5 Tips To Efficiently Maximize Your Sales

5 Tips To Efficiently Maximize Your Sales

You are making sales. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to start thinking about how to maximize them.

Today we are going to share five tips that can help you do that.

Interested?

Continue reading…

#1: Set Up a Value Ladder Sales Funnel

When was the last time you bought a product immediately after hearing about it for the first time?

If you are like most people, you rarely do that. Instead, you probably visit the company’s website, check out their content, subscribe to their email list… And only then consider purchasing one of their products.

This is something that we all understand as consumers, yet tend to forget as entrepreneurs. It’s tempting to go for the sale immediately, but as you know from your own experience as a consumer, that rarely works. So what should you do instead?

Our co-founder, Russell Brunson, has created a sales funnel model called the Value Ladder which offers a solution to this problem.

Here’s how it looks like:

Set Up a Value Ladder Sales Funnel graphic.

There are four stages:

  • Bait – You offer the potential customer a lead magnet in exchange for their email address. 
  • Frontend – You offer the potential customer your least expensive and least valuable product.
  • Middle – You offer the customer a more expensive and more valuable product. 
  • Backend – You offer the customer your most expensive and most valuable product.

We believe that the Value Ladder sales funnel is the most effective way to sell online. Why does it work so well?

Because it allows you to gradually build trust with that person:

  1. You begin the relationship with the potential customer by providing free value. Much better than saying “Yo, here’s my product, now buy it”, right?
  2. You then nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value as well as offering paid value.
  3. You prove yourself with each product that they buy from you, thus making them more open to your subsequent offers.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

So if you already have a product, but don’t have a Value Ladder sales funnel in place, setting one up is the first thing that you need to do if you want to maximize your sales.

Here’s how:

  1. Create a lead magnet
  2. Create a landing page for that lead magnet
  3. Start driving traffic to that landing page

Note that you don’t need to have the entire product line ready to implement this, you can start with one product, then build out the rest of the funnel later.

#2: Add Cross-Sells, Upsells, and Downsells

Okay, so you have your Value Ladder sales funnel set up, now what?

It’s time to add cross-sells, upsells, and downsells to it.

Cross-Sells

Add Cross-Sells, Upsells, and Downsells, cross-sell graphic.

A cross-sell is an offer that is complementary to the product that the potential customer has already decided to purchase.

You are probably familiar with this classic cross-sell:

“Would you like fries with that?” asks the cashier at McDonald’s when you are about to pay for your burger.

So look at your product and ask yourself what could you offer to the customer that would complement it?

Here are some ideas:

  • Selling an ebook? Offer an audiobook version
  • Selling an online course? Offer personal coaching
  • Selling a travel backpack? Offer packing cubes

…etc.

There’s always something that you can cross-sell that will add value. You just need to be creative about it.

Upselling

Add Cross-Sells, Upsells, and Downsells, Upselling graphic.

An upsell is an offer that is an upgrade on the product that the potential customer has already decided to purchase.

You might be familiar with this classic upsell:

“Would you like to supersize that?” asks the cashier at McDonald’s when you are about to pay for your meal.

(The company doesn’t do that anymore, but it remains the go-to upselling example).

So ask yourself how could you make your current offer even better.

Here are some ideas:

  • Increase the quantity – Offer the potential customer more of the same product. Make it clear that buying it in a larger quantity is a better deal. This works well for products that people consume on a regular basis such as hygiene products, kitchen staples, nutritional supplements, etc.
  • Offer a subscription – Offer the potential customer a subscription. Make it clear that it is a better deal than a one-off purchase. This is another approach that works well with products that people consume on a regular basis. 
  • Provide more featuresOffer the potential customer additional features. This works well for software.

Put yourself in the potential customer’s shoes. If you were about to purchase that product, what upsell would you find appealing?

Downsells

Okay but what if the potential customer has rejected your initial offer?

That’s where downsells come in. A downsell is an offer that you make to the potential customer after they have declined the initial offer.

As the name suggests, it is a downgrade from the original product, both in terms of price and in terms of value.

What you need to understand is this:

The fact that the potential customer has made it all the way to the sales page where they have then rejected your offer indicates that they are likely interested in this niche, just not in that particular offer.

So you won’t lose anything by offering them a downsell:

  • Worst case scenario?They leave without buying. As they were about to anyway.
  • Best case scenario?They accept your downsell offer. Boom, extra revenue.

Plus, buying the downsell is likely to increase their customer lifetime value beyond the price of that downsell, because it will likely make them more open to buying other products from you in the future.

Add Cross-Sells, Upsells, and Downsells, Downsell graphic.

However, if you want downselling to work well, it’s important to implement these three best practices:

#1: Do Not Discount the Original Offer

When people learn about downselling, their immediate impulse is often to simply discount the original offer.

 “Okay, you aren’t interested in buying this course at $297, what if I lower the price to $197?”.

This might work well in the short term and get you a sale.

However, you are teaching that potential customer to not trust your initial offers and wait for the downsells instead, which will hurt your revenue in the long run.

Plus, it just makes you seem desperate, which is never a good thing. If your product is so valuable, then why are you so quick to discount it?

#2: Create a Downsell Offer

That’s why you want to create a separate downsell offer for that product.

For example:

If you are selling a $297 course on dating, you can create a $7 ebook that covers one of the problems that you address in the course.

It could be:

  • An ebook on online dating
  • An ebook on texting
  • An ebook on the red flags

…etc.

So you are offering the potential customer a fraction of the value that they would get from the original product for a fraction of the cost. Seems fair, right?

However, a “fraction of the value” doesn’t mean that you can just slap something together and call it a day, you still need to overdeliver.

That way, if they buy the downsell and are impressed by it, they will be more likely to buy your $297 course in the future.

#3: Keep the Price in the Impulse Buy Range

You should make your downsell ridiculously affordable by keeping it within the impulse buy range (<$10).

Keeping the price this low also makes it easier to overdeliver because people don’t expect much from products that cost less than $10.

For example:

You could offer a $7 ebook on online dating that explains which platforms to use, how to optimize one’s profiles, what to write in the first message, etc.

Someone who’s interested in learning more about dating is likely to think “Why not? It’s just $7!” and buy it just to check it out. Wouldn’t you?

And don’t scoff at the $7 price tag because that’s:

  • $70 from 10 sales
  • $700 from 100 sales
  • $7,000 from 1000 sales

…with no extra work besides creating the downsell and adding it to your funnel. Why would you want to leave all that money on the table??

#3: Use the Hook, Story, Offer Framework

Want to convert more potential customers into leads and then into paying customers?

Then you should implement the Hook, Story, Offer framework:

  • HookGrab their attention.
  • StoryTell them a captivating story.
  • OfferTransition from that story into your sales pitch.

Use it to persuade the potential customer to download your lead magnet, then use it to sell your paid products as they progress through your Value Ladder sales funnel.

Here’s how Russell explains this framework (with examples!):

#4: Optimize Your Marketing to Attract More Dream Customers

The next thing that you should do is improve the quality of your traffic.

All traffic can be divided into two broad categories:

  • High-quality trafficthat consists of your dream customers.
  • Low-quality trafficthat consists of everyone else.

Every website gets a mix of high-quality traffic and low-quality traffic.

However, if you want to maximize your sales, you need to increase the proportion of high-quality traffic as much as possible. But how can you do that?

It’s actually pretty straightforward:

#1: Identify Your Dream Customers

Take a look at your sales data. Who is buying your products?

Look for the common traits shared by your existing customers. What do they have in common?

Even better, apply the 80/20 rule and look for the common traits shared by the minority of your customers who bring in the majority of the revenue. What do your most valuable customers have in common?

Use those shared traits to create a dream customer profile (a buyer persona).

#2: Identify the Most Effective Marketing Channels

Once you have identified the common traits shared by your paying customers, take a look at the data from your previous marketing campaigns.

Which channels are the most effective at bringing in leads that convert?

#3: Optimize Your Marketing to Attract More Dream Customers

Once you have identified the most effective marketing channels, take a closer look at the past marketing campaigns.

How can you improve on those campaigns to bring in even more dream customers?

Be Ruthless When it Comes to Marketing

Once you know:

  1. Who your dream customers are
  2. Which marketing channels work best

You should be ruthless in your approach to marketing:

  • Eliminate everyone who isn’t a dream customer from your targeting.
  • Eliminate marketing channels that don’t work well.

This will allow you to increase your sales without increasing your marketing spend by making your marketing strategy more effective.

#5: Be Proactive About Getting Social Proof 

You may be already familiar with the principle of social proof:

When we are unsure of what to do, we look at what others do.

In the business context, this means that when a potential customer isn’t sure whether they should buy your product or not, they will instinctively look for social cues that would help them make that decision.

In other words, they will look for indications of:

  1. What other people think about your product?
  2. What other people think about you?

That’s why you want to provide as much social proof as possible. But how do you get it in the first place?

One thing is clear:

You can’t just sit there waiting for people to say nice things about you and your product. You need to proactively acquire social proof.

Here are some ideas on how to do that:

  • Get media mentionsBuild relationships with journalists in your niche, then when you have a story that you think they might be interested in, pitch it to them. 
  • Get customer testimonialsAutomatically send an email to every customer after they have purchased your product and ask them to give you feedback. It can be as simple as a survey with three emojis: a smiley face, a frowny face, and a neutral face. Personally reach out to all the customers who have responded to learn more about why they gave your product that rating. Ask the happy customers if they would be willing to give you a testimonial. 
  • Create customer case studiesNoticed that a particular customer has achieved great results with your product? Reach out to them personally and ask them if it would be okay to create a case study on that.
  • Speak at conferencesBeing a speaker at a conference immediately signals credibility. Start speaking at local meetups, work your way up to small conferences, then move to speaking at large industry events. 
  • Write a bookBeing an author is another way to immediately signal credibility. You can simply self-publish your book. Note that the better its rating on Amazon, the more reviews it has, and the higher up the best-seller lists it is, the more powerful the social proof.

And if all this seems like a lot of work… Well, it is. But it’s also worth it.

The more social proof you can offer, the easier it will be for you to sell your products. So don’t hesitate to invest time, energy, and money into acquiring it.

Keep Optimizing Your Sales Funnel!

Here’s the thing:

Your sales funnel probably won’t work as well as you hoped it would. At least not right away. And that’s okay.

That’s why you should:

  1. Start driving traffic to it with paid ads
  2. Analyze the conversion rates of each page
  3. Look for ways to increase those conversion rates

Start with the page that is the weakest link in the funnel. What can you do to make it better? Use A/B testing to test your ideas against the original page. Continue until you have increased its conversion rate.

Then move on to the second-weakest link in the funnel. Repeat the process. Do this until you have improved the conversion rates of the entire funnel. That’s how you can 10X your sales funnel profits.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

Don’t stop there, though. A sales funnel isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” kind of thing, it’s a never ending work-in-progress. There’s always space for improvement.

So keep experimenting, keep tweaking, keep optimizing.

Want Russell to Teach You How to Build Your First Sales Funnel?

Let’s keep it real:

Building a sales funnel from scratch can seem like a daunting task.

That’s why we have created our 5 Day Challenge where Russell walks you through it step-by-step.

You will learn how to:

  • Generate unlimited leads
  • Create your first lead magnet
  • Build your first sales funnel
  • Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence
  • And launch your funnel!

…in just five days.

So don’t hesitate.

Join our 5 Day Challenge today. It’s completely free!

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