Last updated on October 18th, 2025 at 06:38 am
Are you a gym owner? A real estate agent? A dentist? A chiropractor? A yoga instructor? Do you own some other service based business? Here’s why you need a sales funnel (and how to build one).
It’s a sad statistic: about 80% of new businesses fail within the first 18 months.
And that number is actually increasing.
So the question is, how can you build a sustainable services business in such a competitive and statistically difficult climate?
There are a lot of ways to answer that question, of course.
You’ve got to hire the right people, you’ve got to brand your business, and you’ve got to consistently advertise.
But before all of that… before you even start marketing your services… you can get a huge leg up on the competition if you understand what sales funnels are and how to use them.
By leveraging sales funnels, you can increase your odds of long-term success, and financial predictability, and finally build the business of your entrepreneurial dreams.
But… what is a sales funnel?
Go HERE to get your first sales funnel for FREE!
Why Does Your Service Based Business NEED a Sales Funnel?
To understand sales funnels, you first need to understand how most service based businesses try to market and grow.
Typically, service based businesses create their brick-and-mortar location, throw up a website, get themselves listed on Google, run some ads, send some direct mail, give out some business cards, and hope for the best.
But… crickets.
It’s easy to buy into the old adage: “If you build it, they will come.”
But most service-based businesses quickly find out, that just isn’t true.
People need to be guided, they need to be incentivized, they need to be encouraged and inspired to take action.
And that’s why relying on a website to sell services is such a bad idea.
Let me explain.
What is a website?
A website is basically just a digital brochure. It’s a place where people can come to browse your products, learn about your business, and… well, do pretty much whatever they want.
And that’s the crux of the problem.
A website can actually hurt your business’ growth because it gives visitors too many options. Because of a little thing, psychologists call Analysis Paralysis, websites often drive more people away than they convert into leads or clients.
In short, a website is a better wall than a door.
That’s why we created something that we call sales funnels.
So what is a sales funnel?
Whereas a website is like a directionless digital brochure, a sales funnel is like having your best salesperson guide the visitor exactly where you want them to go… one step at a time.
Practically speaking, a sales funnel is a series of pages that psychologically guide visitors, step by step, to opt-in to your email list or sign up for your service.
When people arrive at a website, they usually get confused about what action they should take next.
But when people arrive at the first page of a sales funnel, they know exactly what action you want them to take. And all of the copy, images, and videos on that page are synergistically working to drive them toward taking that action.
Because of that, sales funnels get much higher conversion rates than websites.
But you don’t have to take our word for it — watch the video below to learn how Yanni used one simple sales funnel to decrease overhead and grow his construction business.
How the “Million Dollar Service Pro” Used Sales Funnels to Grow Service Based Businesses
Watch the video below to learn how the “Million Dollar Service Pro”, a ClickFunnels member, built a sales funnel that totally changed his business!
How to Build Your First Sales Funnel!
The great thing about sales funnels is that there are different funnels for different things.
At ClickFunnels, we’ve created the squeeze page and application funnels for generating leads.
For making sales and getting clients, there’s the tripwire funnels, video sales letter funnel, and product launch funnel.
And for hosting an online event, you could use our webinar funnel or autowebinar funnel.
The type of funnel you build first will depend on what your current business goals are.
Go HERE to get your first sales funnel for FREE!
Oh — and here are 3 things to keep in mind as you build your first sales funnel…
1. Only Have One Goal Per Page
While a website tries to do a lot of different things at once, your sales funnel should only be trying to accomplish one goal (make the sale or get the opt-in, for instance) — and each page of your sales funnel should be trying to accomplish one piece of that goal.
On a tripwire funnel, for example, the only goal of the first page is to get the prospect to say “yes” and to enter their billing and shipping information.
On the next page, the only goal is to get the prospect to say “yes” to what we call the “One Time Offer.” This is an upsell that helps to increase your average profit per order.
You can even add a down-sell if you want…
Finally, we come to the confirmation page, where the only goal is to thank the new customer for taking action.
The main lesson here is that every sales funnel should have a single goal and every page within that sales funnel should have a supporting goal.
If you get a free ClickFunnel’s membership, we’ll walk you through this process.
2. Remember: Hook, Story, Offer
It’s one thing to create a sales funnel with a single goal, but how do you make sure that each page within that sales funnel consistently accomplishes its goal?
In other words, how do you write sales copy that drives people to take action?
Three things: hook, story, offer, in that order.
Hook — The hook is usually the title or image of your advertisement, it’s the thing that catches your target market’s attention and makes them click through to your sales page. There should also be a hook in the title and image of your landing page that draws people further along the sales funnel.
Here’s an example from Natalie Hodson. This video ad on Facebook showed Natalie peeing herself on accident during a workout. It would be hard not to want to learn more about what’s going on here…
Natalie further hooks you when you arrive on her landing page, where she talks about the challenges of pelvic floor dysfunction after pregnancy…
Story — Now that your prospect is hooked, it’s time to tell a compelling story. This is where you show your target market that you understand them and that you can relate to the difficult things they’re going through.
In Natalie Hodson’s case, this story is primarily told through the video on the landing page.
Offer — Now that your prospect trusts you and knows that you’ve gone through exactly what they’re struggling with, it’s time to offer your solution. This is where you ask the prospect to opt-in or purchase your product. For service based businesses, this could be as simple as offering a free session so people can try it out.
The hook-story-offer format should definitely be on your landing page and anywhere else that you’re trying to get someone to take action.
3. Don’t Forget Traffic!
What good is a sales funnel without traffic?
And not just any traffic, but the right traffic — your dream customers.
If your sales funnel is going to help you grow your business, then you’ve got to fill that sales funnel with visitors who fit within your target market.
And our favorite way to drive traffic is by using something that we call “The Dream 100”.
Here’s how it works: make a list of all the influencers who are already getting in front of your target market consistently. Try to aim for 100 different influencers.
Then work to get in front of those influencers audiences. You can either pay for that through Facebook ads, YouTube ads, or you can reach out and ask for promotional pricing. The other option is to slowly work your way into a close relationship with those influencers. You can learn more about these traffic strategies in Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson.
Can Sales Funnels Help Grow You Service Based Business?
We’ve seen hundreds of doctors, chiropractors, dentists, gym owners, real estate agents, and more implement sales funnels to the tune of thousands of dollars more per month into their business.
So… why not you?
Oftentimes, building the business of your entrepreneurial dreams is simply a matter of creating the right systems and processes to move your business forward.
And sales funnels might just be the thing your business is missing.
Might as well give it a shot!