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.