How can I get the kinds of clients I want without being “salesy” or pushy?
Why do I keep attracting clients that drain me, and where can I find my ideal clients?
How can I keep my cash flow consistent without having to hustle?
Answer: You need a strategy or plan to guide clients, patients, and customers through a journey, with multiple “touch points.”
Recognizing the stages in the journey will help you create the best experience for leads, buyers, and existing clients, patients, or students.
It will help you meet them where they are at, automatically so that you no longer need to play “chase and sell.”
This process also makes selling your offerings feel MUCH less “salesly” or “slimy.”
The reason: The stages are very, very similar to the stages in a relationship.
The concept of this journey is similar to the sales funnel. A sales funnel is simply the steps that take your ideal client or patient through the stages of interacting with your brand, from the time they first discover you to the time they buy from you.. and beyond.
Funnels are more specifically about how you set up your system on the backend in order to address each stage.
Examples include:
- Lead magnet funnels
- Webinar funnels
- Email funnels
- Video marketing funnels
The funnel also includes any onboarding, follow up, offboarding, and customer care.
This journey incorporates all 8 of the pillars I teach:
Even though it contains all these elements, it doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to address all these facets.
For those of us who have added an online course, membership, or program to our menu of offerings, this journey or experience is very important.
Many wellness professionals and coaches skip or are not aware of one or more of these elements, which means that the customer experience is less than optimal, leaving them frustrated and burnt out.
Creating a funnel that runs automatically behind the scenes, so that those taking a parallel journey on the FRONT end have a good experience is super important.
This can be hard to grasp for those who are new to selling a digital, on-demand product, which is different than selling a 1:1 experience.
For example:
Can you imagine buying a service from someone and having to wait for them to email you the product or service manually? Having to put up with clunky back-and-forth emailing to get to the next step in the journey?
Would you trust a business that didn’t deliver what you bought immediately after you clicked a BUY button, followed by an onboarding process, and an easy, seamless, welcoming experience?
If you are getting your clients from any other source than in-person contact in a local business, a funnel/strategy and a process is a MUST.
Even after you get a new client, the process continues in a seamless manner.
If you want to spend hours trying to figure out where each client is in the process, this is what it might look like:
When did they purchase the program? Which lesson did they finish?
Did they complete that exercise, or get their lab testing done yet?
What materials should I send.. oh shit, let me search for them on my hard drive.. oh.. wait, where IS there email.. damn.. what did she tell me she needed in that last email??
Where is that intake form survey I had her fill out..
Not to mention that you’ll annoy and confuse a client without a clear “next steps” process so that they know how to get blood labs done, what to include in their lifestyle journal, etc.. at their convenience, and when they are excited about diving in immediately.
A funnel and a process not only keeps you from chasing new clients constantly, it is essential for working with existing clients and patients.
I’ll be using the terms funnel and client journey interchangeably in this article.
Remember, this blog is about general concepts. I’ll be talking about how to put together your actual “tech infrastructure” or systems in another blog. (part 2) I’ll also showing you how to visually map out your funnel in part 3 of this series.
So now when you hear the word FUNNEL, I want you to understand that it’s not some weird thing that marketing gurus made up to confuse you. It’s there to help you succeed and keep you sane!
Let’s get started!
The 6 LEVELS of a sales funnel for wellness professionals and coaches
Level One: Creating General Awareness In Your Niche
The top end of the funnel (and the beginning of the customer or client journey) is all about letting your ideal customer avatar know you exist.
It’s about creating awareness for whatever it is you are offering. It’s about casting a wide net. The “net” could be your blog, which can be found via organic search (SEO), social media, or direct channels. It’s an easy way for most to get started.
Others may prefer Youtube or hosting a weekly podcast to create awareness. There are many ways to cast this wide net.. too many to list here. Side note: You can definitely “cheat” when creating content: Reuse, Repurpose, and recycle!
In order to do this most effectively, you DO need to start with really nailing down your niche and target audience. This is part of the foundational work, and the first of the 8 pillars.
First, let’s brainstorm and the “drill down” into what makes you unique. (your niche) Sure, you can START with talking about broader topics, particularly when it comes to things the general public may know very little about:
• CBD Oil
• Acupuncture
• Life coaching
• Travel to Croatia
• An online booking app
This is a good start, but these topics can get pretty competitive, especially when it comes to people finding you via a search, because they are so broad.
Let’s “niche it down” a bit more:
• CBD Oil for fibromyalgia
• Acupuncture for autoimmune disorders
• A coaching program for female digital nomads over 50
• Travel to your guest house on a lesser known island in Croatia
• An easy way to have patients book and pay online and automatically receive email reminders
The top of the funnel would be all about raising awareness and reaching as many people as possible. This is done not just via introducing potential leads to broad topics like acupuncture, but about specific problems and how to solve them.
There’s a lot more to this foundational work than getting specific about what you offer. It also includes storytelling, refining your message, positioning, and branding.
Pillar #4, Strategy, is also important. The goal is to help your ideal clients and customers find you, instead of chasing them down. If your current plan is about spending hours on social media.. well, let me just say that there are better ways to attract. (Pillar #6)
I go into more depth on all the pillars in the Future Proof Your Business Toolkit.
Then we can start to address how our business may be the best choice for those who have “resonated” with our message and have made some sort of decision on their own to take things to the next level.
We are not trying to “get them to buy” at this stage. Instead, we may blog about our offerings, create a podcast, or a Youtube channel to help spread the word and earn their trust. In fact, there’s never any pushing. Only attracting.
Level 2: KLT and Engagement
Great.. now you are beginning to attract an audience. Before, they may have had no idea that there were:
• Effective and non-invasive ways to deal with pain
• More effective, less mainstream ways to earn money after 50
• The perfect island getaway that isn’t yet on anyone’s radar
• A way to avoid the stress of late cancellations and no-shows.
Your audience at this level starting to get a sense of who you are. Your brand, your vibe, cool things that are unique to you and your business. They are starting to know, like, and trust you.
They are also engaging in the conversation you are starting.. which could be anything from a podcast about your fitness training to a blog about wine.. to checking out GoPro videos from snowboarders at your ski resort.
If you wanted to compare this to relationships or dating, this is the stage where people are “checking you out.” They aren’t necessarily researching (like they would on a dating site) but you’ve captured their attention, and they are engaged, perhaps liking, commenting, sharing, or downloading your content.
So now you can repeat your message, while also creating more awareness about your brand and about what unique things you can offer that nobody else can. You will also be establishing yourself as an expert by being generous with information and guidance.
At this stage, I also like to pose questions to my audience: (Stop scrolling and take a screenshot of these!)
- What do they need to know about what I do before they buy?
- What do they need to know about themselves to know if it’s a good fit?
- What are some reasons they might NOT buy? Can these be addressed? (Examples: Solve the problem of lack of time, doubt, not sure if they can focus, if it’s too advanced or too easy, etc)
- What are some common myths and misconceptions about what I do?
These questions are a great way for your audience to learn more, find out if they want to keep interacting with you, talk about themselves, and make decisions about if, when, or how to continue on the journey.
It also means that you won’t have to engage in all those slimy sales tactics like “overcoming objections.”
Level 3: Subscribe
This is the level at which people give you permission to follow up and continue to hear from you. The equivalent in relationships would be getting contact info.. a phone number, email, or business card with the mutual intention that it’s cool to reach out.
At this stage, your “followers” become actual leads.
In digital marketing, this would include:
• Creating an email opt-in to get people on your list and sending valuable and RELEVANT information to them on a regular basis. Consistency is a must.
• Getting more subscribers to your YouTube channel or podcast or members in your Facebook group.
• A webinar: In order to attend or get a replay, someone will need to register for the event. This means subscribing to an email list. (Of course we need to make this clear)
• And of course, continuing to create more awesome content.
At this stage, you can also get valuable feedback from your audience which will help you to keep your products, services, and customer experiences relevant, engaging, and profitable. Ask questions! Create polls! Involve your audience, have a conversation, buy them coffee. It’s not a one way street anymore.
A brief Overview of the Mechanics
Great, so how do I capture those leads, you may be wondering?
At this stage, you will need a complete system. This is the second pillar that I teach. This covers the apps and platforms that you use, and how they all fit together, but also your workflow, or tasks that you do.
I cover this concept in depth in the next blog in this series and the final blog in this series which is all about how to put it all together and map out your funnel/strategy.
The basics:
• A landing page
• An email marketing service, like Active Campaign or ConvertKit
• A way to take payment online
• An email opt in form, which can be created on your landing page
• A Thank You page (optional but recommended.. there’s a lot of templates out there to help you get started)
• A “freebie” or lead magnet. It can be as simple as a 3 page guide. Some prefer challenges or mini classes.. this is more advanced.
• A course building platform, like Teachable, if you want to offer a course
• A way to create and edit videos or audio files, a decent microphone, and other items such as lighting, tripods, etc.
There are many ways you can put all of this together into an integrated “ecosystem.”
Putting together these pieces is MUCH easier than it used to be even 5 years ago. Sometimes an email marketing service will cover most of it, but you will need to fill in a few gaps. There are also some great “all under one roof” options you can explore.
I wrote a new blog to help you decide which platforms and apps might work best for you, and will cover all the bases. The focus is on creating and promoting a digital product.
Level 4: The small investment, or CONVERT stage
This is when you introduce your lower cost paid offerings at a pace that makes the most sense and feels the most natural for you.
If at the moment you are reading this you are thinking “How the heck am I going to do that?” Don’t worry. This is a creative process. You start by creating one small offer, then perhaps another.
You can even start out with offering your time, although for the long term, I don’t recommend it. Your time should never be a low -cost or discounted resource.
The truth is, when you get into your content marketing groove, you will have a small library of free offerings that your audience will have access to. At a certain point it will make more sense to introduce low-risk/low cost paid offers, generally between around $7 and $47.
These entry level offers are called “tripwires.” For this, you will need to expand your “infrastructure” a bit.
The “Tripwire”
You can use the above tools to give people an opportunity to go to next level in the journey, or funnel, if they choose.
For example, your Thank You page can also include an offer to purchase a low-cost course, book, video, etc. This isn’t the place to offer a $10,000 coaching plan, but a way to offer something useful, and with low risk.
Of course, because it took your time and expertise to create this product (or time to offer your services) you should charge for it.
This is called an “upsell.”
At this stage, people will have read your blogs and listened to your podcast enough to know about how a proper diet can help with inflammation or pain, or that many European destinations are having problems with overtourism and cool alternative destinations and ways to travel DO exist.
Now they have enough of a clue about what you offer to make an educated decision about what to buy, regardless of whether they choose to buy from you or not.
At some point, SOME your leads will desire MORE, and want to ascend to the next logical step. Have you ever read someone’s blog or listened to a podcast. wondering if they had a book or workshop or course to offer?
Chances are, if someone keeps reading your stuff, the odds of them buying from you in the future is significantly greater than if they just happened to find you on social media or even in a search.
Studies show that people actually DO like to buy high quality information products and services that offer solutions to their specific problems.
This is the goal in this stage: To turn ” warm leads” or subscribers into “hot leads” that have chosen to make a small time or money commitment because they like what they have seen so far.
You can do this via:
• A mini course that you might offer on a membership site or in a course platform like Teachable.
• A book or video series going more into depth about your area of expertise, the product you offer, or how to get the most out of a tourist destination.
• A low-cost membership site (paid subscription) that will give “converts” access to content that you may not want to offer for free, but still makes learning from you affordable.
(I’m liking Mighty Networks!)
You can get pretty creative with this, without ever having to offer your time for a discounted price. (We’re trying to get away from that!)
Cool examples:
• A “ultimate” wine guide, “ultimate” travel by boat on the Adriatic Coast guide, “Ultimate” preparation/checklist for a mountain climbing expedition, etc.
• A recipe book for those healing from Hashimotos
• A mini course on how to market CBD products in an acupuncture or chiropractic business
Level 5: Nurturing, Onboarding, and Building Excitement
You don’t want to stop when someone makes a purchase and call it a day.
There are 2 reasons:
1. You want to make sure that the client or customer is properly welcomed and “onboarded,” finds the introductory produce or service useful, and is excited about the results they are getting.
Email, I’ve found, is the best way to do this. This is done via email automations that you can easily set up to do the work for you. Email automations allow you to send a series of emails to those who have subscribed to a list, bought a product, and agreed to subscribe to get more high quality info and occasional offers.
Real automations also allow you to send the right email to the right people at the right time. Not all platforms are able to do this.
This is an important part of customer care.
2. You want to involve the client or customer in the process of developing your product, service, program, etc.
I don’t even create courses without the input of my audience or clients.
I also create BETA versions of courses. Early adopters get a discounted rate (the only time I really discount) in exchange for helping me develop the course. It’s a win/win. It’s also FUN to create and inspire more interaction and respond to specific needs of the ideal client.
Again, don’t worry about the mechanics at this point. Find our more about how to build your system in this blog: I don’t tell you what to use, but I DO have 7 criteria that I use to determine whether or not I will invest in any app or platform. (Spoiler alert: Email automations is one of them, but as scary as it sounds they can be very affordable and intuitive)
Now, let’s talk about pillar #3: Storytelling, and #7, putting it all on Autopilot:
The key is to build excitement and set your customers up for success in the most authentic way, from the heart. Storytelling is a natural way to market for most creative business owners who care about the experiences that their customers or clients are having.
Remember, this is a super important and pivotal “touch point.” Everything that is happening, on the front end and backend, needs to be seamless so that every touchpoint in the journey happens, without you (your time) being involved at every step. (On Autopilot)
In a nutshell, you want to provide good onboarding, answer questions and offer support, set them up for success, keep them excited, and open the doors for a dialog and/or making more purchases in the future. It all needs to happen automatically, so that nothing falls through the cracks, clients and customers have a great experience, and you keep your sanity!
One of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made is lack of follow up, and this process is also on autopilot. Follow up can include leads that haven’t taken a particular action yet, (such as watching a video, completing a course module, making a purchase, or filling out a survey)
At this stage, I like to think of my customers and clients at this point as being co-creators.
This is why polls and challenges and open ended questions are so valuable for both the business owner and the audience.
Examples:
• Send follow-up emails that help those that made their first commitment succeed. Even if it’s a book or a small course, it’s possible to follow up with an automated email (that you can always respond to) that offers support, suggestions, asks for feedback, offers a next step, or keeps them excited and engaged.
This helps everyone, especially for wellness entrepreneurs and coaches who are genuinely interested in creating products and services that help their clients and patients succeed.
This step is also useful for those in the tourism industry who are interested in far more than just renting rooms or booking tours. These days, it’s all about helping guests create an experience.
• Office hours. This means setting up a time that you are available say, every Wednesday for a few hours to answer questions. It’s easy to assume that your audience knows almost as much as you do about your area of expertise.. but usually they do not! We need to find out what they are not aware of yet, ASK them about what specific problems they need solved, and offer a solution that fills in these gaps.
The HOW part is easy:
1. Just include a link in an email. This is why you want to have an email service with flexible automations so that you can easily and automatically send emails to the right people at the right time. All you need to do is set this up so that those who have made this small purchase are tagged, and that your email only goes to those who made this purchase.
Active Campaign is excellent with their support when it comes to helping us set up these processes.
You get the idea.
The takeaway: Make sure that if people have invested time or money in your low cost products or services, are set up for success, are supported, and are excited about the results they are getting and continuing on their journey, whether this means taking the next step with us or not.
Level 5: Make (and Deliver) Your Core Offer
This is the stage where some get a little shy. Myself included. What’s going to be the MAIN big ticket item you are offering?
Notice that I used the word OFFERING here, instead of SELLING. By this stage you don’t need any old-school selling techniques. Those don’t really work anymore anyway.
Even some of the “closing” tactics taught today can feel unnatural and exhausting for people like me.. introverts who communicate effectively via writing and natural interaction. I’m terrible at memorizing scripts and responses or having to convince people from square one (as I would if I just met someone at a party) that what I do is not only valid, but often the best solution for a lot of people.
To me, this is not only NOT fun, but unnecessary, if I have the right strategy in place to do most of the work FOR me. Of course, this doesn’t mean I can bypass the art of the sales/discovery call, or writing great copy for a landing page, but it’s a HELL of a lot easier after these “touch points.”
At this stage of the journey or funnel, a certain percentage will be more than ready to buy from you.
Examples:
• A 51 year old woman who is frustrated by weight gain and changes in her body is excited to work with you not only to figure out the root cause, but help you with confidence and self-love. She knows that YOU are an exact fit for her because she resonates with what you offered in previous stages.
• A new patient signs up for a package based on VALUE, not a discount, because they saw your cool webinar or read your book.
• A new guest books a one week stay at your villa because they can’t resist the charm of your island, AND ALSO.. now they are now totally on board with sustainable tourism, are interested in the local wine and cusine, (enough to want to prepare some dishes back home!) or want to learn how to sail.
They can totally envision what a day would be like at your destination, and they are genuinely excited about creating a real experience, not just booking another vacation.
At this stage, you also MUST have a way to automatically DELIVER your online offer.
Today, there are thankfully more choices than making a phone call to a clinic to book an appointment for a 1:1 service, driving to the appointment, sitting in a waiting room, receiving only PART of a comprehensive, strategic, and transformative solution, paying for this transactional model at the conclusion, and making a decision about whether or not it makes sense to continue.
This is true for other industries that are about helping people relax, feel good, or reach their highest potential.
In the health and wellness arena, now both patients/clients and practitioners have more choices. It’s a win/win. You can get off the hamster wheel, and clients can enjoy better results. Those who may not be able to afford your 1:1 services may be able to join a group program or even enjoy your free content. (stage 1)
As you grow into creating more diverse offerings, you’ll likely outgrow your traditional online booking systems, which are set up for 1:1 appointments/time slots, NOT for your “one to many” services. (Again, don’t panic, I’ve got you covered in this blog)
As you begin to scale and make your offerings more accessible to a wider audience, you will need automated ways to deliver your courses, programs, memberships, and hybrid products.
Again, the funnel does NOT have to be complicated, but you will need a way to AUTOMATE the delivery of your offerings.
Stage 6: Taking Care of Your Buyers/Co-Creators/VIP’s.
This stage is earned. You can’t bring people here by using old school “closing” techniques, in my opinion. If you do your job in the previous steps, the “selling” process is a lot easier. ( I for one find that to be a HUGE relief!)
The benefits are pretty cool.
I’ll say it again: Statistically, only a small percentage of people that enter the funnel and embark on the journey will end up here. But once they do, the likelihood that they will buy from you in the future is MUCH higher.
Those you work with at this stage are likely to advocate and promote your business.
For me, this meant working smarter, not harder. It gave me a bigger ROI for the work I put in than some of the other tactics I have been taught.
I would rather set up a funnel (a system) and guide leads through a journey than spend hours hustling, selling, and I’ll be honest: be around too many people for too many hours.
I would also rather spend that time and energy spoiling my existing clients, not only because I enjoy it:
By treating buyers/people in like VIP’s and involving them with the development of new products or services, you are also benefitting your business.
These are members of your “tribe…” the people that will “wear your T-shirt” and provide testimonials, give referrals, and write those positive reviews!
This is also where you get to enjoy doing what it is that you do best.. treating patients in your acupuncture clinic, helping people navigate difficult parts of life via your unique way of coaching, or being a fantastic host and telling people all about the cool place you call your home.
In my opinion, it is also entirely possible to develop friendships from a business relationship. It’s quite a rewarding place to be, even though it still takes work.
How quickly do you “move leads” through the journey/funnel?
I don’t think that it’s about pushing anyone through the process. It should be designed so that it is a natural and almost effortless process (aside from creating content and setting up the mechanics, but most of that work is on the front end)
Sometimes people hang out in certain levels for months or even years. That’s ok!
Those in the awareness stage should have continual access to free info to keep you on their radar. It’s totally fine if they only consume the free offerings. Statistically, this is what most do, and that is why its the wide end of the funnel.
Those in the engage and subscribe stages should be not only kept informed, but in the loop. You want to ask them open-ended questions, create polls, and involve them in beta launches and even no-risk experiments. Some will hang out in these stages for a while, but there is no right or wrong as far as how long people remain.
Those in the later stages, or narrow end of the funnel are there for a reason, and your focus and attention should not stop there.
The narrowest part of the funnel consists of your loyal customers. Treat them like gold.
What’s in in for YOU, and how can this help prevent burnout from overgiving?
This system is set up so that the “top of the funnel” requires a minimum investment of time and energy. Not ZERO energy, but certainly less energy than it takes to chase after clients, patients, and guests, or be at the utter mercy of review sites.
THIS is what it means to create a business on your OWN terms, and attract clients, patients, and guests who not only totally “get it,” but appreciate that you get THEM, and are happy that the perfect match was made.
Now that you have a basic idea of how a marketing funnel could work for your business, check out the next blog in this series: 9 Components of an Effective Marketing Funnel for Wellness Practitioners.
It will outline the “parts and pieces” you will need in order to build a simple funnel from scratch.. accounts to set up, and yeah.. some of the “tech stuff.”.. (I promise it’s not that bad!) so that you can get started right away.
Need a visual representation of the client/patient journey?
Need More?
I hope this blog has helped you in some way.. whether it’s getting a better understanding of what a “funnel” really is, or some ideas and insights about how to build your own.
Be sure to check out the next blog in this series about how to gather the “parts and pieces” for your first funnel.
To be honest though, there IS a lot to it, and much depends on your specific niche or business, your strengths, weaknesses and preferences, and the resources you have available to you. There is no ONE solution.
Not a DIYer? No problem!
I can help you set up your own marketing funnel.
I also help those who are ready to take the next step with setting up the systems that will help them succeed, including some of the “tech bits.”
You can apply to work with me to get started.
