Everybody is in the "Sales Funnel."

Somewhere.

Yes, really! It's along the lines of "everyone's a prospect" or "everyone's a customer."

Think of a funnel & how it's shaped. A cone with a large end and a small end. In your mind, stand the cone up, like you would to fill a bottle.

Your loose goal, as a business person, is to help people find their way down to the bottom of the funnel. You might be thinking it sounds silly. And you'd be right to think so!

Sounds silly, but simple, right?

Right!

Let's put the "Fun" in "Sales FUNnel!

- Everybody who's never heard of you or what you have to offer are wayyyyyyy on the top of the really huge opening of the sales funnel.

- The next step in are people that may have heard of you or your products & services.

- Then, you may find people who received personal recommendations from people they know and trust about you. (With this, comes implicit trust.)

- You probably have a group who has read an article or saw an add. (If you're reading this, you're at least here in my sales funnel. Cool!)

- And then there are those who subscribe to your mailing list or newsletter and welcome communication with you. If you subscribe to the RSS feed of this or any of my other sites, subscribe to my BellaOnline newsletter, or any of my other community newsletters, you'd be here, for me.

- There are probably fewer further into the sales funnel, like those that have bought from you on eBay, Overstock, or from rummage sales, in a one-off manner. Not recurring purchasers, but likely people who bought one of something from you, never to return.

- Then the folks that feel free to contact YOU on a regular basis are down in here, too. Likely acquaintances, networking alliances, friends, family, are here, or deeper inside the funnel.

- Finally - further in - by the small end of the funnel - are your true customers, who know, love, trust, and buy from you.

- Deeper yet are the ones that buy from you on a regular basis, and recommend you to their contacts (the contacts, then zoom about halfway into the funnel.)

If you stayed with me, and visualized how your contacts and clients are placed in your own sales funnel, you likely already have grasped the concept that your main job, as a marketer of goods and services (which, if you're in business, you ARE) is to help people trust you more and dive further into your funnel.

It's like helping the Genie back into the bottle, so the Genie can make your self employment dreams come true!