How to Create Top Converting Invisible Funnel

When you first embark on your journey to become an entrepreneur, the concept of a sale is relatively simple. You show someone a product, you talk about it in high regard and you hope that they buy it. This is the most basic structure of what a sale looks like–at least if you’re in a store.

The internet has given us countless opportunities to make sales across the world. It’s not just a case of attracting local attention anymore, but capturing the awareness of a global audience. This greatly increases your number of potential sales and gives you far more opportunities to become a successful business.

However, to take advantage of internet sales and marketing, you need to study what’s known as a sales funnel.

What is a Regular Sales Funnel?

Any entrepreneur worth their salt understands the concept of a sales funnel. Otherwise known as a sales process, it’s a concept that describes the path a customer takes from the moment they’re made aware of a product to their purchase. This is something that every entrepreneur learns from an early stage as it defines most of their actions.

Different people describe the sales funnel in different ways, but for our take on the concept, we’re going to split it into seven distinct phases:

particular business. Steps can be skipped or emphasized depending on what it is you offer. As you may have guessed from the title of this article, there’s also a concept known as the invisible sales funnel.

Awareness – This is the first stage when a potential customer is made aware that your product or service exists. This could happen over social media, radio, television or even a friend. Your marketing efforts will help determine how many leads you generate and how many people you get interested in your products.

Interest – Here, the lead begins to show interest in the product. Perhaps they ask around regarding your product, maybe they do a bit of research by looking at reviews or they might even get in touch with you. This generally depends on the type of product or service that you’re offering, but this is the moment where brands should start taking more interest in their customers.
Consideration – A lead can show interest in your brand or products, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to buy your products as soon as possible. The consideration phase is when they haven’t quite made up their mind. This is where it pays to send automated emails, offer free trials and discounts to help them make a decision.
Intent – The intent phase comes next. This is where your prospect has made up their mind about wanting your product. They may have added it to their wishlist, it may be in their shopping cart or you might be close to striking a deal with them. This is where you need to be on high alert as one small mistake could be the difference between a failed sale and a successful one.

Evaluation – Now your customer is evaluating the choices they have. They might look for alternatives to your product and they might look at different models for the product that they want to purchase. If you’re offering some kind of service, then they’re probably in touch with other companies that can offer a similar service. There’s not much you can do at this phase except continue to keep up your appearances. This is where reviews of your products, services, and brand can steer your lead away from your competition.

Purchase – Here, your lead is ready to make a purchase. The only thing that can stop your customer from making a purchase here is if your website goes down or if you don’t offer enough payment options. For most entrepreneurs, this is where the sales funnel ends. However, there’s one more part of the funnel that you need to consider.

Loyalty – Once your customer has received the product or service, there’s a good chance they might show their loyalty to your brand if you’re capable of offering excellent customer service and support post-sale. If you’re successful in providing an excellent follow-up service, your customers will be more willing to refer others to your product which can help others enter your sales funnel.

This is the most basic type of sales funnel that every entrepreneur should be applying to their business. As it’s simply a concept and not something that is set in stone, every business has its version of a sales funnel. Regardless, each step is an important one and you need to provide an excellent level of service at all stages if you truly want to appeal to your customers and bring them in.

So is that it? Is that the extent of what you should be doing to grow your business?

Not quite.

You see, there are always strategies to optimize the sales funnel for your

What is an Invisible Sales Funnel?

As you can see from a regular sales funnel, there are multiple places where a business must be active to make a sale. For instance, you might need to actively maintain your customer support to maintain their loyalty, or you might have to communicate with your lead to pass the intent and evaluation phases. This not only takes a lot of time and effort, but mistakes might lead to a failed sale which can be incredibly demotivating, especially for a smaller business.

This is where the concept of an invisible funnel can help you.

Selling Without Selling

An invisible sales funnel is often described as “selling without selling”. This is because it focuses on making your prospects feel like they’re not being sold to. Instead of going through all of the typical sales funnel stages such as awareness, interest, consideration, intent, and evaluation, they skip ahead and are given a chance to test your product.

With this option in mind, they don’t need to go through the first couple of stages of a sales funnel. Instead, they can try out your product and services (in some cases, they get full access to it) and they can decide later if it’s worth the money. This might seem counterintuitive for a lot of people, but the reality is that there are plenty of good reasons to give your prospects the chance to try out your product first.

We’ll go into more detail about the advantages of an invisible sales funnel below, but for now, try and grasp the concept of being able to sell a product without the prospect feeling like they’re being sold to. It’s a wonderful alternative to the traditional sales funnel and, when utilized correctly, has countless benefits that you should be eager to take advantage of.

Structuring an Invisible Sales Funnel

The structure of an invisible sales funnel is rather simple. Instead of selling your product or service outright, you allow the customer an opportunity to put their payment details into your system when making a “purchase”. If they decide that your product or service is worth the money, then you can bill them in a couple of days (any time that suits you) and accept the payment. If they didn’t enjoy the product or service, then you take no payment and disable their access to the service.

It sounds like an incredibly abusable system, but there are plenty of ways to prevent your prospects from taking advantage of the invisible sales funnel. For instance, if you’re trying to sell a product then you wouldn’t sell the entire product to your customer. Instead, you’d send samples to see if they like your product or not. Alternatively, you can establish some kind of formal contract to take the product back if they don’t like it after a certain trial period. This is more common with larger machines and electronic devices, and it’s often easier to do when it comes to formal businesses.

So to recap, here’s how your invisible sales funnel would look like when compared to a regular sales funnel:

Awareness – This stage won’t change. Your customers will still find out about your products in the same way, only there’s a slightly higher chance to be told about the product from other customers that have also tried your product or services.

Interest – Your prospects will show interest in much the same way, only they’ll also be able to consider the opportunity of trying out your products and services. This means you can pique their interest in another way, greatly improving the chances of your lead going to the next stage of your invisible sales funnel.

Offer – This is where the first major difference occurs. Instead of needing to consider the purchase of the product or service, they’ll be offered to try the product or service for free. This means there’s no need for your customers to think too deeply about the cost of your product or your competition. Instead, you can simply offer the product or service. There are several advantages to this, such as removing your competition from the picture by getting your products and services into the customer’s hands first.

Review – Once your product is in the hands of your prospect, they’ll review it internally to see if your product is up to their standards or not. This is where a high-quality product will make a huge difference. If you’re providing a service, then it’s important to focus on this lead to offer them an unforgettable high-quality service that they’d be willing to pay more for in the future. This review process is arguably one of the most important parts of an invisible sales funnel and should be the primary focus. In other words, make sure your products and services are up to the customer’s standards!

Purchase – Now comes the purchase phase. This is where your lead will either pay for your products and services or decline and move on. As you can see, an invisible sales funnel arrives at the purchase stage much faster than a regular sales funnel. However, it also has a greatly increased chance of leading to a successful sale because your prospect has already had time with your product or service.

Loyalty – Lastly, we have the loyalty phase of the invisible sales funnel. This is where your prospect will continue using your product and also spread the word thanks to your unique approach to the entire sales process.

As you can see, an invisible sales funnel is much shorter than a regular sales funnel. This means that a customer will pass through the funnel much more quickly, resulting in a hastened sales process. However, that’s not to say that it’s not more effective either. Since the sales process is faster and puts the product into the hands of your prospects at a much earlier stage, it can improve the chances that you make a successful sale.

Much like a regular sales funnel, an invisible sales funnel can be customized depending on the needs of your business. The parts of an invisible sales funnel can be swapped around if needed. Depending on the type of products and services you focus on, you should put a heavier emphasis on certain parts of the sales funnel to meet your specific needs.

An invisible sales funnel differs a lot from a regular one and will require you to shift the way you do business. However, with the right approach, it can greatly improve the quality of your leads and can lead to far more sales. While it does require some investment on your part, it’s well worth attempting to swap to an invisible sales funnel regardless of the type of business you operate. As long as you focus on molding the concept of an invisible sales funnel to the products and services you offer, you’ll easily be able to take advantage of this modern take on the sales process.

Advantages of an Invisible Sales Funnel

Switching to an invisible sales funnel requires a bit of investment on your part, especially if you need to create samples and trial services for your prospects. As such, it’s worth looking at the main advantages of an invisible sales funnel to determine if it’s worth your time, effort and money to establish.

An Invisible Sales Funnel Shortens the Sales Process

The problem with a long and established sales funnel is that there are too many failure points. With so many places for your prospect to drop out of a potential deal, it makes it incredibly difficult to hold their attention and complete a purchase. There’s also the possibility that your competition snags your leads from you. Although different customers move from the funnel at different paces, it’s important to consider those that are more meticulous about picking the right product or service. These people tend to take longer because they’re more likely to do plenty of research before they actually make a purchase.

For these types of people, it’s important to reduce the number of decisions they’re making and instead, put the product or service into their hands so that they can get firsthand experience with it. This is why trial products, samples, and demo services are so popular. Some businesses even go as far as to offer a complete service or a rental-style service for the full product and not just a sample.

One of the goals of an invisible sales funnel is to reduce the number of decisions that your prospects have to make. The fewer decisions, the less chance that they’ll drop out of a potential sale with your company.

Customers Don’t Feel Like They’re Being Sold To

Most customers are aware of the sale funnel, especially given how easy it is to establish and maintain one. For example, if a customer has been looking at a specific product on the internet, then they might end up getting lots of advertisements about the same or similar products. They might also get emails from your business regarding their shopping cart, or they might suddenly get discount codes and offers from your competitors.

Convert More Leads Into Customers

An invisible funnel essentially means offering samples and free trials to your customers. This can be a very effective way to draw in audiences that normally wouldn’t be interested in your products and services. For instance, if you’re selling access to an informative premium-quality webinar, then offering your customers the chance to view sections of it in small clips is a great way for them to sample what you have to offer. Some entrepreneurs would offer the entire webinar and only ask users to pay if they felt that it was informative and they enjoyed it. This creates an air of confidence but it can also convert more potential prospects into paying customers–even the non-qualified leads that don’t know much about your brand.

By creating an invisible sales funnel, you essentially give more customers a chance to try out your product and services. This has a high chance of converting customers that were already interested in your brand but can also grab the attention of people that have little interest in what you have to offer.

Prospects Can Get Firsthand Experience With Your Products and Services

One of the best advantages of an invisible sales funnel is the ability to give your prospects firsthand experience with your products and services. This is something that is common with trial periods and sample products. Many companies utilize a free trial period to bring potential leads into their business. This is common with virtually any kind of business that offers a premium level of service that includes a subscription fee.

By getting firsthand experience with your products and services, your prospects won’t need to do ample amounts of research to decide if they even want to consider your business over a competitor. The ability to request a sample or try out your services immediately means they can make a near-instant purchase decision. Firsthand experience is arguably more valuable than any kind of review or information they’ve found online and it can often bypass negative reviews that could be dragging down your business.

In short, an invisible sales funnel makes it much easier for your customers to decide if they want to use your products and services or not. It gives them a chance to gain firsthand experience to make their own decisions quickly, thus speeding up the sales process and resulting in a higher chance to make a sale.

Less Time Spent Creating Content

One of the most time-consuming things about a regular sales funnel is creating different types of content to help convert leads. For instance, you might need to write different guides and focus on outreach to grow awareness around your product. You might also spend a lot of time improving your domain authority to appear as a trustworthy source of information, and you’ll have to spend time showing off why your product is worth the customer’s money. This can be a lot of work and it could involve establishing relationships with freelance creatives to create content for your business.

You could save a lot of time by skipping this and simply giving the product for your customers to try instead. While it’s still important to create some basic content that explains your products or services, you don’t need to focus as much on creating content that separates you from competitors, or explains why your products are better than the alternatives.

An invisible sales funnel differs a lot from a regular one because you spend more time engaging with your audience about your products and services than trying to convince them to pick you over a competitor. This not only saves you a lot of time but can also be more cost-effective despite needing to create trial services and samples for your customers.

Creating Your Own Invisible Sales Funnel

Creating an invisible sales funnel will largely depend on the type of business that you operate. The main issue is deciding how you’ll offer a sample product or trial to your prospects, so here are a couple of ideas:

eCommerce

An eCommerce business doesn’t have many ways to establish an invisible sales funnel outside of offering free samples or demo products. You could also try to establish subscription services to send customers a weekly or monthly supply of something with the first month free. If they enjoy your services, they can leave the subscription running. If not, they can contact you to cancel the subscription.

Retail

A retail environment offers many unique opportunities to establish an invisible sales funnel. This can include renting out a variety of different products to customers and then charging them for it if they decide not to return it. It could also involve letting your customers try a product in-store, or giving away free samples.

Creative

These businesses make most of their income from producing creative works for their clients. As such, it’s difficult to establish an invisible sales funnel because you can’t really give away a trial or sample. This can be abused quite heavily if you have to invest a lot of time creating a sample work for your potential prospects. However, what you can do is offer a free consultation to explain the types of creative work that you can offer your client. Giving drafts and samples can also be a good way to draw in a prospective lead if they show that they’re serious about hiring your services.

Consultancy

Offering a free sample consultation is a great way to establish an invisible sales funnel. This also works for authors, coaches, and speakers. This can also be a great way to trial new products to see what your customers think before you further develop and refine them into fully-fledged products that you plan to sell.

Education and Training

When it comes to setting up an invisible sales funnel for education and training businesses, you can typically offer free lessons and only start charging for more premium services that offer in-depth information on the topics that you’ve already covered. You can also offer free training services to other businesses and only start charging once they see the positive effects your training has on their employees.

Frequently Asked Questions About Invisible Sales Funnels

To help improve your understanding of an invisible sales funnel, we’ve put together some of the most common questions and answers regarding them.

What Is an Invisible Sales Funnel?

An invisible sales funnel is an effective alternative to a regular sales funnel that focuses on hiding the sales process from the user. It aims to encourage users to make a sale without traditional processes such as sending email reminders and offering discounts to entice customers.

What Advantages Does an Invisible Sales Funnel Have Over a Regular One?

The main advantages are as follows:

Shorten the sales process by having fewer steps
Focus less on creating content for your products and services
Hide the generic sales process from your customer to make them feel like an individual client instead of “just another client”
Spend more time engaging with your audience
Convert more leads into customers, even people that were originally uninterested in your brand
Give your customers firsthand experience with your products and services

Can I Use an Invisible Sales Funnel in Any Industry?

Yes! While it can be more difficult to establish an invisible sales funnel in certain industries, it can be possible regardless of the products or services you sell.

Do I Need to Offer Free Products as Part of an Invisible Sales Funnel?

This is one of the main principles of an effective invisible sales funnel. Free samples, demos, and trial periods can also work when it comes to offering your customers firsthand experience with what your brand has to offer. While some companies offer a complete product for free, others prefer to only offer a sample or partial products.

Is an Invisible Sales Funnel Similar to Offering Trials and Samples?

Yes. Offering trials and samples is a key component to an invisible sales funnel as it offers your customers firsthand experience with your products and services.

Are the Other Ways to Profit From an Invisible Sales Funnel?

Yes! Since your customer doesn’t need to pay for a product, they are far more likely to purchase additional products on the checkout page. This could be one-time offers or additional related products and services.

What If My Customers Never Pay for My Free Products?

This should be considered as part of your invisible sales funnel. There will likely be many situations where your customers don’t pay for your products and will abuse your invisible sales funnel system. As such, it’s important that you’re not losing money due to production costs. This is why an invisible sales funnel is more popular for a product that only needs to be produced once, such as a webinar or online training courses.

How Do I Measure the Performance of My Invisible Sales Funnel?

In most cases, measuring the success and efficiency of your invisible sales funnel is similar to a regular sales funnel. This means analyzing engagement statistics from various sources of content, measuring call-to-action effectiveness and also looking at customer reviews and impressions of your products and services.

Summary

An invisible sales funnel is an effective alternative to a regular sales funnel that can be used in virtually any industry. It does feel strange offering a product for free, but it’s a fantastic way to draw in a wider audience and convert leads that normally wouldn’t be interested in your products.

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