How To Create A Small Business Sales Funnel: A Complete Guide

Most small businesses have a random, haphazard approach to their marketing. Most of the time this is due to lack of knowledge. That’s why I created this guide. I’m going to take you step-by-step through the process of creating a sales funnel for your business so you can increase your sales in a systematic, measurable way.

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is an organized way of guiding your ideal customer through the buyer’s journey.

Every customer goes on a journey from first learning about you to deciding you can solve their problem to buying from you.

Every single one. Without exception.

Most small businesses don’t give much thought to this as long as customers come in the door. This might be fine for a brick-and-mortar retail store on Main St. but if you’re a service business or wish to get more sales business online, a sales funnel is a necessity.

Here’s a basic, high-level view of a sales funnel using the AIDA framework:

Using this funnel framework, you fill in the parts of the funnel with your different marketing assets and efforts.

As you notice, the group of potential customers gets smaller and smaller as they move thru the funnel. This is the goal. You want to filter out everyone but the people who are most likely to buy.

Let’s take a look at another example. This is a sales funnel for content creators designed by Dan Koe.

Dan laid out his funnel as a flow chart but it more or less follows the same system. He gets people’s attention and generates interest on social media.

Those interested can sign up for his newsletter or join him on Telegram. Next, those people will receive a drip campaign or freebie to generate desire.

If enough desire is generated, then they are invited to buy a course or set an appointment for higher ticket options like consulting.

Pretty simple, right?

So, let’s dive in to creating a sales funnel for your small business.

Side note: once you understand how sales funnels work, you’ll see them everywhere. It’ll ruin a lot of social media and YouTube but will save you from falling into the hands of unethical marketers, fake gurus, and scam artists.

This guide is going to be broken up into different articles that will focus on each step of creating a sales funnel.

Next, Step 1: Choosing Your SVA