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by Kelly K. O'Neil
Award-Winning Business & Marketing Coach
Many clients have come to me wondering why their products or programs don't sell. They know , without a shadow of a doubt , that they have a great product. So why aren't people buying it?
One of the reasons may be that you are introducing a product that is out of your buyer's financial target. People buy from people they know , like, and trust. If they have never heard of you before, and therefore don't have an established trust for you , do you think they will be eager to part with hundreds of dollars? Would you?
The best way to generate sales is to create relationships with people. Not only can you create direct relationships , like the ones you would create at a networking event , but you can also create relationships through your online communications, and such vehicles as emails , notes , blogs and eZines. So rather than go directly for the jugular , try creating a little rapport first. As an example , I never try to outright “sell’ my premium products. Instead my entire marketing effort is dedicated to getting people to subscribe to my FREE products. That's right – my free products.
This is where the idea of a product funnel enters. Let me explain. If you picture a funnel , you know it's wide and open at the top , and tiny and narrow at the bottom. At the top of the funnel is where you want to get as many prospects in as possible. At the bottom of the funnel is your highest price service or product. And in the middle are in-between levels of services/products and prices. The objective is to keep people flowing down from the top to the bottom.
You get people into the funnel through Marketing & Sales Activities like: Free Teleclasses , Joint Ventures , Public Relations , Speaking , Writing Articles , Book Distribution , eZine , Direct Sales. You keep them there by consistently providing value.
Here is an example of a product funnel I created for one of my clients:
Tier 4: FREE offering
- eZine
- Free Special Report
- Free Monthly Teleclass
- Complimentary Strategy Session
Tier 3 Offering
- e-book – $17.00
- TeleSeminar with MP3 and PDF - $47.00
Tier 2 Offering
- Tele-Course 4 Weeks - $297.00
- Home Study Course - $397.00
- 2 Day Retreat – $397.00
Tier 1 Offering
- 3 Day Retreat – $697.00
- Private Mentoring – $1000 per month
This process works! I can't tell you how many people have read my eZine Arrive!, and then called me up a few months later and told me they loved my energy and ended up being a private client.
I had a client come to me earlier this year not understanding why it was so hard to fill her seminars. I took a peek at her funnel and realized that she was trying to go from zero to $400 in her first communication. We quickly introduced a new product funnel and almost immediately she saw her revenue shoot up. Why? Because now people had a natural progression through the buying process that allowed them to “try’ her out. Once they got a taste of one of her products or programs , they regularly came back to buy more products because she is fabulous!
At her most recent seminar , which was $400 , she was able to create an upsell opportunity to her private coaching for $1 , 000 per month. Several people bought her coaching package and she left the seminar with thousands of extra dollars in revenue she would have otherwise not had!
So take a look at your product funnel and see where the gaps in pricing are. Once you create a more natural flow of pricing you will see the results!
To download a free product funnel worksheet , please visit www.uplevelstrategies.com . Make sure you subscribe to Arrive! while you are there to get regular business tips and low-cost marketing solutions to create more profit in your business.
© Kelly O'Neil 2005
 About the Author
Kelly K. O'Neil, Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies
Business & Marketing guru Kelly O'Neil is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed in business through her Business Mastery Success System™. She is the lead author of "Visionary Women Inspiring the World: 12 Paths to Personal Power" (Skyward, 2005) and is writing her second book Guerilla Business Strategy with mega-marketing genius Jay Conrad Levinson. Kelly's company received several awards for her exceptional work including the PR Compass award for outstanding Public Relations, The ADDY Award for Branding and recently received the Purple Cow Award acknowledging her company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in America by best-selling author Seth Godin.
For more information, or to subscribe to O'Neil's Arrive! E-newsletter filled with countless tips and resources for creating more profit in your business, visit www.uplevelstrategies.com. Please contact UpLevel Strategies at (408) 615-8150 for a Complimentary 30 Minute Strategy Session.
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to info@uplevelstrategies.com.
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