A few years ago, a close friend bought a beautiful new house. It was her first time buying, and she was SO excited.  She gushed excitement as she walked us through each room, admiring the floors, the pristine countertops, the adorable little door handles.

She spent hundreds of dollars at furniture stores, picking out the perfect pinterest-worthy interior décor, happily planning for late night dinner parties with our friend group. She even designed her entire living room around the Christmases she imagined hosting. 

I have never attended a single party in that house.

A few months after she bought the home, she noticed a crack near one of the ceilings.  She had seen it while doing a walk-through with the realtor, but she was so enamored with the 10 ft ceilings and the chandelier, that she didn’t even pause to ask about it. A few months into owning it, the crack got noticeably bigger, so she had someone come out to check it. 

Turns out, there was a giant crack in the foundation.  

Months of headaches and tens of thousands of dollars later, she finally bailed on that house, selling it at a loss just to escape the nightmare it had become.  Her perfect, idyllic home was now someone else’s problem. 

I recently spoke with someone else on the phone that had that same shiny enthusiasm my friend had during that first tour.  It was a coach who had FINALLY finished their new product! They had put the finishing touches on their beautiful new online course, and were ready to share their brilliance with the world! 

I love working with clients in this stage. Every single one is so gung-ho and ready to go – you just can’t wait to get your funnel up and running so you can start using your genius to help people (and get some $$$ in the bank). 

But you know what the first thing I say is? 

STOP!

See, as someone who has seen and built hundreds of funnels, I know what happens if you don’t get the right foundation under your funnel. Your clients, who desperately need what you have to offer, end up wandering away. You know what you’ve created is amazing. You know your client avatar like they’re your own mother. Yet somehow, they aren’t clicking the buy button at the end of your sales page.  It’s frustrating for you and for them! 

So when I’m working with a client who is ready to launch their amazing new product, the first thing we do is put on the brakes, and make sure that it has a solid foundation.  By taking the time to ensure you are starting on solid ground, I can save a client months of headaches and ridiculous amounts of money. Here are the three main things I look at when focusing on the foundation: 

1. What is the objective of your funnel? 

Most of the time, funnels start with a nurture sequence of some sort. Whether its an email sequence, a webinar, facebook lives, or an ad, we want to warm our audience up first to make sure that they’re a good fit for what we have to offer.  But knowing what to tell them and when can be difficult – you have years’ worth of content that is valuable and worth their time. How do you decide what to show them and in what order?   

Start with the end in mind. 

When you know the goal of your funnel (selling a mastermind, getting on a sales call, adding to your email list), you are able to reverse-engineer it, building each step to seamlessly dovetail into the next.  You can streamline your funnel so well that your ideal buyer happily wanders down the path of least resistance, straight into your offer. 

2. What does your audience want? 

What exactly is your audience looking for?  You want to be able to identify the ideal people for this specific offer.  The easiest way to do that? 

ASK. 

There is so much power in asking your audience what they’re looking for.  It’s brilliant in its simplicity – the people who want to buy from you will happily tell you what they’re looking for, and you’ll make them feel heard when you deliver exactly what they ask for.  

3. What are your competitors doing? 

Looking at your competitors can give you inspiration to provide even better service to your audience.

For example, if one of my competitors is offering funnel blueprints, and I notice that seems to be working really well for them, I can make my own twist on that idea, and perhaps add a training video so that my content stands out from the rest.  

The idea here is to use other people’s ideas as springboards not blueprints. What makes you special is your unique touch – your way of doing things just ever so slightly different. When you are authentically yourself in every step of your marketing, your ideal clients will resonate with you and flock to your offerings.  

Just like not everyone can inspect or build a house, not everyone is great at building funnels either. Luckily, that’s what experts are for! If you need some help getting your funnel off the ground, schedule a time to talk with me here.  I’d love to help you build your grind-free funnel!