13. What Actually Makes a Funnel Convert?

You don’t need a prettier sales page.

You need a funnel that actually works—while you sleep, while you sip your coffee, while you live your life.

In this kickoff episode of our 10-part Overflow Funnel series, we’re pulling back the curtain on the real reason your funnel isn’t converting. (Hint: It’s not your platform, your templates, or your email software.)

We’ll break down:

⚡ The psychology behind conversion (what actually makes people say yes)
 ⚡ The 3 checkpoints every high-converting funnel hits
 ⚡ The subtle misalignments that kill your sales—without you even noticing

And if this episode made you side-eye your funnel… good.

Because I built a quiz to help you fix it. 😏

👇🏻
 🎯 Take the Funnel Fix Quiz to find your funnel’s weakest point—and get a custom plan to fix it in 2 minutes or less.
👇🏻

Your funnel isn’t broken. It’s just misaligned. Let’s fix that.

📌 Links & Resources:
→ Join the free Overflow Content Channel on Telegram
→ Take the Overflow Quiz to learn what your funnel needs right now
→ DM me on Instagram: @stine.andersson.co

Transcript

0:16

You are listening to Overflow Funnels, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want sustainable freedom. First marketing strategies that actually convert. I'm St. Pinterest and funnel strategist for business owners who are done with burnout and ready for overflow. Every week I'll break down the strategy behind showing up less, selling more, and building a business that supports your life not the other way around. Let's dive in. Welcome back to Overflow Funnels, where we talk about building marketing ecosystems that don't just look good. They actually, they actually make you money. So today we're gonna kick off a 10 part series all about fixing, optimizing, and scaling your funnel for predictable sales. This series is built on real strategy. I'm not gonna have any fluffy hacks or anything like that in here. It's just proven strategies that I use for myself and my clients. And we're gonna start off, off with the. The most important questions of all, uh, I think, and that is what actually makes a funnel convert. Because if you've built a funnel that looked beautiful, like you feel like it should do its thing and make your money, but it's not making the sales that you want, like barely anything. And if you've poured your. Hours into like a lead magnet, a welcome sequence, or like this sexy branded sales page only to hear crickets like this episode is for you. So let's just dive right in. We're gonna start about, we're gonna start talking about some myths of funnel failure. And what doesn't make a funnel convert. And I just wanna clarify here in the beginning, it is not your tech, it is not like whether you're using ConvertKit flow desk mail or like what, whatever it is, you don't need to have like some expensive, um, tool to make your funnel work. And it is not your fonts or the colors. It is not how many camera templates you used in your opt-in. And it's also not about how many people are clicking and joining your list.'cause all of this is surface level. Is surface level metrics. Aesthetics. And sure they're helpful. I mean, we gotta have a brand that resonates. With our ideal client. We can't just have it all being all messy. It has to have like a cohesiveness, but it's not the full story. Most people think their funnel is broken because they're not making sales. But I don't think it's broken necessarily. There's some misalignment there, which means the psychology behind the journey you're asking someone to take is not fully connected. So there's a disconnect. You've built the structure, but the messaging and the belief building and the strategy pacing, that is what is off. So here's what a converting funnel really does. It meets someone where they are, it shifts their belief, it, it shifts their beliefs just enough, you know, to get them curious like, what is this, what it is? What is it all about and gives them a clear, like, frictionless way to say yes. It's so obvious what their next step is. A converting funnel has the right entry point, like your freebie or content needs to attract the people who are close to buying, not just freebie seekers or fellow like Insert your industry here. It needs to be something your ideal client find very useful. And then number two, the right buyer belief path from email one to email five or however many one you're having in your sequence. You're walking them through a transformation in their thinking.'cause they might start your funnel unsure, but we wanna make sure that they end it. Your nurture sequence that they ended ready to whip out their card and buy. And number three, the right offer positioning. So you're not gonna just list out features, you're gonna present your offer as a no-brainer, like a natural continuation of the journey that they've already started with you again. It's the next step, and it's so obvious. So here's an example from a client that I, I, uh, I worked with recently. She's a branding expert and her funnel, there was like nothing obviously wrong with it. It was executed well when it comes to the tech, uh, and her freebie, like her lead magnets. Lead magnet was a brand audit checklist, and the follow up emails that she had were solid, but no one was upselling from the checklist to her branding package, which is a a high ticket package. Um. And why? Like it was obvious when looking at her landing page and everything, um, even though it was executed nicely and there was nothing really wrong, it was attracting DIYs years. So those are not ready to drop like 2, 3, 4 k on dumb for you. So we had to shift the freebie to, we shifted the freebie to three mistakes that are repelling high ticket clients from your website guide. More like a high ticket, uh, freebie. It's not a huge freebie. It's like three mistakes, three things, but they can make a huge different for the person downloading it. Um. And it will show off her expertise and just give them like a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of how it's like to work with her, with her. And then we went in, adjusted the emails to focus on the cost of staying stuck in the DIY mode and reframed the offer as a solution to a very expensive and urgent problem. Like they wanna get this fixed now, their branding. And the funnel. Like I said, it stayed mostly the same, but the psychology changed, and that is where the sales start happening. So if your funnel is not converting, here are three things I want you to check out today. Number one, your entry point is your freebie attracting buyers or content orders like freebie seekers. The problem, it solves specific and urgent. It does not have to be big think micro problem, something that will just give them a taste of how it is to work with you. Okay. And does it naturally lead into your offer? So something you can do here if you don't have that, take a tiny piece of strategy from your big offer, like your high ticket offer. Make it your lead magnet. Like just a tiny piece. Solve a micro problem that they have. Um, one of my lead magnets are. A content channel where I give content, we on a weekly basis, I drop content prompts in there, uh, because content is a big part of my coaching offer. So that solves, like, solves like this micro problem for my ideal client. They got their content fixed. But what about like the rest of the funnel? That's what we do in my coaching offer, my high ticket offer. Uh, and I'll drop the link to the, the Telegram channel in the show notes. So if you wanna join, you can join just like a slight plug there. But that's, that's how you do it. Micro problem'em number two is your email journey. So are you making sure that your emails are shifting beliefs? Making them little urgent. You don't have to slap like a, um, countdown timer on them, but more making it urgent in a way of saying like, this problem you're, you're having right now, the longer you wait to get it fixed is gonna cost you even more money. It's not just gonna cost you time, it's gonna cost you money because we all know time is money. Uh, and then also like are you sharing your stories objection and using the language of your buyer? Do they feel guided in the emails or are they just being talked at, like, you want the email to feel like a conversation to build trust, not just like listing out four ways to do this, five ways to do that, not just tips and promotions. Build trust. And then number three is your offer positioning. Does your sales page clearly communicate the transformation, not just listing out, again, not just listing out, uh, the features, but what do they walk away with? After the container you're trying to sell or the product you're trying to sell, are you addressing real objections on your sales page, questions you're getting from your audience, the objections, all of that, just address that straight up in on the sales page. Um, and when you're selling your offers. And again, I wanna stress this. Does it feel like a continuation of what they already said yes to? So if they already said yes to a lead magnet, is the next offer a continuation of that? Does it make sense? You can't just go out and sell, uh, a weight loss program and then like two seconds later. What you're selling them is a, uh, branding package. It just, that doesn't make sense. So you gotta keep with the fitness, uh, weight loss theme over there because that's your expertise. Like, you can't just like, jump all over. Okay. So those are the, the three things I want you to go check out your entry point, your email journey, and your offer positioning. Because your funnel, it can't convert consistently. It can bring in sales while you're offline and with leads you don't have to chase, but it won't do if it's just a collection of different parts. Funnels are not about automations. They are automated, which is beautifully, but they're about alignment and when you align your entry point. Offer your nurture and your main offer or your high ticket offer. You create a path your buyers are excited to walk. It's natural. It's like, give me more. No conviction, no pushing and no burnout for you. Um, and you build something that works with you. And that is gonna give you time back, space back, and revenue that is not depending on being on all the fricking time. And that's the whole point of building a funnel. Not just to sell, but to scale with ease. So if you're listening to all of this and you're thinking, okay, okay Tina, I have a funnel, but this just exposed exactly why it's not converting. Here's your next step. First of all, go back, do the three steps that I mentioned, but then you can take my brand new funnel, fixed quiz. It's designed to pinpoint exactly what you're struggling with and what to do about it. So whether your freebie is attracting the wrong people, your nurture sequence isn't doing its job, or your offer stack is falling flat, we don't want that. This quiz gives you a custom action plan based on what stage your funnel is stuck in. It's so easy. It is one question and you will get your answer. And in the next episode, we're diving into the number one reason most funnel leak without even realizing it. Spoiler alert is not your email, it is actually your entry point, and we talked a little bit about it today. So see you in the next one.