Summary: <br> How to reach out to Sujan Patel:<br> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sujanpatel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> </a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sujanpatel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> </a> <a href="https://sujanpatel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a><br> Optimizing your marketing sales funnel takes one essential but basic step.<br> Understanding your sales funnel.<br> Digital marketing leader Sujan Patel explains how to break down your funnel <a href="https://www.sureoak.com/web-analytics/">using the right metrics</a> on this week’s podcast. Sujan runs six SaaS businesses, including <a href="https://mailshake.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mailshake</a> and <a href="https://webprofits.agency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Web Profits</a>, a growth marketing agency, and they all use the same highly effective sales funnel. On this week’s podcast, you’ll learn how to build traffic and leverage your own network and customers in your sales funnel.<br> EXPOSURE<br> Exposure is not what you do to increase your own exposure.<br> “It’s the things people say about you when you’re not there,” remarks Sujan. “Exposure is your reputation.”<br> <a href="https://www.sureoak.com/word-of-mouth-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">If someone recommends you</a> to a potential client, exposure is all the information they provide to the client. Whether it’s good, bad, or a mixture, that’s the exposure.<br> It’s outside of your direct control in the sales funnel, but you can control it indirectly by creating work that is beneficial to your reputation.<br> Exposure builds trust, and you can build exposure by doing guests posts and creating videos and other content. Using the content to answer the questions clients might ask about you gives you a bit more indirect control.<br> AWARENESS<br> How big of a reach do you have? Where are you ranking? These metrics are how you qualify your awareness.<br> For some people, their big reach comes from <a href="https://www.sureoak.com/grow-business-social-media-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">social media</a>. For others, it may be paid advertising. At MailShake, Sujan explained that they crush it on private Facebook groups where members share their major content guides.<br> When potential clients move through <a href="https://www.responsify.com/what-does-inbound-mean-inbound-marketing-funnel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the sales funnel</a> from a strong awareness area, you already have some credibility and trust with them.<br> Every business will have awareness areas that are stronger and weaker. You need to be aware of your strengths to know where future leads will come from.<br> Sujan recommends asking every lead:<br> How did you hear about us?<br> This metric is more accurate at predicting your strengths than Google Analytics. Google Analytics shows their direct search pattern but not the first time the lead had awareness of your brand.<br> CONSIDERATION<br> With those potential leads identified, you’re moving into the consideration phase of the <a href="https://www.sureoak.com/b2b-marketing-and-sales/">sales funnel</a>.<br> According to Sujan, “this is where a lot of people fail.”<br> Think about the flow that will move the potential client through consideration and into a sale.<br> The process will vary. From blog traffic, someone in consideration may download an e-book or join a webinar. That action may move them into becoming an active lead.<br> You need to know your process and optimize it to ensure potential leads successfully complete the consideration phase. That optimization can be seriously simple:<br> Ask.<br> “A lot of people are not aggressive enough in their nurturing to ask for conversions.” Yes, you need to offer a lot of value so your value-to-ask ratio is high.
