I want to talk about how to increase conversion rates in your sales funnel by talking about the #1 reason sales funnels don’t work for a company in the first place.

The actual reason is simple: most companies skip steps in the funnel.

The PROBLEM is… they often don’t know they’re doing it.

Let’s consider how a successful online (or offline) sales funnel typically works:

1. Prospect sees an ad, likes it, clicks through
2. Prospect gets to landing page, likes it, clicks through
3. Prospect gets something, then is shown upsell. Likes it, clicks through
4. $$$

Now, notice what’s at the end of every step: “Like it, clicks through.”

It’s not “Prospect sees an ad, immediately wants product, buys.”

It’s all a sales process.

The biggest mistake businesses using online (or offline for that matter) sales funnels is skipping the steps in between.

People click the ad cause they ‘bought’ the ad.

People click the landing page because they ‘bought’ the page.

People buy the upsell because they ‘bought’ the upsell.

Sure, funnels can be infinitely more complex, but no matter how many steps they entail, the same principle always applies: the job of each stage of a sales funnel…. Is to sell the NEXT STEP, NOT the final step.

So many businesses try to bypass that, and attempt to sell their back-end product through the initial ad. In other words, they try to use Step #1 to sell Step #5.

Try jumping up 5 steps on anything and see how that works out!

Your ad is not supposed to sell the product.

Your ad should sell the click to the landing page.

Your landing page should sell the opt-in – whatever it is that gets them to give you their contact information.

After that, your upsell page should sell the purchase or the offer.

Don’t try to bypass these critical, trust-building steps by creating an ad that says, “Hey Stranger, Give Us Your Money!” and try and start shoving a solution down someone’s throat.

All you’re trying to do with that ad is sell the click-through to the landing page.

On the landing page, you’re just trying to compel them to get the opt-in, ideally by informing them and educating them as to how it can improve their lives or solve their problems.

Again, the #1 problem I see with sales funnels is businesses trying to sell 2 steps ahead of where a prospect meets them.

So if your funnel is not converting like you wanted or expected, take a look at all your steps and make sure you’re not skipping them.