This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, hello. Welcome to Sodasil School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. So glad you're here. This is episode 1227, beginning an all new week classroom episode, pros and cons of the funnel model.
What is the funnel model? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about. You can sell someone something at a low entry price, then sell them something else at a higher price, then repeat. What could go wrong? So today we wanna look at something you might hear about in case you follow the world of internet marketing, or if you're at all familiar with it.
And if you don't follow that world or you're not familiar with it, that's totally okay because you don't need to. The way that I was taught to do marketing, at least as much as I was taught, mostly trial and error, but I tried to pay attention to what other people were doing, it was that you take prospects through a series of low level commitments that get increasingly more expensive. So let's imagine that you're selling a ticket for a $5,000 event or training. You've got this high end training that you do. Well, just out of the blue, you might have a hard time convincing someone to sign up, even if they could really benefit from what you're offering because high price tag, they don't know who you are.
Even if you can convince them who you are, that you're an authority, that this training is gonna be helpful, it's still a pretty tough commitment. So instead, you sell them an online course for $300. Then when they buy that course and have a great experience, they'll think, wow, this is what I learned in the course. Imagine what I would learn with the in-person training, and all of a sudden that commitment isn't as scary. But how do you find the prospects for the $300 course?
Well, for that, you might offer something for sale for $15 or $20, a basic report, something really simple that still provides value. So it's still helpful, but it's low cost. And to get those prospects, maybe you offer a free email series that anyone can sign up for, for a free video. When they sign up, they receive the series, or whatever it is, the incentive, and then they're invited to purchase the $15 to $20 report. Now, what I've just described for you is the funnel model, only I described it in reverse order.
So let's flip it, and let's say you're out there and you want to sell high-end consulting. You know you have something valuable to offer, but your problem is who's going to buy from you, 'cause it's hard to convince random strangers to give you that $5,000, or whatever the dollar amount is, all of a sudden. So instead, you start at the bottom, you create that free email series, you create the $15 report, you create the $300 online course, and then, after all of that is done, then you offer the $5,000 in-person training. And doing this allows you to build up trust with your customer and to cement the six factors of persuasion that we looked at recently. If you go back a couple of classroom episodes, you can catch up on those.
And by the way, you can always access any of those episodes at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. Just to briefly recap, those factors are authority, liking, commitment, reciprocity, social proof, and scarcity. And what I just shared with you is a broad-level overview of the funnel model or system. And to be clear, some people have this nailed down, they have made millions of dollars with it, they are very good at it. So if you're out there and you like to think in systems, you can build systematically, you really like to have a narrow focus and just go deep and do a great job with that one topic or whatever it is, it very well may be the best path for you.
Like I said, it can work for people, and it does work for some, but that systematic process really is key. I'm reminded of a quote from James Clear, and James says, "You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems." That is something I heard him say a few months ago, and it's really stuck with me. You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. So it can work, as I said, but my role here is to ask, is it for everyone? What are the weaknesses of such a model?
Because as I said, if you follow the world of internet marketing, it's all about this. It's like, this is what you need to do. You start with the low thing, then you move to the middle, then you move to the high. Fair enough. What are the weaknesses of such a model?
Let's talk about that after the break. Here's a shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
Okay, so why is this model smart? As I said, a lot of people use it. It's smart because it's systematic, it's logical, it holds the customer's hand throughout the process.
It builds authority from that base, that free incentive, free email series, or that low cost report, or both. So lots of good things about it. What is wrong with it is to start with, this might not be the best model for you. If you aren't sure what you want to create, if you're still learning, or if you don't wanna be hyper-focused on a single topic, and just outline those a bit more, if you aren't sure what you want to create, if you're still in a phase of trying different ideas, exploring, figuring out what skills you have could be offered in a monetizable way, trying to decide if you wanna have a product or a service, trying to understand how your specific personality, as well as your situation, as well as your goals, how all those things connect to your ultimate side hustle/business/whatever it's going to become. So if you're not sure what you wanna create, this might not be the best approach, because it's gonna take a lot of work.
Also, if you're still learning, and by that I don't mean like, if you're still learning at all, because I am still learning every day, like we are all on a journey. But if you're really just starting with this, it might be helpful to get some basic experience first. And then lastly, if you don't wanna be hyper-focused on a single topic, because that's usually required for this. And for me personally, like I've tried a few times like in previous years, like I could never build a proper funnel like this because of my personality, because of my skills or lack of skills or whatever it is, let's just say skill set, because that implies strength and weakness. And for me, like I'm not willing to sacrifice some of the things I enjoy doing in order to build the perfect multimillion dollar funnel, because then I really would just be doing one thing.
And ultimately I think I just wouldn't be good at it. So this also, one more point here, this also requires some amount of scale, because people who do this well almost always work with contractors and eventually employees. They are creating these systematic processes that other people can follow. So if that's what you want, obviously that's great. But I know our audience.
And so I wanted to mention this because I know that for every person who identifies with that goal, there's at least one other person, probably more, who would say, I don't actually want that. I'm just trying to do something for myself. I want to sell my art on Etsy. I want to build some passive income through an app that I want to create, or a blog I want to write, or something totally different. But the point is they're not necessarily trying to create this super elaborate system that's eventually going to require employees and so on.
And that's just why I try to present you with a range of different ideas and examples, so that you can figure out, of course, what's best for you. Each classroom feature will include an assignment. I do think this model is helpful to think about. And so even if you're not planning to jump out tomorrow and start building your $5,000 training, if you were to build out a funnel system, what would be your low-cost product? What would be your low-cost product or your free incentive?
What would be your middle-cost product and your high-end one? Just think about that a bit. And here's a tip. Your high-end product is usually the ultimate solution for the problem your customer is trying to solve. So if you're an interior designer, for example, the free email series or the low-cost report could be five tips to improve your kitchen or five ways to make your studio apartment feel bigger.
Your low-cost product could be 35 ways to make your studio apartment feel bigger and more spacious. Your middle-cost product could be a consultation. I'm gonna do a virtual consultation where we Zoom or FaceTime, you're gonna show me your apartment, you're gonna take measurements, you're gonna send them to me. I'm gonna go through and make a lot of different recommendations, send you some links to products that you might wanna consider, all kinds of stuff. That's your middle-cost product, for example, or it could be just a detailed online course, something like that.
Your high-end product or your high-end deliverable for an interior designer, the ultimate solution is I'm gonna come to your house, I'm gonna do everything for you. I'm gonna go to Home Depot and Lowe's and whatever furniture stores and look at my suppliers overseas and not just make recommendations, but with your permission, I'm gonna make decisions for you. And I'm actually gonna order stuff according to your budget, according to your preferences. We'll have a long interview at first, but then one day you're gonna walk into your apartment and everything is all set up or your kitchen is completely redone. I'm gonna work with a contractor to do it so you don't have to deal with any of that stuff.
The high-end product is usually that ultimate solution, so start with that and then work backwards to get to the free email series or whatever the incentive is or that low-cost report. As mentioned, you can access all of our classroom episodes at sidehustleschool.com/classroom. This has been episode 1227, so to see the specific notes for this one, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1227, 1-227. Thank you so much for listening. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
