The lifeblood of any business is revenues.  The more you have, the more you can do.  Managed properly, revenues give you freedom and control.

How do you get the amount of revenue you need for success?  More customers.  Get more customers.  So you advertise, you market, you sell all in an effort to get more customers.  The problem is that you can’t get customers.

What you can control is the number of suspects you can put your offer in front of and the rate at which you convert those suspects into customers.  The number of customers you have is the result of processes over which you do have control.

The Sales Funnel represents that process.  It is the act of acquiring suspects, evaluating them as prospects, and converting them into customers.  Using the SWARM technique, you reach out to a large number of Suspects, Warm them to listen to your message, Align them to what you have to offer, discover whether they’ll Realize value from your offering, and Match them, as customers, with your company.

If you’re converting 100% of your suspects into customers you still need to find one new suspect for every customer that moves, dies, or no longer needs your service.  If you’re like the rest of us, your conversion rate is less than 100%.  At a 10% conversion rate, you need 10 new suspects for every revenue-generating customer.  When you realize that you’re not going to make 100% of the people you talk to customers for your product, it takes the pressure off every presentation.  It also tells you that you need to present your message to many more suspects than you need to convert to customers.

Thus, the first step in the process is to increase your efforts at gaining suspects to put into the top of your Sales Funnel.  The next step is to improve your success at converting suspects into prospects, and prospects into customers.  You test and measure your process; your approach, your questioning, your presentation, your closing.  You work to improve your success rate at each step.  When you improve your conversion rate from 10% to 20%, you need half as many suspects in the top of your funnel, or get twice as many customers out of the bottom of your funnel.  The better you get at identifying the suspects most likely to be interested in your offering and converting them into customers, the more time you’ll be spending generating revenues.

Recognizing and managing your Sales Funnel is fundamental to success in your business.  Wild swings in revenue, those disappointing boom and bust times, are symptomatic of a poorly managed Sales Funnel.  Keep your Sales Funnel full and you’ll be in more control of your revenue stream.