Ruth Poundwhite [00:00:00]:
Your sales should not have to depend on you feeling energetic, being super visible, and being seen everywhere on the internet. So today we’re talking about why setting up a funnel might actually be one of the kindest things you can build in your business. And if the word funnel makes you feel a certain kind of way, then hopefully this episode is going to change your perspective. Welcome to the Soulful Sales Show, where we talk about believing in the value of your offers, getting them in front of your right people, and selling more of what you do in your unique way. Hi and welcome back to the Soulful Sales Show. So today I wanted to talk about something that’s actually so, so important with the work that I do with people, really, really important, and that is the sales funnel. Now I know that the word funnel or the phrase evergreen sales might bring out feelings in you. Maybe it feels icky, maybe it feels overwhelming, maybe it feels pushy, soulless, complicated, whatever it is.Ruth Poundwhite [00:01:04]:
But what I really want to drive home in this episode is the fact that a funnel is literally just a path that you set up in your business. It’s a journey that you are guiding people on behind the scenes when they come in your world to help them take the right next step with you at a time when they are ready. So it’s available for them to start the journey at the time when they are ready to find the solution they need when they need it, instead of waiting until you have the energy to post about it. And evergreen funnels matter to us as heart-led or lower capacity business owners because they take the pressure off of us. This is something I feel like I can’t believe I haven’t recorded this episode before because I know so many of us have limited capacity, if you’re anything like me, limited capacity, health issues, or just find it overwhelming launching back to back, setting up evergreen systems and funnels behind the scenes in our business gives us breathing room. It means that we don’t need to be constantly on. It bridges the gap between the natural ebbs and flows of our energy and the ebbs and flows of our sales. So it’s really, really important, and this is why I want us to reclaim The funnel.Ruth Poundwhite [00:02:25]:
I think that a reason why a lot of us have these negative or perhaps complicated feelings around funnels and evergreen is because we’ve all been part of funnels and evergreen systems that haven’t felt good to us. But just like I say with selling, in fact, one of the earliest episodes I recorded for this podcast was on the idea that sales and selling is neutral. It’s the way certain people have done it that have given it— that has given it certain negative connotations to us. It’s the same with the word funnel. There is not one way to set up a funnel. There are funnels that make use of more urgency and different tactics when it comes to the copy and persuasion and stuff. You don’t have to use any of those things if you don’t want to, okay? There are so many different ways to do it. The funnel, like I said right at the start, is just the path that you are setting people up.Ruth Poundwhite [00:03:24]:
And like, if you want to call it a path or a journey, if that feels better to you, then call it that. So I actually recently ran a whole Get It Done Week on setting up a Soulful Funnel in my Soulful Sales Society membership. And to kick off the Get It Done Week, I did a training all about the key stages of the Soulful Sales Funnel. And one of the things that I really noticed realized when I was putting together this training for my members is that actually sales funnels are so much more boring than we might think. They are so much less complicated than some of the bro marketers make them out to be, and they are actually quite boring. Now, I think where they get more complex is, you know, as we go further and further and we’re getting more traffic into the funnels and we’re looking at the stats and we’re seeing what converts and all that stuff, they can get complicated. But at the core, to set up the infrastructure in your business It’s really not as complicated as you might think. Stage 1 of the funnel is that you need to get traffic.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:04:26]:
People need to find you, basically. They might find you via a podcast like this. They might find you via Google search or Pinterest or social media or paid advertising like Facebook ads. Then the next stage of the funnel is that they get to know you. Maybe they get to know you and have a quick win with you via a freebie. Maybe they get to know you and have a quick win with you via a low-cost paid offer or, you know, a live event or something like that. The next stage is that you guide them into an easy yes offer. Sometimes you can skip the freebie and go straight to the easy yes offer.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:05:04]:
This is how you give them a really clear tangible outcome. They get a taste of working with you. They get to know what it is that you do and how it is that you can help them and you build that trust with them and that human connection with them. And then you invite them to another stage of working with you, which could be, you know, a membership. It could be a course, it could be one-to-one coaching, whatever. Now, not all funnels, like I said, you can skip steps of the funnel, but basically it’s traffic, trust, and sales, and helping people, right? It’s as simple as that. It really is quite boring. And if you’re listening to the way I’ve laid it out and are thinking, yes, it’s kind of boring, but it still feels like a lot to do, I get it.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:05:45]:
So what I will say to you is that we build a funnel one step at a time. If you have a source of traffic, if you have a freebie, then the next stage in you building your funnel so that your sales rely less on your energy, which is a key part of why I really want us to reclaim funnel and do this for as a gift for ourselves, the next stage is to add an easy offer, an easy-to-say-yes-to offer. And when I say it’s easy to say yes to, I don’t mean we’re forcing people, we’re pushing people to say yes. I mean that we’re presenting an offer that has a clear outcome, that’s not huge and sprawling, has a very clear outcome, that’s not overwhelming, and it’s probably at a low price point. There are always exceptions to these rules, but it’s probably at a low price point. And this could be a tripwire offer. Now, the word tripwire, I get it, is not a nice way to describe an offer. It’s like we’re tripping someone up, we’re catching them out..

Ruth Poundwhite [00:06:43]:
But remember, you get to do this your way. So while I do use countdown timers in my business and I feel good about that decision, I know a lot of my clients are not into them, and that is okay. And you can test it otherwise. In fact, I do have some offers that, because they’re so low cost anyway, like $10 or something, I don’t want to discount it. I want to— don’t want to do a time-limited offer on it. It just— the price is the price for that. And I still use them as I would a tripwire in a sense of what a tripwire is. So it’s basically an offer that we present to someone after they first join our world, usually through a freebie.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:07:15]:
We can get more strategic about it and make sure it’s really related to the freebie, um, in a complementary way, not in an overlapping way, um, and, and to help people basically show them how they can buy from us. Show them, not force them, not manipulate them. Show them, give them an option for something that can actually help them. And that’s how I really want us to see all of these different points in the funnel. We are just giving people options. And when people come into a funnel, let’s say that they found a freebie about a specific topic and they’re signing up for it, it’s probably because they want help with that specific topic. And if there’s something that we can help them with that is a paid offer, it is in our interests and our customers’ interests for us to show them that thing as quickly as possible, which is why I love Tripwire and I want to encourage more people to do it. So yeah, it’s all built one step at a time.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:08:06]:
You don’t need all of these things at once. When I taught this in my membership, my members were really, really excited about how boring it was, interestingly, and telling me it finally felt doable, or that they knew what their next step was and they didn’t have to do it all at once. And that is exactly how I want you to feel. One of the other problems I think when it comes to setting up a funnel in our business is that it is very, very important, but it’s not urgent. So what I mean by that is it’s really, really important to set up these sales systems behind the scenes that don’t depend on our energy. And if you are someone like me who has very fluctuating energy or who has periods of bad health where you really cannot show up and be visible, even though I knew how important it was, it was never urgent on my to-do list because it was never something that had a specific deadline. There were always other things that were more urgent that I would spend my time and energy on that I would never get around to setting up the funnel. And if that is you, then obviously I get it, but I really want to help you make this urgent by telling you how important it is.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:09:14]:
And also, I have a way for you to give yourself that boost to get it done, which I will share with you at the end as well. So think about what would be different in your business when you layer on these systems over time. Now, as you know, I am not the kind of marketer who is going to come and say overnight you are going to change your life and business. That isn’t unfortunately how it works when you set up these funnels. In fact, how it often works is that you test one thing and you realize it’s not quite the right thing, you need to tweak it a bit. So it does take a bit of energy and it does take a bit time at first, but I can tell you from this stage in my business that layering on these strategies over time and doing it imperfectly, actually— so for a while I would set up tripwires in my business that, uh, to certain freebies that weren’t necessarily the best related or whatever, but it was still better than having nothing, and it all added up over time. It’s going to make such a difference to your business, but you have to start now. Just think about the difference it will make if you can untie the sales you make in your business from the energy you are putting in to be visible in your business.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:10:18]:
It is very, very important, even if you’re someone who loves showing up and being on social media and doing lives and all that kind of thing. It’s really, really important to have these systems set up to, you know, as a contingency plan and as a way to scale our business as well. So it is very, very important. It’s up to us to make it urgent by blocking in the time for it, by recognizing why it’s important to us personally. And honestly, I would, I would suggest that you see it as setting up your minimum viable funnel. You don’t necessarily need to create anything new. Piece together a freebie you’ve got, an offer you’ve got over here, or a part of a bigger offer, and turn it into a low-cost offer. Repurpose old emails you have to.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:11:05]:
Piece it together at first, do it imperfectly, do the minimum viable version, and then build on it and improve on it over time. And layer in those extra elements over time. Add a tripwire to this freebie over there, add an order bump to that offer over there, and boost the number of ways that you can signpost to people what it is that you have available to sell. And by the way, don’t get stuck in the story that you just need to nurture people for a certain length of time before they will want to buy, or before it’s pay for you to sell. That is not true. I think I already said it in this episode, but when someone is coming into your world through a certain offer or through a certain freebie, it’s because they want help with that offer. You get to sell to them and show them the help that you have available straight away, and you get to nurture them at the same time. Okay, so it’s not about one or the other, it’s both.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:11:54]:
There are some buyers who are actually way more likely to buy immediately when they first opt into your world, and then there are some buyers that are going to need more nurturing, and you want to connect with them in that human way anyway. So you get to do both, okay? And what I will say is giving yourself a chance to turn free subscribers into buyers more quickly increases the sales you will make in your business in the long term. There’s a stat that it’s something like 9 times— people are 9 times more likely to buy again from you when they’ve already bought from you. So it’s in our interests to create more buyers from the people who come into our world, but Don’t forget that it’s also in their interest to get the support they need when they need it, and you get to feel good about the way you’re presenting that. No one is forcing or manipulating people to buy. We are presenting an offer. Sometimes we might do it with a countdown timer, sometimes we won’t. You get to do it whatever way feels right for you.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:12:49]:
So in summary, a funnel is simple. It’s a path and a journey you take your people on that helps them find the support they need when they need it. It is very, very important for your energy. You You are not a huge corporation with loads of employees and endless resources. You listening to this are probably just one person trying to do your best. Let’s make life a bit easier for you as well. And one thing that I want to say, if you really want to turn this into a, yes, I know it’s important, but I’m never getting around to it, from that to, I know it’s important and I am going to get this done. In the minimum viable imperfect way, then you don’t have to do it alone.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:13:34]:
I would love to invite you to join the Soulful Sales Society. We are going to get it done together in March, and I promise you it is not going to be that hard, it is not going to take that long, and you are going to feel so good when you’ve set it up. So whether you want to set up your first tripwire or your next tripwire, your new tripwire, or maybe you want to set up a welcome sequence that actively sells your other offers. This is what I’m going to help you with in the Freebie to Buyer Challenge inside the Soulful Sales Society, where we will set up a part of your funnel together. You’ll also get access to that full funnel training that I did just a few weeks ago as well. And by the way, it also includes an AI assistant to help you go through all the different elements of a funnel and pinpoint which element you should be focusing on next to reduce some of that overwhelm and just get it done. The best news is you can join in that challenge for only $7. So you can get $7 one-month access to the membership, which is more than enough time to complete the challenge, which we do over the space of one week, and to get personal support from me and your peers as well.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:14:41]:
I’ve also created the Tripwire Assistant GPT, the Welcome Sequence Assistant GPT. So if you are into AI, you can use that to actually help you to get it done. If you don’t want to use AI, then you don’t have to as well. It’s not a requirement. It’s a resource to help you actually implement and take action. It’s designed to be super bite-sized, digestible, and quick to implement. This is all about actually implementing it. I don’t want you just to hear this and think, that would be nice.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:15:11]:
I want you to hear this, to feel a sense of urgency that is motivating, not overwhelming. To get this funnel, the next step of your funnel, set up in your business, and to feel what it’s like to detach your sales from your current energy. Because I truly believe that we can make such a big difference with the work that we do, but we can’t do it if we’re burnt out and exhausted from constantly trying to be visible. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to the people who need what it is that we do to make our lives easier with these sustainable selling systems. So I would love to have you inside of the freebie to buy a get it done week, and I will help you either set up that tripwire or set up an email sequence that is designed to turn new free subscribers into paying customers quickly and soulfully for the right people. There is a coupon code on the sales page. So if you go to ruthpoundwhite.com/ss, use the coupon code SSS7TRIAL to get your first month for $7. You are free to cancel anytime, so it will set to auto-renew, but it is very easy.

Ruth Poundwhite [00:16:18]:
You can cancel it yourself, or you can fill in a form and we can cancel it for you. Either way, it’s easy to do, and I would love to support you to reclaim the funnel and give yourself this gift in your business. Okay, so read more at ruthpoundwhite.com/ss, and I really look forward to seeing you inside. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Soulful Sales. If you have a moment to rate and review, know that it really does make a difference. And if you would like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me in the free community at ruthpoundwhite.com/community, or my personal favorite, join me inside the Soulful Sales Society membership at ruthpoundwhite.com/membership. And keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.