Activities

By this point in this article, you should know the difference between high leverage and low leverage activities, but, you might not know what YOUR high leverage activities are.

The 80/20 Rule

More than likely you've heard of the 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, that states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Essentially, 80% of the results in your business and life, come from only 20% of the tasks that you do.

Let’s take a look at your life – what makes you most happy and healthy?

Spending time with family and friends (relationships)
Exercise
Reading
Mindfulness/Spirituality
Eating nutritious foods

Let’s take a look at your business – what activities directly impact your bottom line?

If you could only do one activity for your business that directly impacts its bottom line – what would that activity be?
- Training employees?
- Systematizing and developing processes for your business?
- Recording podcasts, writing articles, recording videos?
- Building relationships and landing big clients?
- Studying and understanding your industry and making decisions on a path forward?
What’s the second most critical activity you do for your business – that no one else can do?
The third?
That’s it. Those three things are the only things you should focus on. Everything else should be delegated.

The Best High Leverage Activity For Your Business?

The best high leverage activity for your business is one that requires very little manpower, yet is directly responsible for multiplying your bottom line.

The activity I’m speaking of is the design, implementation, and optimization of an automated sales system.

An automated sales system will automatically capture leads, help convert those leads into paying customers, and then turn those customers into lifelong, repeat, customers. Again, all with very little manpower.

It’s also super easy to get started, all you have to do is contact us!

What Are High Leverage Activities?Nathan2016-10-14T18:29:45+00:00

Automated Sales System in Real Life: Bill Penney Toyota, Huntsville, AL

Every so often we take a few minutes to check out a business that is actually using an automated sales system.

We enter the sales funnel just like any other person who comes across their site; however, we examine everything and share our thoughts on how to make it even better!

This examination features Bill Penney Toyota of Huntsville, AL.

If you have no idea what an automated sales system is – click here.

First and Foremost

I must commend Bill Penney Toyota for actually having an automated sales system.

I examined 18 other car dealers in the Huntsville, AL area and Bill Penney Toyota was the only one that had one!

So, good job on that – you’re on the right track.

Their Site

While I’m more concerned about the actual automated sales system, I must address the website because it’s part of the whole experience.

When I first came upon their website – I was overwhelmed.

There are multiple menus, images sliding across the screen, cars for sale, multiple contact forms, and there's even a chat box in the middle of the header (yeah, don’t ask).

The most disturbing thing; however, was the fact that I found no easy place to opt-in to their sales funnel.

So, I went to leave their site, disappointed like I had been with so many other car dealerships, when I was hit with this …

The Opt-in

Woohoo!

Finally!

An entry point to an automated sales system!

Note: I’ll address the actual lead magnet in another section – we’re just looking at the opt-in for now.

How did they make this happen?

Now, how the heck did they know I was about to leave their site and go elsewhere?

They’re using a piece of software called ExitGadget that tracks where my cursor is. So, when my cursor scrolled off their website – they “hit” me with an offer – with the hopes it will either keep me on their site and/or collect my contact information.

Here’s the deal though – they’re spending $379/mo on this one piece of software!

While there are definitely cheaper options out there – as long as that piece of software adds $380+ to their bottom line – it’ll more than pay for itself.

I imagine they've done the analysis on its impact and decided it was worth every penny – and if not – they need to make some changes!

Note: I am not criticizing ExitGadget. It’s a solid piece of software that does a great job – it’s up to the individual business and their marketing department to do their own cost analysis to see if it’s worth the price. Keep that in mind when implementing your automated sales system. I know we do!

One BIG problem

The issue with only having an opt-in that presents itself upon exit intent is that they do not work on mobile devices.

Over 50% of local searches are done via a mobile device [reference]. So, by not having a mobile friendly option, they’re missing out on a huge percent of their visitors.

Lead Magnet

Let’s take a minute to dissect their Lead Magnet – “A Down Payment Assistance Voucher of $500”.

I hate it.

It’s not clear

First off, what is a “down payment assistance voucher”? Is it the same thing as $500 off a down payment? Do I have to pay it back? What are the terms?

It’s not clear as to what I will be getting.

When deciding on a lead magnet, make sure it’s crystal clear exactly what the person will be receiving – do not leave anything open for interpretation.

It’s very limited

Being a “down payment voucher” – I imagine it’s for people who are about to buy a car.

I would also imagine that most of the people who arrive on your site are not about to buy a car – they’re probably just browsing and checking out your dealership.

Or, maybe they’re looking to lease or sell a vehicle.

What about all of those people?

Your lead magnet needs to be an offer too good to refuse; however, right now – most people who visit your site don’t need what you have to offer.

What might be better for the general public is a free report – “7 Things Most Dealers Won’t Tell You When Buying a Car.”

Note: If their marketing department was measuring purchase intent, and if they were directly targeting buyers, their current lead magnet could be great; however, as a standard lead magnet it misses the mark.

Segmenting

After clicking “YES, I WAN’T MY $500 VOUCHER!” – I was greeted with a second page:

Cool!

Hopefully they’re using this information to segment their leads in order to deliver tailored content.

I mean, they even asked me exactly why I was there! (I selected “Just Browsing” even though, as previously discussed, I doubt anyone “Just Browsing” would have actually made it this far.)

After filling out the form, I pressed the “SEND MY $500 DOWN PAYMENT VOUCHER NOW!” button and was greeted with this page:

Thank you for shopping with us? I didn't buy anything, but, OK.

At least my $500 down payment voucher will be delivered shortly!

Rapport Building

18 minutes later I received my first email from them. (I expected instant delivery of my voucher).

Hmm.

As you can see – no voucher.

Where is my freaking’ voucher?!

This rapport building isn't going too well…

Maybe the second email will have it…

Hmm.

I don’t see a voucher here either – unless that broken image is one – which, I don’t believe it is because I would think Bob would have mentioned it in the email.

Anyway, in the second email, he tells me why I should buy from him, which is a bit presumptive as I was just browsing! (Remember, I selected that option while going through the opt-in)

He should be asking ME what I’m looking for and then match MY needs with his business.

While I’m sure Bob is a nice guy, I don’t really care about him at this point.

All he is to me is a signature at the bottom of some emails that don’t include my $500 voucher.

Moving on.

I have since received five more emails from Bill Penney Toyota:

Notice how they use the same subject line multiple times and also the fact that they’re sending two emails on the same day? Both are big no-nos.

Also, they say the same thing:

Yes. Five emails like the one you see above.

Asking me to call him, or her, or it – who knows!? There’s no signature.

And for that matter – no phone number to call.

How are you going to ask me to all you without a phone number?

This is poor.

Oh, and by the way – where is my $500 voucher!?

This is bad

Needless to say, they have done a very poor job building rapport.

What They Need To Do:

Simplify their site – there are way too many options – it’s overwhelming
Offer another lead magnet that has broad appeal
Deliver the lead magnet – near instantly – not 18 minutes later (or never in this case)
Use the segmentation information gathered from the opt-in to deliver tailored information. I told them I was just browsing, and next thing I knew, Bob was telling me that he’s a grandpa and trying to sell me a car.
Their email series should start like this:
- Instant delivery of the promised lead magnet
- A question asking ME how they can help ME
- Bob talking about himself, his dealership, and how they help folks that are “just browsing” find exactly what they’re looking for (testimonials can work well too)
- Another email asking for questions. They need to get the conversation started, and by being helpful, they stand a much greater chance of opening the conversation
  - Instead of telling me to call them and not including the phone number
- A link to a YouTube video – preferably a viral one – that features a Toyota doing awesome things. Subject line can be – “Have you seen this video?” – This will help form the relationship
- Information about a special offer the dealership has for first time customers – or something along these lines – trying to get the prospect to walk through the door
Also, they should never send two emails on the same day like they’re currently doing – it’s annoying

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Bill Penney Toyota at least has something in place – which is better than at least 18 of their competitors.

Having said that – there is room for improvement.

What Do You Think?

I need to know if you've found this post helpful in any way.

Even if you don't own a car dealership, does it help you understand how to approach an automated sales system?

What would make this post better?

Leave a comment below!

Automated Sales System in Real Life: Bill Penney Toyota, Huntsville, ALNathan2017-06-29T11:01:22+00:00

What Is A Lead Magnet? & 7 Examples

A lead magnet is an incentive, or “bribe”, to convince an individual to give you their contact information.

You see lead magnets everywhere online in the form of discounts, contests, eBooks, checklists, video courses, etc.

But, lead magnets don’t exist solely online. Think about all of those “member” cards you have on your keyring for grocery stores, gas stations, and department stores. They offer you “points” in exchange for your contact information.

Think about store specific credit cards. Every time I walk into a Target, I’m offered one of their credit cards in exchange for 5% off all of my purchases.

Obviously, as a business owner / marketer – having either a points card or credit card that tracks your customers’ purchasing behavior would be phenomenal. You could tailor your marketing efforts incredibly effectively.

Some kind of card that tracks purchases would be an ideal lead magnet; however, those options might not be practical for your business. In this article I’ll address several lead magnet ideas you can use in your business.

Related Course: How To Create Lead magnets That SELL While Growing Your Email List

A Lead Magnet Has Three Parts

I’m not going to go into too much detail in this section, I just want to point out the fact that a lead magnet is more than having a simple little giveaway.

You will also need a page, or a section on your page that does a great job promoting your lead magnet and collecting the contact information. This type of page is often referred to as a landing page.

Related Article: What Is A Landing Page?

You will also need traffic to your landing page and lead magnet. Traffic can be generated any number of ways and without it, your lead magnet will not be successful.

To summarize, a lead magnet is made up of:

The giveaway (coupon, eBook, checklist, course, trial, etc)
The landing page (to promote the giveaway and collect the contact info)
The traffic (from advertising)

These Days…

Back in the good ‘ol days (like 2 years ago), the bigger your lead magnet – the better. It used to be that a 200 page eBook was better than a 100 page eBook, which was obviously better than a measly 50 page eBook.

However, over time, people came to realize that they weren't even reading a 10 page eBook, much less a 200 page one. So, they stopped giving up their contact information in exchange for such massive eBooks.

These days, “quick answers” work best.

A single coupon, a 1 page checklist, and a 5 minute video tend to outperform a 200 page eBook.

This is great news for you, the lead magnet creator! Now, you don’t have to worry about compiling a massive lead magnet!

7 Lead Magnet Examples

Below are 7 lead magnet examples. Of course this list is not all inclusive, but it should help you get started.

1. Coupon / Discount

A coupon can drive people to your store, and/or to make a purchase. A coupon can be the deciding factor between someone going to your store or one of your competitors.

For example, if someone searches “ecig coupon chester va” – and you have a coupon readily available – you’ll get that customer AND their contact info.

I recommend every physical store, that sells a commodity, to have a coupon available and don’t hesitate to pay to advertise that lead magnet in order to get ahead of your competitors.

2. Checklist / Step-list

A checklist can be a great lead magnet, if there is some sort of process that can by systematized and helpful to your audience.

For example, if listing a product on Amazon, there are certain steps one has to go through every time to list their product. There’s the title, description, pictures, etc.

Offering people a checklist or step-by-step instructions can help them accomplish the task they set out to perform.

3. eBook

Even though I “bashed” eBooks a few paragraphs ago – they can still work as lead magnets. It simply depends on what your audience wants.

One tip, if you decide to go the eBook route – break it into small sections, and make each section independent of the others.

For example, if you have an eBook about fly fishing – one section could be about flies, one about equipment, and one about locations. This way, a reader can quickly find the answer they're looking for without having to read a massive eBook.

4. Contest / Raffle Entry

You see these all the time and they’re self explanatory, so I won’t go into much detail here.

The good part about these; however, is they can go viral. For example, in order to enter the contest, you must give up your contact information AND share the contest!

5. Free Trial

Free trials can work wonderfully.

For example, many SaaS companies give free month long trials to their software.

Also, gyms are another prime example of a business giving a free month long membership – heck, I just had one!

6. Video Course

Video courses and the online learning market are booming right now. If you’re able to offer a video course that teaches someone, something to make their job easier – it can be a successful lead magnet.

7. Notification of Future Products

Some people enjoy being on the cutting edge and having the latest and greatest. They’re more than willing to give up their contact information in exchange for being notified when a product is launched.

For example, my wife wants a FitBit. However, the color she wants has not been released – guess what – we’re on their email list waiting to be notified when the color is launched.

Bonus Examples! (Updated 28JUN2016)

This post was first published 10 FEB 2015 and it's become one of the more popular posts on my site.

Being that's it's old in Internet years and popular, I felt it was due for a bit of an update … here goes!

8. Webinars

Webinars are essentially online seminars that both teach and sell to its attendants. This make them a great choice – the attendants learn something and you make money!

You can also automate webinars which enables you to record them once to be used again and again.

While there are many webinar strategies out there, one of the best ones is the Perfect Webinar by Russell Brunson. You can learn more about it here; however, the full version costs a few bucks.

9. Flowcharts / Frameworks

I hate to say this, but people are lazy and if something's hard – they won't do it.

If you're able to give an individual step-by-step directions in a logical flow, they'll eat it up!

My favorite flowchart software is draw.io. It's free, web based, and syncs nicely with Google Drive.

10. Mind Maps

Similar to flowcharts, mind maps are a simple way to visually organize information.

They tend to be 1-page and loaded with great information that can be quickly and easily consumed.

Below you'll find a video on how to make one from scratch in about 20 minutes!

How To Create A Great Lead Magnet FAST (from scratch!)

Tools Used:

Closing Tips:

Developing a lead magnet doesn't have to be too time consuming or difficult. It’s not a “the bigger the better” type of thing. For example, a 100 page eBook – might not do as well as a one page checklist.

So, here are a few tips to set you up for success:

Be specific. This is referring to both the lead magnet and the results.
- Bad Example: 50 page eBook called, “Learn To Be A Champion Cyclist”
- Good Example: 1 page checklist called, “8 Steps To Breaking 60 Minutes In The 40k”
Delivers immediate gratification. People want answers to their problems now. They don’t want to have to wait for the answer. Think of a way to keep it short and sweet, so they’re immediately fulfilled and have a direction to go in.
- Obviously, breaking 60 minutes in a 40k bike race will require months of hard training; however, the 1 page checklist will immediately provide the direction for someone to go in.
One Promise. Keep it simple. This follows with the previous bullets – you don’t have to create the bible on bike racing. You don’t have to address nutrition, clothing, training plans, bike setups, etc.
- The lead magnet should provide one answer to one problem.

Related Course: How To Create Lead magnets That SELL While Growing Your Email List

What Is A Lead Magnet? & 7 ExamplesNathan2016-11-17T16:01:46+00:00

How Do Sales Pipelines Work?

While this strategy works well … there's now a “smarter” version I recommend you checkout by clicking here.

I’ll start this post with an if / then statement ~

If sales funnels are what convert leads into customers …

Then, sales pipelines are what multiply the lifetime value of those customers.

Sales Pipelines Are For Paying Customers

It’s been said, time and time again, that it’s much easier to sell to your current customers than it is to acquire a whole new customer.

Think about that for a moment. When you have a paying customer – you know that person is not afraid to open their wallet, and, unless you under-delivered the first time – they should be more than happy to open it for your business again.

Sales pipelines aim to keep that wallet open by automatically sending communications to your customers based on the products they purchased and/or their demographics.

Sales pipelines are where money is made.

2 Goals Of A Sales Pipeline

There are two primary goals of a sales pipeline:

Retain trust
Generate action

Retain Trust

Here’s the deal, unless you really under-delivered on the initial sale to the customer, your customer already trusts you and your business.

Having said that, it will be much easier to sell a second, third, fourth, fifth, …, time – however, if you continually send offer after offer, you may alienate your customers.

They’ll start to see you as a money hungry person or business who’s not looking out for their best interests.

Obviously, no one wants that – you need to retain the trust you initially built.

This is done by continuing to send content that is helpful, entertaining, and/or informative.

Generate Action

The second goal of a sales pipeline, and the one that’s directly responsible for more money generated per customer, is the communications you send that drives action.

An action is something you want the customer to do. These actions can include things like:

Having the customer…

go to your online store and make a purchase
go to your physical store and make a purchase
go to an affiliate offer to make a purchase where you earn a commission
refer a friend
leave a review on Amazon.com
record a video testimonial about your product/service/business

There are a lot of actions a satisfied customer will perform, if you simply ask.

And, if the plain ask doesn't work, you can spice it up a little bit – for example: You can send out a “loyal customer coupon”. Since they've been a great customer, you’ll give them 10% off their next order.

A Sales Pipeline In Action

I used to offer a personal training service where I created fitness and nutrition plans for clients online.

In this business I had several sales pipelines setup, one of which targeted males that wanted to build muscle.

In that pipeline, I sent an email that linked to a YouTube video of a killer bicep workout. I did not even own that video. It was just very informative, entertaining, and I felt any one of my male clients, wanting to build muscle, would enjoy watching it.

In that video, the instructor mentioned a few supplements he recommended for building muscle.

Can you guess the content of my next email?

Affiliate links to those supplements!

This way, when one of my clients followed the link and made a purchase – I earned a commission.

Hopefully that example clarifies how a sales pipeline can be used to maximize your customers’ lifetime value.

In Closing

I want you to remember two things:

Sales pipelines are where the money is made.
And, do not abuse your paying customers’ trust.

How Do Sales Pipelines Work?Nathan2016-10-14T18:29:45+00:00

Do I Need An Automated Sales System?

I’m going to answer your question with a question:

Do you have customers, fans, or contacts that you want to remain in contact with?

If you answered yes, you need an automated sales system.

If you answered no, you’re probably not in business and do not need an automated sales system.

The following list is by no means all inclusive; however, it should make you confident in answering the question above.

Related Article: What is an automated sales system?

Individuals

Bloggers
Authors
Musicians
Artists
Graphic Designers
Web Designers

Business To Consumer (B2C)

Medical Offices (Doctor, Dentist, Chiropractor, etc)
Specialty Shops (Flower Shop, Vapor Shop, Furniture Store, etc)
Services (Lawyer, Accountant, Lawn Care, etc)
Car Dealerships
Apartment Complexes
Pet Hotels

Digital Businesses

SEO Services
Web Design Services
Digital Courses
Digital Products

Business To Business (B2B)

Depending on the size of the deals and the number of clients, the use of an automated sales system will vary.

For example; if you have a few main customers and/or multi-million dollar deals – an automated sales system would probably not be ideal. In that case, you need close person-to-person relationships.

However; if you’re a manufacturer and have hundreds or even thousands of businesses you work with – an automated sales system can be highly beneficial to build rapport and recommend other products you manufacture.

Unsure?

If you’re still not sure – all you need to do is contact us, and we’ll be in touch shortly!

Do I Need An Automated Sales System?Nathan2016-10-14T18:29:45+00:00

How Does A Sales Funnel Work?

The whole idea of a sales funnel is to bring people through the buying process, in order to make them lifelong customers to your business.

The Online World

The idea of the “sales funnel” or “purchase funnel” has existed loooong before the Internet (1898 [Wiki]) – it's essentially how businesses are run.

However, in “Internet speak”, we tend to refer to sales funnels as a process, or system, that's streamlined with the help of automation and other tools.

By utilizing the tools and resources available, individuals and small businesses are able to multiply their revenue with much greater ease than in the pre-Internet days.

Ultimately, the concept remains the same while the “how” has changed (for the better!)

Sales Funnel Concept

There are a few phases customers go through within the sales funnel, but before we get into the phases, let me set the stage:

Your business has a target market.
Whether it’s local, national, or worldwide – you have an ideal customer.
The problem is, this person may not even know your company exists –

1. Make ideal customer aware of your existence

Once your ideal customer is aware of your existence and is getting to know your business, you will have the opportunity to approach them and transform them into a lead –

2. Capture ideal customer’s contact information

You’re now able to have a conversation with your ideal customer. You will be able to determine what makes them “tick.” You will be able to inform and entertain this person –

3. Build a trusting relationship with your ideal customer

Once you’ve taken the time to learn about this person – their wants, their needs, their problems, their desires – you’ll be able to –

4. Ask for the sale

If you've done a good job targeting your ideal customer, building a trusting relationship, and identifying their problems – asking for the sale should be as simple as recommending a product that will solve a particular problem.

After the sale is made, they become your customer and it's up to you to –

5. Keep customers happy and coming back for more

You've done the hard part. You've taken a person from the top of the funnel all the way through to the bottom. It's now time to maintain that relationship and maximize customer lifetime value by recommending more solutions (products & services) for years to come!

Let’s dive into each of these phases.

Make ideal customer aware of your existence

I’m going to make a very obvious statement – the Internet is extremely large.

Large does not mean complicated. So, don't over think this.

Advertise where your ideal customer hangs out

It’s really that simple.

Many people get wrapped up in and overwhelmed by shiny SEO (search engine optimization) techniques, PPC (pay per click) techniques, social media techniques, content marketing techniques, and they forget the big picture.

Yes, techniques are fantastic; however, if you’re not where your customers are – all the techniques in the world will not help you.

If your ideal customers hang out on a set of forums – you need to be on those forums.

If your ideal customers are huge Pinterest users – you need to be on Pinterest.

If your ideal customers search for certain keywords – you need to be the answer.

If your ideal customer doesn’t use the Internet, you still need to be where they are. Are they listening to the radio? Watching certain channels on TV? Residents of a certain community?

Related Course: How To Increase Leads & Sales On Facebook With The Triple Threat Strategy

Capture ideal customer’s contact information

Once your ideal customer knows you exist, you will want to capture their contact information.

This is going to allow you to converse with your ideal customer, thus keeping your business in the front of their mind.

If you fail to capture their information, they’re just as likely to bounce over to one of your competitors who will capture it, build the relationship, and have a lifelong customer.

The good thing is, capturing contact information has become fairly commonplace and you will not be “invading” anyone’s privacy by asking for a little bit of information (like a name and email address).

To help entice people to give your business their contact information you will want to –

Offer a lead magnet to increase leads

A lead magnet is a fancy way of saying the word – incentive.

What would make your customer want to give your business their email address?

Coupon
Contest
Sample product
Video/eBook/Course that solves a problem

You’ll want to capture their contact information and place it in a mailing list like ActiveCampaign or MailChimp.

The two services listed above are great for businesses just getting started and offer tools to create the forms required to collect the contact information.

Related Course: How To Create Lead Magnets That SELL While Growing Your List

Build a trusting relationship with your ideal customer

Take a moment to think about yourself.

When you’re making a purchase, you may spend hours conducting research, reading reviews, and watching videos before finally making a decision.

Then, your trusted friend tells you they like this other widget and that’s what they would recommend.

Instantly, you throw your hours of research down the drain and go with your friend’s recommendation.

Why?

Trust.

Build trust by delivering value

With your ideal customer’s contact information, you will be able to reach out to them and provide valuable information.

Share helpful articles, insightful stories, product reviews, reminders, and answer their questions.

Even if they’re not your articles and stories – if they’re helpful, share them.

Ultimately, be ever present and helpful.

Related Course: The ActiveCampaign & Interest Driven Sales Funnel Course

Ask for the sale

Customers can trust businesses like they trust their friends.

Once this happens, you can ask for the sale.

Ideally the customer will make a purchase and enter into the “Retention Phase” where you'll be able to maximize their lifetime value; however, if no purchase is made –

Continue to build trust

According to this Business Insider article, the total number of times you need to contact or “touch” a prospect tends to range from 3-12. While other studies show you need to touch your prospect a minimum of 7 times in an 18 month period.

So, the reason a sale might not have been made is that the appropriate number of “touches” has not yet been reached.

Don't give up, continue sending helpful, educational, entertaining, and informative content. Continue to respond to inquiries.

You can do it!

Keep customers happy and coming back for more

If you make it to this point, you've managed to bring someone in through advertising and convince them to open their wallet and give you money – congrats!

The absolute last thing you should do now is ignore that customer.

Why? Because they already trust you enough to buy from you and they have money and are willing to spend it.

Unfortunately, many businesses ignore those that are already paying and try to “impress” new potential customers.

Fortunately, you're smarter than that and you'll continue to help your customers solve their problems for years to come 😉

Are you ready to start building sales funnels? Checkout The Sales Funnel Training Vault!

How Does A Sales Funnel Work?Nathan2018-03-27T13:40:28+00:00

What Is An Automated Sales System?

While this strategy works well … there's now a “smarter” version I recommend you checkout by clicking here.

Keeping up with leads, prospects, and customers can be a very time consuming activity.

The thing is – it doesn't have to be.

An automated sales system, sometimes referred to as an automated marketing system, is a combination of education based marketing, database marketing, and email marketing (automation) in a planned, systematized, strategy with the purpose to accomplish two tasks:

Convert leads into paying customers
Maximize the lifetime value of those customers

In this article, I'm going to break down an automated sales system into its parts. In understanding the parts, you’ll be able to understand the whole concept.

What It Is, What It Isn't

An automated sales system is a system that is methodically planned, implemented, and optimized to convert more leads into customers and to maximize those customers' lifetime value.

An automated sales system is not a program, application, tool, or plugin that you simply add to your site and call it a day.

Sure, several tools are used in the implementation of the system. If your business needs a $10/mo autoresponder service – great! If your business needs a $1,000+/mo autoresponder service – great! The tools used are whatever fulfills your business's needs.

The tools do not make the automated sales system – people do.

Related Article: Why you need us

Two Parts

Sales Funnels

The sole purpose of a sales funnel is to take a person and convert them into a customer by taking them through the buying process.

Related Article: How does a sales funnel work?

Sales Pipelines

The sole purpose of a sales pipeline is to take a customer and multiply their lifetime value by maintaining relationships and recommending complementary products and services.

Related Article: How do sales pipelines work?

Graphic Representation

How Is It Automated?

Email

Email is the primary method of communicating with leads, prospects, and customers. There are many tools and services that assist with automatically delivering emails to individuals based on a wide variety of segmentation criteria. For example, individuals can be segmented based upon which links they click, which products and services they are interested in, specific dates, and more.

The services that handle the email automation are called autoresponders and there are a slew of them. Their pricing can range from about $10/mo to $1,000+/mo depending on features and the number of contacts.

Related Article: What is an autoresponder and how does it work?

Retargeting

Retargeting, sometimes referred to as remarketing, is a type of advertising that “follows” your prospective leads, actual leads, prospects, and customers around the Internet based on their interactions with your business.

While retargeting is truly powerful when it comes to turning prospective leads into actual leads, it’s also a powerful tool to communicate with your current leads, prospects, and customers.

Email combined with retargeting increases your “megaphone” and enables you to reach the greatest percentage of individuals who are traveling through your sales funnels and sales pipelines.

Related Article: How does retargeting work?

What Type Of Content Should Be Sent?

Determining what to send leads, prospects, and customers can be the hardest part in the development of an automated sales system; however, ensuring each piece of content has a specific goal will make the task a lot easier. The two goals for the content is to either provide value or drive action.

Value

Value content is information that serves no purpose other than to inform or entertain your customer. You’re not trying to sell anything directly; however, this content will educate the customer on what you’re about to sell them. This value content may be as simple as a link to a YouTube video that helps your customer better understand something or learn something new.

Value content is what builds trustworthy relationships.

Action

Action content attempts to get the individual to perform an action. This type of content can also be informative and/or entertaining (it should be); however, its main purpose is to drive action. The action can be to make a purchase from you or an affiliate, a visit to your store, to click an ad, to sign up on another website, etc.

Action content drives customers to perform an action.

What Is An Automated Sales System?Nathan2016-10-14T18:29:45+00:00

Search results for: business

Need a new search?

First and Foremost

Their Site

The Opt-in

Problems with Popups

Too Much Information

Submit Button

Lead Magnet

Upon Submission

I’m Concerned

Rapport Building

3 hours and 41 minutes later …

2 hours and 34 minutes later …

17 days later

Summary of What They Need To Do:

Conclusion

What Do You Think?

To Collect Lead Contact Information

Segmentation 101

Lead Magnet Ideas

Rapport Building

After The Sale

Segmenting Your Sales Pipelines

Conclusion

Wait, So, What’s A High Leverage Activity?

It’s Something Only You Can Do

Its Results Are Worth A Multiple Of The Energy Put Into It

Then, What Are Low Level Activities?

Anyone Can Do It

Energy In Is Less Than Or Equal To The Results

Providing a service for people tends to be a low leverage activity.

How To Make Low Leverage Activities Into High Leverage Activities

How To Figure Out Your High Leverage Activities

The 80/20 Rule

The Best High Leverage Activity For Your Business?

First and Foremost

Their Site

The Opt-in

How did they make this happen?

One BIG problem

Lead Magnet

It’s not clear

It’s very limited

Segmenting

Rapport Building

This is bad

What They Need To Do:

Conclusion

What Do You Think?

A Lead Magnet Has Three Parts

These Days…

7 Lead Magnet Examples

1. Coupon / Discount

2. Checklist / Step-list

3. eBook

4. Contest / Raffle Entry

5. Free Trial

6. Video Course

7. Notification of Future Products

Bonus Examples! (Updated 28JUN2016)

8. Webinars

9. Flowcharts / Frameworks

10. Mind Maps

How To Create A Great Lead Magnet FAST (from scratch!)

Closing Tips:

Sales Pipelines Are For Paying Customers

2 Goals Of A Sales Pipeline

Retain Trust

Generate Action

A Sales Pipeline In Action

In Closing

Individuals

Business To Consumer (B2C)

Digital Businesses

Business To Business (B2B)

Unsure?

The Online World

Sales Funnel Concept

1. Make ideal customer aware of your existence