Case Study: Building a Sales Funnel for a Coaching Company
Million-Dollar Training Company Gets Refined
For visionary entrepreneurs, seeing the big picture is easy. Digging into the minute details, though–that’s where things get hard.
One of the most tedious (yet effective!) detail-oriented tasks is building a sales funnel. It takes high-level organizational skills to coordinate with internal processes, various team members, and tricky softwares while ensuring a positive guest experience.
Good thing no task is too small or big for us!
Jeremy Pope, founder of Sales Engine and mastermind for spotting blind spots in business’ operations, referred us to this client in need of some organization. For this project, we helped a successful coaching business seamlessly tighten their sales funnel while perfecting their internal systems.
The Client
This business was an online coaching program who catered to high-ticket entrepreneurs and business owners, often acquiring over $1 million annually. They offered two incredible programs: one was a VIP training service, and the other was a JV sales training program that instructed trainees on how to sell products and services by using strategic partnerships. Both programs were very high-level and relied on networking and building trust.
They had a functioning sales funnel, but felt it was time to change it up for a variety of reasons. Not only was the software being discounted, but the business had had some changes lately and the sale process had become very clunky. Although they had recently added a sales person, they found themselves busied by backend operations. Even though they had more clients to service than ever before, they found themselves weighed down by these operations.
Simply put, their processes just weren’t the same as when they had first set it up. Now, they had less time and more complexity.
Change was in the air, and our client wanted to make their systems exactly how they wanted it. They knew there were endless micro-improvements, one software after another promising results, but they just didn’t know which one to go with. The prospect of researching and executing these changes was extremely overwhelming.
They needed our expert guidance.
Our Findings
Diving in to understand our client’s process, problems, and desired outcomes, we discovered a big problem with customer experience.
As the head of a coaching company, this CEO had a lot of online presence. He was the face of the company and he had a little bit of star power about him! People watched his content, viewed his webinars, and generally grew attached to him specifically. They were excited to talk to him. Clients were clamored to speak to him, and he found himself bogged down by sales calls day after day.
So, the CEO would leave his calendar live on the website in order to encourage customers to book directly with him, thereby avoiding sales calls.
But every CEO has a busy schedule. Since his time was limited, the team would manually switch lower-value clients to their sales team’s calendar. This move backfired! Prospects were put off because they weren’t communicating with the person they had booked. The conversation began with distrust, and it made conversion rates really unpredictable.
For a million dollar company, this sort of uncertainty was unacceptable.
Our client had another glaring issue: calendars.
The team was in the practice of manually switching calendars as needed. This ate up time daily, and also caused a lot of inconvenience for the COO. Worse yet, the sales team was forced to take sales calls with only minutes to prepare.
It didn't stop there either! As we learned more, we found more issues:
Whenever the salesman was unavailable, customers were given available call times weeks away. Inevitably, even the hottest prospects would forget or lose interest.
The company’s COO acted as a floating salesman. Since he was running daily operations, his calendar was only available when the CEO and main salesperson were busy. Essentially, the COO wanted to be used as only back-up to process these lower-value leads. While this may have seemed like it was a filling in the gaps, in actuality the team was offering an unreliable user experience.
Prospects were able to book appointments without disclosing their intentions to provide revenue. This meant that the team then had to take time to sort through high and low quality prospects while still retaining all of them for potential future collaboration. Essentially, the team was wasting time with unqualified prospects.
Perhaps some of the issues could have been resolved in-house, but their goals were simply beyond the capabilities of their tech team. Additionally, they were a little spooked that their favorite software had just gone under. Still, they always felt like there was something else, something better, right around the corner for them.
Little did they know, it was us!
Brainstorming the Solution
We met with the team to fully assess their needs and put our heads together to outline solutions.
Essentially, the team told us they needed the following:
Perfect the funnel: by adding an optional questionnaire to their funnel, each client would be encouraged to provide the information the team needed to close the deal. This analytical questionnaire had to be highly visible and encouraged throughout the booking process.
Call direction: high-value leads would be automatically and exclusively given to the CEO. This would guarantee more predictably and higher conversion rates. Median leads would be directed to the salesperson, and if they were unavailable, the COO would receive them. Low value leads would be directed to a disqualification page with training materials and an invitation to work together in the future (when their business had grown).
Auto-tagging: a tagging system would allow the team to automatically store customer information easily into a CRM system (customer relationship management). In the future, the team would be able to use these tags to market exclusively to targeted customers.
We took this information, and analyzed the extent of their effects.
We realized that the current call direction system was severely constricting the CEO's time. Because he had the highest skill level and conversion rates, he needed to be only on calls with high-value clients.
With lots of research, testing, and our expert team, we were ready to bring their dreams to life.
Building the New System
After finding the ideal software and creating accounts, we began our build.
The first thing we needed to do was tackle the questionnaire.
We bounced around a few different ways to do this. First, we used a complex system to give different answers a specific weight that would determine their path. If they were perceived to be high-value, the lead was sent to the CEO. Median leads were sent to the sales team, and the low-value leads were redirected. However, this method turned out to be a bit hairy. Instead, we utilized a software that let us exactly plan the user experience path.
Next, we focused on how to more efficiently direct sales calls.
To do this, we built a system that would deflect calls from the sales team to the COO (again, acting as a backup sales team) when the sales team was busy. We would need to cohesively mesh the call system into the team’s calendars. But the problem had developed into a multilayered issue: because of technical nuances, the sales team would have to allow full access to his private calendar with the entire company in order to book calls. Not only was this a privacy issue, but it was simply inconvenient.
Essentially, the system they had started with simply wasn’t sufficient for their current needs.
We wanted to respect the current company’s environment as much as possible. Messing with any ecosystem too much is messy and unpredictable! So we analyzed the resources available and thought about ways to tweak them to function at their best capacity.
So, we got creative.
By creating a shadow calendar account and connecting it to the sales team’s calendar, we were able to block out sections of the calendar. This shadow account effectively worked as its own scheduling system!
This move was hugely beneficial. It solved the privacy issue for the sales team, but also guaranteed that when a new employee was hired or left, adjusting the new calendar would be solved in a few clicks.
And with the right team, even hard work looks easy.
So now we had distinct qualification paths for leads, a calendar booking system, and a way to direct sales calls without overbooking the team...all automated and seamless!
Questionnaire and sales calls squared away, we set to building the analytical portion of the funnel.
This was important because we wanted to get as much information as possible from the prospect. By knowing more, the team would be able to convert more. We enthusiastically offered these forms, but still kept them entirely voluntary.
We placed these questions in three locations the customer would see after booking a call:
Thank you page: here, we placed a form customers could fill out after they completed the qualification form
Confirmation email: sent automatically after scheduling a call
Calendar invite: we conveniently sent a link that would with a direct link in a customer’s calendar
When complete, we input all the provided information into the company’s CRM. Now, the team was able to:
Quickly pull up any and all information on any specific customer
Send multiple email campaigns targeted to customer history and preferences
Upsell consistently based on given data
Adjust and refine marketing campaigns based on the customer behavior
Results: "You Guys are Amazing!"
Our client was extremely happy.
Ultimately, our collective efforts resulted in a smoothly functioning funnel which was perfectly customized to their complex processes.
Previously, the client had felt extremely intimidated by the prospect of building this kind of system. However, now he felt incredibly powerful and supported to make whatever decision was necessary.
The CEO was now spending more time with high value clients, thereby maximizing his dollar per hour value. Not only was this beneficial for the company, but he also felt more valuable to the company.
As for the COO, he saved valuable time, money and energy that was no longer spent on tedious tasks that were below his skill level.
The sales team was busier than ever, and had a huge network of information to support their work. Now, it was infinitely easier to close sales.
It was genuinely inspiring to watch them excel and succeed. And the complexity just made success all the more satisfying!
Drowning in your Business?
Prospects abandoning you? Conversion rates falling flat? Are you endlessly bogged down in the details, and find yourself dreaming of a better way to just get things done?
We can help you!
Every day, we help business owners re-engineer and micro-optimize their systems to get them running smoothly...and increase their revenue! We build custom systems for businesses like yours designed to make you more money and save you your most valuable asset: time.
Buy back your time, mental space, and put your business on a path to growth.
Stop relying on inadequate systems, and let us get it done for you!
Case Study: Building a Sales Funnel for a Coaching Company
Million-Dollar Training Company Gets Refined
For visionary entrepreneurs, seeing the big picture is easy. Digging into the minute details, though–that’s where things get hard.
One of the most tedious (yet effective!) detail-oriented tasks is building a sales funnel. It takes high-level organizational skills to coordinate with internal processes, various team members, and tricky softwares while ensuring a positive guest experience.
Good thing no task is too small or big for us!
Jeremy Pope, founder of Sales Engine and mastermind for spotting blind spots in business’ operations, referred us to this client in need of some organization. For this project, we helped a successful coaching business seamlessly tighten their sales funnel while perfecting their internal systems.
The Client
This business was an online coaching program who catered to high-ticket entrepreneurs and business owners, often acquiring over $1 million annually. They offered two incredible programs: one was a VIP training service, and the other was a JV sales training program that instructed trainees on how to sell products and services by using strategic partnerships. Both programs were very high-level and relied on networking and building trust.
They had a functioning sales funnel, but felt it was time to change it up for a variety of reasons. Not only was the software being discounted, but the business had had some changes lately and the sale process had become very clunky. Although they had recently added a sales person, they found themselves busied by backend operations. Even though they had more clients to service than ever before, they found themselves weighed down by these operations.
Simply put, their processes just weren’t the same as when they had first set it up. Now, they had less time and more complexity.
Change was in the air, and our client wanted to make their systems exactly how they wanted it. They knew there were endless micro-improvements, one software after another promising results, but they just didn’t know which one to go with. The prospect of researching and executing these changes was extremely overwhelming.
They needed our expert guidance.
Our Findings
Diving in to understand our client’s process, problems, and desired outcomes, we discovered a big problem with customer experience.
As the head of a coaching company, this CEO had a lot of online presence. He was the face of the company and he had a little bit of star power about him! People watched his content, viewed his webinars, and generally grew attached to him specifically. They were excited to talk to him. Clients were clamored to speak to him, and he found himself bogged down by sales calls day after day.
So, the CEO would leave his calendar live on the website in order to encourage customers to book directly with him, thereby avoiding sales calls.
But every CEO has a busy schedule. Since his time was limited, the team would manually switch lower-value clients to their sales team’s calendar. This move backfired! Prospects were put off because they weren’t communicating with the person they had booked. The conversation began with distrust, and it made conversion rates really unpredictable.
For a million dollar company, this sort of uncertainty was unacceptable.
Our client had another glaring issue: calendars.
The team was in the practice of manually switching calendars as needed. This ate up time daily, and also caused a lot of inconvenience for the COO. Worse yet, the sales team was forced to take sales calls with only minutes to prepare.
It didn't stop there either! As we learned more, we found more issues:
Whenever the salesman was unavailable, customers were given available call times weeks away. Inevitably, even the hottest prospects would forget or lose interest.
The company’s COO acted as a floating salesman. Since he was running daily operations, his calendar was only available when the CEO and main salesperson were busy. Essentially, the COO wanted to be used as only back-up to process these lower-value leads. While this may have seemed like it was a filling in the gaps, in actuality the team was offering an unreliable user experience.
Prospects were able to book appointments without disclosing their intentions to provide revenue. This meant that the team then had to take time to sort through high and low quality prospects while still retaining all of them for potential future collaboration. Essentially, the team was wasting time with unqualified prospects.
Perhaps some of the issues could have been resolved in-house, but their goals were simply beyond the capabilities of their tech team. Additionally, they were a little spooked that their favorite software had just gone under. Still, they always felt like there was something else, something better, right around the corner for them.
Little did they know, it was us!
Brainstorming the Solution
We met with the team to fully assess their needs and put our heads together to outline solutions.
Essentially, the team told us they needed the following:
Perfect the funnel: by adding an optional questionnaire to their funnel, each client would be encouraged to provide the information the team needed to close the deal. This analytical questionnaire had to be highly visible and encouraged throughout the booking process.
Call direction: high-value leads would be automatically and exclusively given to the CEO. This would guarantee more predictably and higher conversion rates. Median leads would be directed to the salesperson, and if they were unavailable, the COO would receive them. Low value leads would be directed to a disqualification page with training materials and an invitation to work together in the future (when their business had grown).
Auto-tagging: a tagging system would allow the team to automatically store customer information easily into a CRM system (customer relationship management). In the future, the team would be able to use these tags to market exclusively to targeted customers.
We took this information, and analyzed the extent of their effects.
We realized that the current call direction system was severely constricting the CEO's time. Because he had the highest skill level and conversion rates, he needed to be only on calls with high-value clients.
With lots of research, testing, and our expert team, we were ready to bring their dreams to life.
Building the New System
After finding the ideal software and creating accounts, we began our build.
The first thing we needed to do was tackle the questionnaire.
We bounced around a few different ways to do this. First, we used a complex system to give different answers a specific weight that would determine their path. If they were perceived to be high-value, the lead was sent to the CEO. Median leads were sent to the sales team, and the low-value leads were redirected. However, this method turned out to be a bit hairy. Instead, we utilized a software that let us exactly plan the user experience path.
Next, we focused on how to more efficiently direct sales calls.
To do this, we built a system that would deflect calls from the sales team to the COO (again, acting as a backup sales team) when the sales team was busy. We would need to cohesively mesh the call system into the team’s calendars. But the problem had developed into a multilayered issue: because of technical nuances, the sales team would have to allow full access to his private calendar with the entire company in order to book calls. Not only was this a privacy issue, but it was simply inconvenient.
Essentially, the system they had started with simply wasn’t sufficient for their current needs.
We wanted to respect the current company’s environment as much as possible. Messing with any ecosystem too much is messy and unpredictable! So we analyzed the resources available and thought about ways to tweak them to function at their best capacity.
So, we got creative.
By creating a shadow calendar account and connecting it to the sales team’s calendar, we were able to block out sections of the calendar. This shadow account effectively worked as its own scheduling system!
This move was hugely beneficial. It solved the privacy issue for the sales team, but also guaranteed that when a new employee was hired or left, adjusting the new calendar would be solved in a few clicks.
And with the right team, even hard work looks easy.
So now we had distinct qualification paths for leads, a calendar booking system, and a way to direct sales calls without overbooking the team...all automated and seamless!
Questionnaire and sales calls squared away, we set to building the analytical portion of the funnel.
This was important because we wanted to get as much information as possible from the prospect. By knowing more, the team would be able to convert more. We enthusiastically offered these forms, but still kept them entirely voluntary.
We placed these questions in three locations the customer would see after booking a call:
Thank you page: here, we placed a form customers could fill out after they completed the qualification form
Confirmation email: sent automatically after scheduling a call
Calendar invite: we conveniently sent a link that would with a direct link in a customer’s calendar
When complete, we input all the provided information into the company’s CRM. Now, the team was able to:
Quickly pull up any and all information on any specific customer
Send multiple email campaigns targeted to customer history and preferences
Upsell consistently based on given data
Adjust and refine marketing campaigns based on the customer behavior
Results: "You Guys are Amazing!"
Our client was extremely happy.
Ultimately, our collective efforts resulted in a smoothly functioning funnel which was perfectly customized to their complex processes.
Previously, the client had felt extremely intimidated by the prospect of building this kind of system. However, now he felt incredibly powerful and supported to make whatever decision was necessary.
The CEO was now spending more time with high value clients, thereby maximizing his dollar per hour value. Not only was this beneficial for the company, but he also felt more valuable to the company.
As for the COO, he saved valuable time, money and energy that was no longer spent on tedious tasks that were below his skill level.
The sales team was busier than ever, and had a huge network of information to support their work. Now, it was infinitely easier to close sales.
It was genuinely inspiring to watch them excel and succeed. And the complexity just made success all the more satisfying!
Drowning in your Business?
Prospects abandoning you? Conversion rates falling flat? Are you endlessly bogged down in the details, and find yourself dreaming of a better way to just get things done?
We can help you!
Every day, we help business owners re-engineer and micro-optimize their systems to get them running smoothly...and increase their revenue! We build custom systems for businesses like yours designed to make you more money and save you your most valuable asset: time.
Buy back your time, mental space, and put your business on a path to growth.
Stop relying on inadequate systems, and let us get it done for you!