Boom! What's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel radio.
Today I'm gonna show you guys my 5 phases of funnel building.
I spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.
The real question is, how will I do it without VC funding or debt completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.
Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.
My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to sales funnel radio.
What's up? Hey, I'm excited for this video today! I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit here.
Now when you think about building something like a sales funnel...
The first time I ever heard about building something like a sales funnel, I was like oh my gosh, I got to write copy. There's the copy piece. I should find some images. I should do some videos. I should do the actual pages themselves. The actual product itself. How I'm gonna promote it?
There's all the stuff that goes into it. It can get incredibly stressful. So what I wanted to do right quick is...
For those of you guys who are listening, just know that on YouTube - I'm gonna draw this so you guys can see a little bit of my funnel building process.
So this is this is interesting. I teach a lot of the stuff at events, and multiple times right, somebody will stand up and be like, "Hey, hey, how should I go about doing upsell, and this, this, and this for my product?"
I'm like "Why you even thinking about that? You don't even have a main product yet."
Too many times we get too involved in questions we don't really need to answer yet!
But there are questions that DO matter from building a funnel.
Sometimes people are so concerned about what makes the car engine run that they don't even know how to drive the car. You know what I mean? It's like there's a whole bunch of things out there - and you don't need to know that yet.
So literally, my purpose in this episode, is I just wanna walk you guys through the very simple funnel building process that I have and why it works - and how to screw it up. This is really it, I mean this is truly it.
Now if you think about it, there are five steps here:
The first thing I need to go do is kind of a research period. Check this out... check this out- and I'm gonna explain this kind of as I go along here.
The first thing that I do, is I go and I have to make sure that I know what my customers are already buying and how they're buying it.
We call it the "what and the how." You guys may have heard of this before, It's the "what and the how," though.
So, I go in, and I look at a red ocean meaning if I'm gonna go sell... I don't know? Pencils. I'm looking at pencils or pens, they're over my desk over there...
Let's say I'm gonna go sell pens. Who else is selling pens and how are they selling them? Who as far as businesses go, but also the customers; they're like "Hey, this is how I like to hear about my pen purchases. This is how I like to go and purchase my pens." You know what I mean?
So we answer the "what and the how?" What am I gonna sell? What are the people selling and how are they selling it? We call it the red ocean when there's lots of competition inside of one place.
So I'm gonna go inside, and I'm gonna look at the red ocean. I'm gonna look at the red ocean, and specifically what I'm doing is I'm looking for "the what and how."
I'm just gonna write that down again, red ocean, and I'm looking for like I said, "the what and how." I'm gonna draw a bit of line here. That's like phase number one here.
Phase number 0ne, red ocean - just research who is already selling the things that I'm interested in selling, and how are they selling them? That's all I'm answering.
So the second thing - now that I know a little bit about the actual red ocean and again remember, I know the what and the how that's all I'm looking for. The second thing I can go and start looking into... It's literally the second phase of, funnel building for me is the actual sales message writing. Not products creation. This is super key.
There are multiple products in my early years of doing this where I did it wrong. I would start building products before I knew how to sell them. Stupid! Dumb!
And when I say that out loud, you're like, "Well yeah, of course, you wouldn't do that." Yeah, well that's what everybody does! They come in, and they start making these products without any knowledge on how to actually go out and sell the thing - meaning the sale script - the sales message.
Products don't sell themselves. A product never sells itself.
When you go out, and you say, "Oh, the product's so good you've got to get in front of people." The actual cases where that's true are so rare. That is the exception NOT the rule - and I do not build a business based on exceptions. I look only on the rules. So don't go do that.
So the second thing, I go and I start building is the actual sales message. Once I've got the sales message down, the way I know I can move onto product creation mode is when there are literally wallets flying through the air at me.
Meaning when my sales message is so compelling that people are like, "I have to have that where do I pay you?" And I actually do collect money. Meaning people vote with their wallet, and they tell me, "Yeah, that's a really great idea. Let me give you money," and I actually have money in my hands.
That's when I go actually create the product.
And you might be like, "Stephen that's kind of weird. It's like a bait and switch thing.” No, no, no, no, no! I always tell them, "Hey, this isn't ready yet. We got the beta version. If you pay this discounted price, you can get the beta version coming out soon.” And then I go build it real fast.
There are so many companies that do it that way.
And what's cool about that is that you are using the market's opinion to create your products. That's huge. That's a massive benefit that you have. It removes like 90% of the risk of the entrepreneurial game.
This game is not risky if you just do it in the right way.
Going out and creating a product, then trying to figure out how to sell, then trying to figure out what markets should buy it, that's risky.
And that was all the ways that college taught me to build stuff - which is really weird. Anyway...
So "red ocean" - when I know the "what and how" is similar to the thing I'm gonna be selling. Then I go and create a sales message.
And my aim is to be different, not better - we talked about that a few episodes ago. I'm trying to be different, not better. Super key.
And then number three, I actually start building the product.
Now, for me actually make a sales message there has to be some idea of what the product's going to be in the first place, but I don't need to actually build the thing! Does that make sense? Very important distinction right there.
Then when I'm to going out, and I'm actually building the product. That's when I actually I move onto step number four, (and I'm gonna want more whiteboard space here.) You guys see that light over there on the side? Oh man, this' so funny - guess you'll see all my home studio stuff anyway. Whatever I'm gonna keep going, is that cool? Alright, sounds good.
Alright, number four, what I do here is I start building the funnel. Now in order to actually get sales in the first place, I might need somewhat of a funnel up, but I don't obsess over it.
So back in step 2 when I build the sales message, I'm running the sales message. I'm actually getting cash coming in, there's some sort of funnel that needs to be up, but I just don't obsess over it. Does that make sense?
It wasn't for like four months/ five months, into one of my major products that I started actually going in and adding all the little pieces and glaze - all the features and all the little cool things that ClickFunnels has inside. Does that make sense?
'Cause most people go in, and that's the first thing they do. They're the like, "And then we could have this page, we have this page, this page..."
And the issue is that if those are the things that make your product sell (the little tweaks, the little features, that little split test that gave you an extra half a percent conversion increase.) If that's what's making you profitable, your offer and your sales message are not sexy enough - they're not good enough!
I don't want to bank on a feature to make my business profitable.
My products, my sales message, should be really freaking good. And the funnel is just an accelerant.
All the features, all those little things are just an accelerant for everything. Does that make sense?
So, then I go in, and I start building the funnel. Meaning I add in all the glaze, I add in all the cool stuff.
The last thing I go to, as far as funnel building phases, the final phase is traffic. Lots and lots and lots and lots of evergreen traffic sources, all over the place. Traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic.
Now the reason I drew these columns is because I wanna make a very important distinction here. In every single one of these, (let me just erase some part here) in every single one of these, I feel like I say this phrase all time...
But I was at an event, I was teaching, and somebody said, "Hey Stephen, I know what my red ocean is." I was like, "Sweet." They said, "I've got a converting sales message." I was like "Cool" (or it was converting at least well enough.) I was like, "Cool."
And they were like, "I've built the entire product." They were like, "I have a sweet funnel, and I've got a sweet little doohickey, and you know the features and all that stuff inside it." And I was like "Sweet."
Then they were like, "Where do I get traffic?" And I was like "Oh my gosh! Are you're serious?"
You have to understand that for each one of these, if you go all the way down here, and then you're like, "Where's my traffic coming from?" You've waited too long. You shouldn't have started building the funnel. You shouldn't have started building the product until you know this piece.
When it comes down to it, traffic is money, traffic is money. Flow... eyeballs... getting attention. Attention is money. Attention is cash.
If you step back, the product is just a reason to collect cash. The sales message is just a reason to collect cash. Traffic is the cash. Traffic is the thing. If you can drive traffic that's epic. Oh my gosh, that's so cool.
These are the 5-phases that I build in.
First I do this, and then second this, and third I do this, and fourth I do this, and fifth I do this (pointing at whiteboard). Those are the different phases.
I don't start any of the phases until I know the answers to those five.
So there's really two different blocks here going on. So I'm gonna draw a line right here... (drawing on a whiteboard)
So it's two different things you want on here. Everything on the top here I'm just gonna learn, so I'm just gonna put an "L" for that.
I'm gonna learn in the red ocean - I'm gonna figure out "the what and the how," that's all wanna know.
In the sales message piece, I'm gonna learn, "What gets people so motivated that they're actually giving me cash?" So when I have cash in hand, I'm gonna learn how the other people around ocean are selling. I'm gonna go learn what their sales messages are. I'm not writing sales page yet, I'm just learning. It's a research phase.
This whole top part is a research phase.
When I go out, and I'm building a product, I find out how these other guys built similar products.
And obviously, if you guys have been following me for any amount of time you know that in this phase I go out with my create what's called a purple offer -and that makes me completely unique.
But I still need to figure out what people are already buying. I want to be prolific, but I don't wanna be risky. So I'm still gonna go find things out there that are already selling and stem out of similar things, you know what I'm saying? Anyway...
So I'm gonna go research best ways to build the products.
I'm gonna go research the best funnels that are out there that would be a good model for what I'm starting to see actually go sell.
I'm gonna go research all the different traffic methods - the best ones that are out there - evergreen traffic methods. The traffic methods that are gonna bring in a whole bunch of people once. Maybe traffic methods that are a little bit like slow growth ones.
I have a podcast episode I suppose like 20 episodes ago called, My 4 Favorite Traffic Methods. I think it's was called... go look at that! That's what I'm looking at specifically.
Look at what I've been doing this past a little bit in this podcast, in the show I've been going in, and I've been doing a little bit of a deep dive on each one of these five categories.
I'm trying to go like 30000 foot view again, not getting in the weeds on you guys on this stuff. I'm going 30000 overview again. I'm going through, and I'm looking at a 30000 overview, "This is how all the pieces map together."
I'm going in:
Research phase - What and how.
Research phase - Figure out the sales messages. What hooks? What stories can I tell to get people so excited that they get up and they're like take my money and they're throwing their wallet?
Next, Research phase - How can I build the products? How can I build the offer? How can I craft a purple offer? How can I craft something that both brings in a kind of risky, prolific, imaginary things (something no nobody's ever done that piece before), but then add the security of what people are currently buying? That's why I call it the purple offer; Red Ocean +Blue Ocean = Purple Ocean.
Research phase - What different funnel types are people liking to buy through?
Research phase - What kind of traffic's out there? Does that make sense?
Then there's the actual execution:
Once I know those things, then it is okay for me to go build a funnel. Then it's okay for me to go out and actually start moving to the building phase.
Too often people research and build in the exact same steps. Don't do that. It's scary. It's risky.
The first thing you're doing is you're going in and researching; you're learning learning learning. Then once you've got all that down, then you build - in that order. Step one, two, three, four, five. And five just continues with five five five five five - 'cause you're going to need "more traffic, more traffic more traffic, more traffic." Does that make sense?
I just wanted to walk through that with you guys real quick.
So again this 3000 overview.
If you guys have been watching what I have been doing the last little bit, the sole purpose of it has been going through, and teaching like, "Hey, look here are the things you go collect from the red ocean before you can move on."
There's a podcast episode, I think it's right before this one, walking through red ocean stuff that you should have before you actually go out and move on.
The sales message - I do tons of stuff on sales message. If you just rewind 30 episodes and start watching, you'll see I've been diving in and seeing what you guys react to the best so that I know like, "Hey, that was the best way to teach that concept."
We are doing a ton of building a product stuff; that's the whole purple offer thing that I talk about. Building the actual funnel, that's what I'm known for.
And then traffic, I go back to my four favorite traffic methods.
Anyway, you can start to see that, and I just want you to know how the pieces all fit together, 'cause I'm starting to get some questions of people, like, "Sweet, Stephen, I've built this thing, but how do I get traffic for it?"
Like, "Oh my gosh! The traffic is where you get paid - why did you not look at that before you started building?" And I get it - they're just new mistakes that you wouldn't know about without being in the game for a little bit.
I did the exact same thing with my very first product. I didn't look at a red ocean, kind of did, not really. I definitely didn't look at a sales message. I focused solely on building the product thinking that's what actually causes money. It's not!
I focused very heavily on the funnel - so those two (pointing to whiteboard). There's products/ funnel, product /funnel, product/ funnel.
I remember the day when it was done - and I was like "IT'S DONE!" I was like, "Babe this is huge! The next question we're gonna answer is what island will we buy? Oh my gosh, this is gonna be so cool!" And nobody bought - because I didn't answer, "How do we get traffic?"
And I did not answer, "What sales message?" There was no targeting of "who" I'm actually targeting with the red ocean.
And anyway, so hopefully it's been helpful to you guys! I just wanted to go through and kinda do that 30000 overview.
So anyways guys, short episode, but this is incredibly impactful. This is like powerful, powerful stuff.
In fact, this is the model that we would follow at ClickFunnels. I was the funnel builder over there.
Red ocean - we knew very well who we were selling to. The what and how. Also who you're selling to comes from the red ocean. We knew the who, we knew who our customers very very well.
The sales message - honestly that's actually where we would start because we knew this piece so well. We would start at the sales message and we would start the building. It's cool to watch.
I always noticed Russell Brunson was willing to move forward with actually crafting the offer; he'd have kinda have an idea of what the offer would be. Kinda an idea of what the funnel would be. Kinda an idea of where the traffic come from...
But this was the lock gate: If he could not think up a good hook... if he could not think up a good story... he did not move on to offer. It's: Hook/ Story/ Offer.
But he did not move on to offer until he knew what hook and story were. And then we'd move on. As soon as we knew that, "Boom!" Then it was like, "Kick Stephen into gear." And I would start building; funnel, funnel, funnel.
Now that we knew what it was - we started crafting the offer and started pulling pieces together. I start working with John, and we start working. Anyways, it's a supercool melody of all these actions going on. It takes a lot to get a funnel up, and I totally get that.
I encourage you to never do more than one. Don't move on from it until you can literally walk away and have several pieces automated.
So anyway. Guys, this is just how I build funnels, not businesses.
I just wanted to walk through and share with you guys the relationship between these pieces - and what to do to learn from each of these pieces.
Then when you can have license to start - not guaranteeing it'll work - obviously there's always tweaks inside of it, but when can you actually move on to the build phase - and when you are building - what order do you do it in.
So anyways, I just wanted to walk through that with you guys. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for reviewing and ratings inside of iTunes - I've loved watching that. It's so fun. It's been very motivating for me.
The YouTube channel, you guys have just blown it up. Love reading your comments! It's actually super, super motivating - means a lot to me. I put a lot of work into this; we've got a 7-man team just creating content - that's how it is. So it's actually very very motivating when we hear good feedback! So thanks so much guys.
Catch you later. See you next episode, bye.
Oh yeah wasn't that awesome?
Hey, just real quick, a few months ago Russell asked me to write a chapter for a secret project he was doing. I had to write a chapter for a book, and this was the prompt - this is the letter I got from him... He said:
"Hey Steven, let me ask you a quick question. You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and your reputation. You only have your marketing know-how left. You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone.
You have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only one month.
You no longer have your big guru name, your following, your JV partners - other than your vast marketing experience, you're an unknown newbie...
What would you do from Day 1 to day 30 to save yourself?”
Russell Brunson.
If you want to see my answer, and a bunch of other marketers that also had to answer that in this amazing book and summit - Just go to 30days.com/Stephen
Again, you can see the entire summit, you can see the book, you can see what we wrote and each of our detailed plans. Just go to 30days.com/Stephen. That's 30 as in "3" "0" - 30days.com/Stephen Guys enjoy.