How to Build Sales Funnels for Your Coaching Business

This week, Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith talk about how to build sales funnels for your coaching business and have fun with funnels! They reveal their own personal sales funnels that are running behind the scenes at THEPRBAR, Six Degrees Society, and Ready Set Coach and review what types of sales funnels are the best fit based on your unique coaching model.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• What a sales funnel is, and how it applies to your coaching business
• Lexie’s personal sales funnel for her 1:1 coaching offerings at THEPRBAR inc. 
• Why Lexie chose to build the sales funnel, to help qualify leads
• Emily’s experience with automating funnels for her company, Six Degrees Society 
• How Emily utilizes email sequences in her funnel and why this works for her offerings
• Different systems to have your funnels in place and examples of how Em and Lex have used the systems
• How to select and build the best sales funnel for your coaching business
• And More! 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

How to Build Sales Funnels for Your Coaching Business - Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith  

Hi, Emily Merrell. How are you today my friend? I'm good. I'm

Emily Merrell  

taking today's podcast Alfresco.

Lexie Smith  

Alfresco. Where are you at? Where are you calling in from

Emily Merrell  

a co working space that essentially only has my friends at it. It's terrible. It's wonderful. It's great. It's um, I think I told you about it. It'd be recorded the last pod cast here, but it's a social club. You'd love it lacks you can have a wine locker and you can store your alcohol in the wine Laufer so I just have my

Lexie Smith  

alcoholic

Emily Merrell  

to the undercurrent shine through No. I get I get it good. Yeah. Yeah,

Lexie Smith  

you're Oh, is our internet slow? What's happened?

Emily Merrell  

No, no, it's just me getting having too much coffee.

Lexie Smith  

Got it? Got it. Got it. Got it. So is this where you work now? Every day?

Emily Merrell  

Well, so my sister's Airbnb now at her house right now, and has been living with us for the last month. My Wi Fi is terrible at home. So I've been working out of here. And it's been fun to have a change of scenery, they have snacks, they have coffee. And it feels nice to have meetings here versus you know, finding a coffee shop and paying like $9 for normal and trip coffee.

Yeah, super,

Lexie Smith  

super, super close to close to where you live. Yeah, it's

about a mile

Emily Merrell  

1.3 miles. And initially, we were walking here and then with the backpack and everything. It has been very nice to drive.

Fair enough. We become those people.

Lexie Smith  

What about you?

Emily Merrell  

Do you ever leave your house?

Lexie Smith  

To go to the grocery store that happens? We you know, I think there's I know one co working spot in Ventura, for sure. Maybe there's another one. I'm someone actually, you've demonstrated why it's hard for me to work in co working I need dead silence to think. And so people around me talking would be very distracting. So that's I've never like thrived in co working unless it's an in real life meeting then that's great. But in terms of like putting my head down or taking meetings, I need focus. I used to put islands. Yeah, I used to put earplugs in, in the library in college.

Emily Merrell  

So you don't listen to music at all while working.

Lexie Smith  

If I'm doing something creative. I can but if I need brain muscles, like if I need to write I need to go into strategy mode. Dead silence.

Wow,

Emily Merrell  

that's that's, that's hard in life. I feel like in the like corporate world we were what is it called open floor plan or open? Oh my god, I hated it. Because you would hear like, so when so talking over there when having a chit chat. And I'd be like, I can't I can't concentrate. So I would get to work super early, just to that same vein just so I can have some focus and actually get things done. Because I was like a hummingbird when there was actually people in the office I was like my intentions over here are my intentions over there. I had no strategy and no focus with anything crazy.

I also phenomenal accent. Oh, am I Oh, was it?

Emily Merrell  

No, you're not anymore. I was gonna I was gonna roast you first, but I'll let it slide.

No, no, now I need to hear the roast.

Emily Merrell  

Well, it's gonna say another reason you don't go out during the daylight is because you're a vampire.

Lexie Smith  

So yes, I'm very white. But I'm going to why soon, so that'll change. But I was gonna say I think we're having some internet lag issues. Is my lap besides your I was complimenting your accent, which was followed up by the roasting. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. I my last workplace I worked in, I got my own office and it was like a big glass box and everyone else was outside in the floor. I plan, open floor plan, but I thrived. I like had my little blanket my little coffee and I wouldn't move for like 10 hours. And it was just a little glass box. And that's how I liked it.

Emily Merrell  

And so what happened when you were in a 10 glass box for 10 hours Did anything happen to your body from being in a glass box for 10 hours.

Lexie Smith  

So I burned out. But before that, there are routes that I took in the office, when I left the office, I would go to the bathroom or the kitchen and there was a flow to it. Which when we talk about flows, we can also talk about funnels the flow of a funnel, and today we're talking about coaching funnels.

Emily Merrell  

She's going to talk about her period where it comes from we're talking about flows, y'all. We're gonna talk about these cycles that happen, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.

Lexie Smith  

And so can your coaching funnel be that long or not, although it shouldn't be bringing it back. Today, we're talking about coaching funnel holes.

Oh my gosh,

Emily Merrell  

funnels funnels funnels funnels kind of the word seems so intimidating to me, even though I have them in place. But they seem so intimidating. And when I think about funnels, I think of like, click funnels, I think about drip, like her drip campaigns, you remember that? I don't even know if they're still around. They're just so they felt so prohibitive and costs to, like you had to be a legit working coach making so much money to afford doing those things. And then I feel like many of the CRM providers or the newsletter providers started optimizing and having funnels available to be built in. But lacks, I just had the pleasure of seeing one of your funnels for the PR bar. Can you talk us through that? And how you went? First off? What is the funnel in your brain? And how you decided to set up your first funnels for the barber ink

Lexie Smith  

in my brain funnels are fun. Um, no, but I actually totally agree with you that they are intimidating. If you're not someone who's in the marketing space, or someone who is well versed in sales language, then of course, that word can feel scary and big and there's funnels can look a lot of different ways. To me a funnel is how you get from A to B, A from someone enters your world, or they find out about you to Z thereby. So what are the steps in between? What is your route look like? From your glass box office to the bathroom? When you leave? Right? How do you get there? Do you take a left hand turn? Does the door open automatically? Or do you have to physically open the door? Right? There's a lot of different nuances and how you rap out. So back to your question of the PR buyer funnel. First and foremost, it's worth understanding the journey of your customer and the type of experience you want them to have. So context, the PR bar Inc, coaching is all one on one work. It's not a volume coaching model. It's it's very one on one. And so for my funnel, I wanted it to feel that way. And there's some parts of it as we walk through that I've automated some parts I haven't. And that's been done very, very intentionally. So also, for anyone who wants to see my funnel, I guess you could in theory if you hopped on my calendar, but

it's pretty good.

Lexie Smith  

It's pretty old school. It's pretty old school. I don't want to

Emily Merrell  

ever seen it when I when I have done your calendar back in the olden days when we first connected, but you probably didn't have it in place yet.

Lexie Smith  

I don't know. I don't know. It's I just I mean, it's definitely improved pandemic Lexie, which is a whole nother Lexie. Step one is you hop onto. So however you find me however, you gets my website from a variety of marketing techniques. You jump on my calendar via Calendly. And when you book in Calendly, in Calendly, so it's integrated on my site. So I've embedded my Calendly form on my website. But in the Calendly app, I have it set so that you're automatically rerouted to a very specific page on the PRBS Inc website. So you're routed to the Pierburg inc.com/i don't know what it is something and it's a thank you page. So that happens the second after you book. So that is the first step right in that funnel, and that is completely automated. And on that page you see a really low quality but personal video for me saying, Hey guys, like can't wait to talk. It's pretty bad. I also have some texts, and it's giving them what to expect next. And so I have very clear instructions on what I want them to do before our call. So I'm gonna pause because I keep talking not step one. Any questions, Emily? Yes,

Emily Merrell  

so so just to clarify their booking a call, they then are routed to something that lets them know like, you recognize that this call has now been booked your thinking never said, pre automated thank you page. Now fast forward to the call. So the call happens a week later. What happens after the call, not actually on the call and what happens afterwards? Nothing.

Lexie Smith  

There's another step, there's another step. So when you book, you're automatically routed to thank you, within I believe it's 24 hours to be honest, guys, I don't have the exact time cadence pulled up in front of me, you are sending an email with pre call instructions. Those pre call instructions, bring you to another website that's like the PR before our call or something. And there is a series of very specific steps. One, watch this video to watch this video. Three, read this article. Now, does that sound like a lot of work? Yes. Is it a lot of work?

I tell you, the people who went in

Lexie Smith  

there are people who do it are almost like the easiest clothes. It's the easiest sales call. So not everyone goes through all the steps. But some people do. And when they do, it makes my job when we actually get the call so much easier. Because what's in that video is context. It's the stuff that I'd probably be spending 10 to 15 minutes explaining if we were on a call. So when people actually do their homework, they're already prepped and ready. And I've already answered a lot of their questions so that when we are in real time, the conversation is just so much so much smoother and more beneficial.

Emily Merrell  

Huh? So okay, so I'm hearing all of these things. So then you basically the people that have done the homework are that much more invested in you as a coach and are most likely geared up to hire you as a coach, they're, they're very intentional with this call. They're not just doing it to pick your brain they want and it results from the call. So what about the people who didn't go through watching your your funnels and your helpful videos, and maybe they're not the right now client or the right time client, what happens to them,

Lexie Smith  

I still have to usually walk them through context. So for the PR bar, I, and this is transferable. If you're a coach that has a unique philosophy, I have a unique philosophy with PR, and if people don't know it, but it's hard for me to give them clear strategy advice. So when they don't do their homework, let's say it's a 20 minute call, I now have to spend 10 minutes of that call, catching them up to speed on the context. And sometimes they get it and sometimes they don't. And then we only have now all of a sudden 10 minutes left to actually go into strategy. So it's honestly just more inefficient. And it's annoying on my end, and it's not great. Great for them. I also think it indicates the type of student they would be and how coachable they are and how ready and willing they are to learn. So it's not that we can't have the call, it's just going to be a slower process.

Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

I think that's a really good point too. But if you're hiring someone who's like has a good attention to detail or if you're interviewing someone who's coachable, you want them to read district you want them to understand and read instructions and and be able to follow along otherwise they're gonna probably not be an ideal fit. So okay, I love seeing yours. And honestly, y'all, you should just give yourself the treat of booking a call with Lexie just to see the process because you did such a great one. And for those that are

Lexie Smith  

Hold on, we have to finish the funnel Emily. Oh, that's sorry, we haven't

Emily Merrell  

finished the funnel. Sorry. Sorry, an hour on the call. I guess.

Lexie Smith  

I know it sounds great to recap.

Emily Merrell  

hours later. Yeah. Good.

Lexie Smith  

You booked a call, you see a thank you page, you get instructions pre call. So there's a pre call video basically pre call homework. Now we're on the call, you're prepped and ready you have the call It's a strategy call. Okay? Call hangs up there prefaced with the call that they're going to be getting a follow up email. I choose very intentionally to not push the cell in that call. Sometimes it gets put up some people say that they're in and I go great. I'm still gonna follow up, send you a follow up recap email with details and next steps. So then POST call, this is where it's not. It's partially it's not automated. Then it's templatized. So I have a template that I send out. But I do take the time to customize what I say. So there's framework in place. And this is something we do with ReadySet. Coach as well. But I do post called tweak it to fit that person. And then it's sent. So we can pause there, because I think that's a healthy spot where either usually the sale goes through, or it doesn't.

Emily Merrell  

Next, how can people find out how to work with us?

Lexie Smith  

Super simple, go to ReadySet? Coach program.com, and you can show notes.

Emily Merrell  

Got it? And do you nurture people who the sale doesn't go through? Is there any like follow up nurture process that you have in place?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, I've been better at this in certain parts of my career, but I do mark them as needs to nurture on the back ends is something we do with Ready Set coach, too. And so they're put in my pipeline in that way. And it's someone that you know, maybe they receive my emails, maybe it's someone, once a quarter I check in on maybe it's someone where when I see a helpful article that reminds me of them, I send and so yes, they live in that space in my

back end.

Emily Merrell  

Okay, so back and check. Is there anything else you would like to add to your funnel lacks before we gonna be helpful?

Lexie Smith  

Okay, well, what I thought through and the point of this, this, what's helpful for this episode is not my funnel, it's understanding guys that there's there's choices that were made along the way. So for my business model, that's one to one. And out of Bali, I'm at a bandwidth place where I can't just service everyone, this makes sense, it actually helps qualify people so that I'm not wasting my time on the phone. Flip side, this process might not be smart when I'm first starting out, because it is a lot of work and didn't have the demand. This process would not make sense. If you're going after volume, low ticket, right? It is too much work. So let's talk about the flip side, I think a good thing to talk about would be six degrees in membership, because that's more of a volume. Right? So let's think about and talk about the choices you've made for that.

Yeah, well, I

Emily Merrell  

got I wish I'd known you to have a fancy web page. But we'll we'll revisit that in the future. So for me, I've used different lead magnets down the road, or throughout the years. So we've had everything from an ebook. Right now on the website, I have a bio, how to write your bio freebie. I've had a quiz, which I've built through interact. I've had all these different types of things that get people to engage with my website to plug in their information. And so if you're not familiar with a downloadable or freebie, what it means is you enter in your email, and in exchange for your email, you get something for free that is delivered to your inbox. And they're really easy. Again, there's much easier to implement now than they were when I started my website in 2016. Like it was a lot more of a complicated interaction, there was, again, lead pages and drip and it wasn't as streamlined as the systems have become nowadays. And I'm really fortunate, we're very fortunate to be entrepreneurs now. And so from there, they get a welcome flow actually have it pulled up in the back end so I can remember what the heck that they get. But so I have different I have different flows that happen so they'll get a workflow, they'll get a series of emails, introducing who I am, what the community is inviting them to attend their first event. If they haven't attended an event for free already, I think there's a code a free code to attend to their first virtual event. And then that code or that event when someone signs up for their first event six degrees, they get entered into a whole different flow and that one that flow is supportive to ensure the best experience at their very first six degrees event comes up with is like what to expect before the event you know camera on how to submit a bio what people are saying about events just getting them excited about what an event is all about. And then following the event for a little trick

Lexie Smith  

cause postcards because I want to point something out and clarify that's different. These are email sequences Correct?

Emily Merrell  

Yes, yes, these are all email sequences and these are all scheduled through flow desk.

Lexie Smith  

So quick highlighting right Emily's utilizing email sequences were when you heard in mind there was emails but there also wasn't there was taking you away to different places so just wanted to highlight that difference yes, no

Emily Merrell  

good call out. So this is all happening via my website to then embed with my my email provider which is fluid ask and sometimes these service certain systems, we talked about this, I believe in our systems episode, don't talk to each other. So you'll have to use a middleman. And so when they don't talk to each other, I use a tool called Zapier, which sends out little zaps to make things function. And basically, they're like a translator between tools. So from then the onboarding experience, they have the event, then they get a follow up series that basically says, like, how was your event? It also outlines membership and and then I think at one point, maybe my coaching, I'm pretty sure It also outlines my coaching. And then it just drops them into like the main newsletters that are sent out. So we they have like different choose your own adventures. We're dependent on what you get. But I think and then the same thing to be, it can be said about the membership, like, Hey, you're a member. Now here's what to know, here's how to engage. So I have them all automated, so I'm not reactive. And I have to say, Lex, I didn't always have these automated, I'd be like, Oh, cool. Lexie just signed up for membership. Let me templatized this, and I would copy paste and be like, hey, Lex, you're a member now sweet, like, here's the info. But it has saved me so much time and so much energy to have these. I'm going to call them workflows. But funnels, I would say the funnel is like usually the freebie or the free code that then ended up like organically leading them into other things.

Lexie Smith  

Well, and here's something I want to where you should do it Emily's doing, you can become a member, you can sign up for an event without human touch, right? So if you have a product and online course, for example, if you have something that you don't need to have that back and forth sales call, this absolutely is a scenario that you should automate, automate, automate, I have a an email sequence set up in my newsletter workflow, for example, that's different because anyone can hop on and there's a whole sequence there. Now, for Ready, set, coach, right, ours is a little bit different. And I imagine this is what you do for one on one coaching to me there is we need to interact with people. So forensic coach, we bite people to a call, clarity call number one.

Emily Merrell  

Oh, I think you've been backing up back, sorry, backing up from there, like we and we talked about this in our last episode, we have an event where they're exposed to us. So there's like some sort of exposure, they found us either at an event or they Googled us or a friend introduced us or I'm trying to think of all the other ways they got a newsletter, something there was an invitation extended.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. For one, to our last episode points, our number one, driver number one lead funnel, top of funnel is event. So event to call, they book a call with us, we get on the call, send a follow up email. It's really, really simple. There's no pre call, you know, watch this video. It's not as as complicated as the PR bars. But also, it's a group program. We have room for more people. Right. So that's the choice and it's

Emily Merrell  

time sensitive to Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's another thing to like, it's time sensitive. And while we might have had a call with someone, we've purchased so many examples, you'll have having had calls with people, seven months, a year before they decided that now is the right time for them to

commit. Yep. And did we

Emily Merrell  

then if they said like, No, I'm not interested right now? Did we shut them out? No. We continued inviting them, we continued inviting them to the things that were happening. We invited them to our events, we invited them to our podcast, we invited them in different capacities, we continued letting them know that we saw them and we cared about them. And we also had no idea of knowing or no way of knowing that they were one day going to buck with

us. Yeah, great point. Um,

Lexie Smith  

some other funnels that I've played with and or seen is wanting for coaches specifically. I've seen pre call qualifiers before the sales call. This is something we've seen someone else host that's not even the coach, or the coach hosts. This looks like somehow you find you know, you find said Coach through whatever marketing channel they choose, maybe it's a Facebook group, and you jump on an initial 15 minute call. For volume coaches, this typically isn't with them. This is someone they've hired to run this pre qualifying call, it's 15 minutes. The content discussed can vary depending on whatever. And then usually on that 15 minute call. They try to book in real time your official sales call. So it's actually extending or LinkedIn. mean out the sales cycle, then they have that sales call dependent on the strategy. Some people try to sell clothes on the call or then it carries over into some sort of follow up. So that's when I've seen any others come to your mind.

I feel like a lot of

Emily Merrell  

like masterclass type things that then lead to like DM me for call or, and there's no like sophisticated email sequences or whatnot. It's just like DM like in to my Instagram and like, we'll get you set set up for the program. And you're like, oh, like, I guess I'm not talking to a human Oh, cool. Or like, you are talking to a human. I think applications are another thing too, that could be kind of a way to get people into a funnel where they apply. And then there's a time constraint to it, like you have 48 hours to secure your spot if invited in. And then and that's a great way to process especially if you have like a bulk group of individuals, you can have a I love type form, type form is really cool, because then you can also have people decide if they want me to call or wants to call. Or if they're like, Nope, I know exactly what I'm getting, I know what I'm in. And if they're invited, they'll accept it. And that takes the time off of your plate to have like talking to every single person for a sales training of any other ones. I feel like we see them all the time. And we're like, oh, we should bring this up on our podcast and then forget on the podcast. So from here,

Lexie Smith  

you have all these options, how do you choose the right option for you? And first and foremost, it's understanding what your offer is? Is it high ticket? Is it one on one? Is it one too many? Is it volume? Is it passive? That right there is going to help narrow in and narrow down what types of funnels you should choose from. From there, to be honest, if you're just getting started out, serve it out, it's a little bit of trial and error. And seeing what feels good to you feels you know, what you value? Do you value only getting on calls with people who are Uber overqualified? Or are you really open to just chatting to everyone at this phase in your business that's going to help you

narrow into

Emily Merrell  

and I don't think there's any wrong answer to like if you want to talk to every single person at the beginning, that is such a great way to information information gather and also quickly decide who you want to help and who you never want to help. I feel like and we've talked about this at times, but Lex and I you know, when you're first starting out, you're like, Yes, I'm everyone's coach. And then as you get more focused and more narrow in on what you need, Shawn, you're like, Nope, I'm not for this person. This person could be great for this person. Yeah, so I love that. So Lex, my queen of homework, what are we going to give them for homework this week?

Yeah,

Lexie Smith  

I think it'd be really interesting. Again, depending on the stage of business that you're at, if you already have a business, write down your funnel, do you have one? Do you have one? Is it working? It's not listen back where some things you can try some new things you can try? Are you trying to automate something that really needs to be, you know, more one on one and you involved? If you're just getting started? Go through the steps of once again, identifying what are you selling?

And what type of funnel will lead to that? Yeah, yeah, that's my homework

Lexie Smith  

that I just came up with on the spot. How's that? No, no, I

Emily Merrell  

think that's great. And I think that's it's really good homework, we've given this homework for Ready Set coach clients to actually for our grad program recently, we just, we just did this, but just looking at the funnel, and then also looking at like your offers into your bigger offering. And that's not something we've talked about in other podcasts, but I just want to also look at like think of it kind of like when you are looking at the the food chain, you know, it's like smaller, smaller to bigger, you know, bigger thing eats Bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, but you start off with a small bite. So thinking about like, what's an easy way to get people hooked on you and like interested in you? Is that the freebie, then it's the free 30 minute call, then it's a 60 minute power session, then it's a four month coaching program, then it's your mastermind, then it's world domination, whatever it may be like think of what is what are those things as you are building out your funnel.

Lexie Smith  

So we actually have quite a few episodes discussing the ladder that Emily's talking about one I'll point you guys to is extending to that was a weird way to say to extend the cycle of a coaching client and while today we kind of focused in on once they get into your world what that funnel looks like. Absolutely. When we extend it further there's how are they even getting into your world? Right? That's where the marketing comes in.

A whole new world no Oh

Emily Merrell  

this is when we lose subscribers. Okay, well

on the coach podcast

Emily Merrell  

if you're enjoying the ReadySet coach podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening. For more information about ReadySet coach, visit ReadySet coach program.com