Let me guess: You didn’t start your business to spend all day DM’ing people who’ve liked your posts on Instagram about your latest launch, or posting all over Facebook about your products & services hoping somebody (anybody!) clicks your sign-up link, or (perhaps worst of all) cajoling that last person who responded to your latest email blast onto a ‘discovery call’ (aka, a thinly-veiled sales pitch).
But, you did start your business to make fantastic money, live a lifestyle of freedom (whatever that looks like to you) and create a major difference in the world (or at least, your world!)…and to do that, well, you need to make sales.
Sound about right?
Well, what if I told you there was a way to profit from your expertise, close dreamy ideal clients and make money at all hours of the day–with zero ‘selling’ required on your end?
If it sounds like a pipe dream and/or better than an oat milk latte with extra espresso, you’re in the right place.
“Selling” can give lots of digital entrepreneurs “the ick,” as the kids say. Sales calls are a daunting and time-consuming task, and even if you don’t do sales calls, selling in any form can feel downright weird (especially for the introverted).
Unfortunately, selling is required to stay in business. But not so unfortunately, you don’t actually have to do any of the icky stuff above to make sales, especially not these days.
Having an online business gives you an edge–and a unique opportunity–to skip the sales calls and let systems do the selling for you.
Say what?
It’s true. Below, I’ve rounded up five efficient ways to sell using automated systems–so you can make money without spending all day on the phone (or the DMs).
1) The Freebie Funnel
First, funnels are everything in online business and they’re perfect for you if you hate actively selling.
Here’s how it works: You create a juicy lead magnet that solves your ideal client’s problem (like a mini-course, PDF or video series), set up a landing page that requires them to provide their email address to snag said freebie and then they’re automatically added to an email sequence. During the sequence, they’ll get to know, like and trust you and eventually, you’ll ‘pitch’ them a related product or service.
This is a different (and much easier) way to sell, because you’ve written the emails in advance and they’re going out with zero effort on your part. And the best part? They’re not going out to random people on Instagram, but rather to well-qualified leads you know are interested in your area of expertise. So your odds of getting a sale? Much better.
2) The Tripwire Funnel
The tripwire funnel is like the freebie funnel, with one little difference; After entering their email to get your freebie, the prospect is shown a low-cost offer ($5-50, generally) on the ‘Thank You’ page.
Your new subscriber can easily decline the low-priced tripwire, but they can also just as easily say yes! (And research says many do.) This way, you don’t have to try to ‘upsell’ anyone on a sales call–the tripwire funnel does it for you. Talk about easy, right?
3) The SLO (Self-Liquidating Offer) Funnel
I know ‘SLO’ might sound super fancy, but these funnels are very similar to the tripwire–with just a few differences. You actually don’t offer your audience a freebie at all, but rather present them a low-priced offer right from the get go. This offer is generally under $50 and will often also include an automated cart bump or upsell option (although it’s not 100% necessary!).
The main point of an SLO is to help you get leads and make your money back on ad spend, as well as potentially make some profit so you can increase and expand your ad spend. It’s essentially a way to get loads of leads, make money while testing an idea and potentially scale your ads, too. All with just a little upfront work and very little maintenance on your part. Um, sounds like a win to me!
4) The Automated Webinar Funnel
The automated webinar funnel is another super-smart way to generate leads and make sales–without feeling sleazy or slimy (or having to pile on dewy makeup every few days to show up live on camera!). Here’s how it goes down: You host a webinar and promote it to your target audience via paid ds. The best way to make this as hands-off as possible is to run the webinar live once, then set it up as an automated (read: evergreen) webinar afterwards.
Essentially, webinar attendees will learn a bit about you, learn some valuable information on the topic and then are given the opportunity to buy your product, course or service, generally at a discount if they purchase within a certain time frame. Again, you’re not promoting your offer “live” and you can literally make sales from this 24/7 since people can watch the webinar anytime.
5) The (Free) Pinterest Funnel
Pinterest is a visual search engine and if you use it correctly, it can also become a (free) sales funnel in its own right. You can create Pinterest pins for all your funnels and content marketing and watch as (passive and automated) sales roll in.
Of course, in order to make any of these systems work, you’ll need a few things: compelling lead pages, a reliable payment processor and a nice traffic source (i.e., paid advertising, social media, or any other source you prefer).
But once you have all of that in place, you can easily take prospects through your entire sales process, from start to finish, without having to lift a finger (or ‘hop on’ Zoom). All you need to do is set up the funnel and let it run on autopilot. Ca-ching!
