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Funnels for Physical Products - B2B

by air3lement
9 replies
Hello,

I'm building my first online sales funnel right now and wanted to get some feedback from those who've done this before.

I'm starting with an offer for my wholesale customers. I think my funnel is great (loaded with positive feedback both in video, facebook, and amazon reviews from 7+ years in biz) + a little bit of copy I wrote; however, I don't feel as great about my offer structure.

The product comes in 2 styles, and 2 packaging sizes (1 kg & .5 kg) for each style - total 4 different retail boxes.

This is my funnel:

Opt in (customer to submit 1. name, 2. email, 3. phone, 4. copy of business license, 5. photo of store's current selection) (in exchange for these 5 things - essentially allowing us to validate that they're a real business) we offer them 2 free .5 kg boxes "as samples" shipped for free too (I pay for the shipping and eat the cost of the product/time/handling)

-> after submitting goes to Offer Sales page

Offer sales page: 4 cases total, 1 case of each style/size

-> if accepted they go to Offer #2
-> if declined they go to Offer #3

Offer #2 is to double offer #1

Offer #3 is half of offer #1

... then at the end I have another offer #4 which is another product related in our industry.

My query is on the opt in. I'm thinking because I'm asking them to commit with their business license and a picture of their current selection, they'll be more inclined to actually make the purchase. However, I'm pretty much going to be investing $10 for every person (cost of product+s&h) that opts in, without knowing what type of conversation I will receive. For me to just break even, I would need a 13% conversation - which leads me to believe the risk to reward is not feasible.

I've thought about offering the product for free and charging $9.75 for shipping as the opt in, then keeping the same offer structure going forward. I'm just in a mental scrimmage with this because normally, I don't have a problem sending some free boxes (with shipping paid by me) as samples to businesses if they're interested.

I don't think I should post the actual funnel link here, but I don't mind sharing it with a select few who would be willing to in turn share their feedback.
#b2b #funnels #physical #products
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  • Profile picture of the author Medon
    I think you are better placed to know how to package and cost the product. Why cant you start with the plan you currently have and improve on it as time goes by.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    One question and a few thoughts:

    First, are these customers that have already purchased wholesale from you or are they new leads?

    In general, the more 'invasive' it is to opt in, the lower your conversion rate will be. That's not true in all cases, but I'm inclined to believe that someone who has to enter 5 things is less inclined than someone who has to enter 1. Personally, I only focus on getting emails initially. You can get the business license, business name, contacts name, etc later when they're ready to buy.:

    Second, mailing a free sample to someone could make them less inclined to buy until they have a chance to see/use the product they're receiving. It's very possible that mailing a free sample could lower your immediate conversion.

    There are a lot of things you could split test here. And ultimately what matters is what gives you a positive/the largest ROI. My personal opinion is that offering completely free samples is likely to hurt your immediate ROI but could potentially help you build long-term relationships with a longer, more personal funnel.
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    • Profile picture of the author air3lement
      Originally Posted by Medon View Post

      I think you are better placed to know how to package and cost the product. Why cant you start with the plan you currently have and improve on it as time goes by.
      I wasn't necessarily looking for info on how to package and cost the product.. I was more looking for feedback on the actual offers I have setup. If i start this way immediately, I'm going to invest min. $10 for EACH PERSON that signs up. I have an incredibly small list of about 2k that this is going to go to immediately. If 50% sign up for the free optin offer, that means I've just invested $10,000... and as mentioned, the conversion rate would need to be over 20% for this to be worth the time.. and that sounds like a pretty high rate to bet on to me just starting out.

      Originally Posted by Gambino View Post

      One question and a few thoughts:

      First, are these customers that have already purchased wholesale from you or are they new leads?

      In general, the more 'invasive' it is to opt in, the lower your conversion rate will be. That's not true in all cases, but I'm inclined to believe that someone who has to enter 5 things is less inclined than someone who has to enter 1. Personally, I only focus on getting emails initially. You can get the business license, business name, contacts name, etc later when they're ready to buy.:

      Second, mailing a free sample to someone could make them less inclined to buy until they have a chance to see/use the product they're receiving. It's very possible that mailing a free sample could lower your immediate conversion.

      There are a lot of things you could split test here. And ultimately what matters is what gives you a positive/the largest ROI. My personal opinion is that offering completely free samples is likely to hurt your immediate ROI but could potentially help you build long-term relationships with a longer, more personal funnel.
      THIS is the dialog I was hoping to create. Thank you! --

      These are going to be new leads.

      I can understand that perspective. I was thinking I was "qualifying" these leads before sending them a free product - making them commit to me in some small way (taking the time to snap to photos etc) before sending them free stuff. But after your message I can totally see the other side to this.

      Being that it's a physical product with a set margin and I don't really have much else to offer them, I don't see a reason for a longer more personal funnel.

      My way of thinking with that is if they carry the product and put them on their shelves, and their customers purchase it, they'll come back for a reorder - they want to keep their customers happy, and they want to make money, so they'll make sure it's always in stock.

      I honestly believe in our product - it's REALLY good compared to some of the alternatives. I just need an efficient and streamlined way to get it in the stores. That's the goal with this funnel here.

      I'm tempted to charge the $9.50 for the shipping. It's just if a business wanted to charge me for a sample right before I thought of spending money with them, I'd be a little upset. Then again - I have paid for samples from overseas before... but also, it was for products I searched for and inquired about.

      For my retail funnel - I have no trouble charging them for shipping and offering the product free - but with the B2B situation I'm conflicted.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    Originally Posted by air3lement View Post

    THIS is the dialog I was hoping to create. Thank you! --

    These are going to be new leads.

    I can understand that perspective. I was thinking I was "qualifying" these leads before sending them a free product - making them commit to me in some small way (taking the time to snap to photos etc) before sending them free stuff. But after your message I can totally see the other side to this.

    Being that it's a physical product with a set margin and I don't really have much else to offer them, I don't see a reason for a longer more personal funnel.

    My way of thinking with that is if they carry the product and put them on their shelves, and their customers purchase it, they'll come back for a reorder - they want to keep their customers happy, and they want to make money, so they'll make sure it's always in stock.

    I honestly believe in our product - it's REALLY good compared to some of the alternatives. I just need an efficient and streamlined way to get it in the stores. That's the goal with this funnel here.

    I'm tempted to charge the $9.50 for the shipping. It's just if a business wanted to charge me for a sample right before I thought of spending money with them, I'd be a little upset. Then again - I have paid for samples from overseas before... but also, it was for products I searched for and inquired about.

    For my retail funnel - I have no trouble charging them for shipping and offering the product free - but with the B2B situation I'm conflicted.
    I also deal with physical products so I definitely get what you're saying.

    I'm trying to understand your flow as far as your leads and funnel and I've probably made some assumptions based on what I've read. Any funnel should offer value first, sales second. People are more inclined to buy from people they like and trust. Longer funnels build relationships and relationships generate sales. Especially if you're selling large volume wholesale.

    I recently purchased 3 additional private label products for my business that cost just over $21,000. It took a little over 18 months to close the sale with the manufacturer. Mainly, because I had to get my business to the point where I had enough demand to unload the products. I give them credit for not trying to force a sale and keeping in contact via email and the phone. My next order will be about 3x larger and we should have a long-term relationship.

    Is the sample just one of your products that they can look at it and use? If so, I think you'll open yourself to a lot of tire kickers and will needlessly waste money.

    The other problem is that your current funnel is a bit of a 'one size fits all'. There are going to be people that see your product and say no, yes and maybe. To me, your focus should be on those that see it and say YES, this would sell in my store. With your secondary focus on the people who are on the fence. One way to work around that is to have the free sample as a downsell to people that aren't ready to buy. That way, the people who are ready to buy can and those who are on the fence get a free sample offer.

    My last thought is that if you're dealing with people who can't or won't spend $9.50 to test a product that could be profitable for their business, I would question if those are the types of people/businesses you want to be working with.

    These are just my generic thoughts without knowing anything about your business or products.
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    • Profile picture of the author air3lement
      Originally Posted by Gambino View Post

      I also deal with physical products so I definitely get what you're saying.

      I'm trying to understand your flow as far as your leads and funnel and I've probably made some assumptions based on what I've read. Any funnel should offer value first, sales second. People are more inclined to buy from people they like and trust. Longer funnels build relationships and relationships generate sales. Especially if you're selling large volume wholesale.

      I recently purchased 3 additional private label products for my business that cost just over $21,000. It took a little over 18 months to close the sale with the manufacturer. Mainly, because I had to get my business to the point where I had enough demand to unload the products. I give them credit for not trying to force a sale and keeping in contact via email and the phone. My next order will be about 3x larger and we should have a long-term relationship.

      Is the sample just one of your products that they can look at it and use? If so, I think you'll open yourself to a lot of tire kickers and will needlessly waste money.

      The other problem is that your current funnel is a bit of a 'one size fits all'. There are going to be people that see your product and say no, yes and maybe. To me, your focus should be on those that see it and say YES, this would sell in my store. With your secondary focus on the people who are on the fence. One way to work around that is to have the free sample as a downsell to people that aren't ready to buy. That way, the people who are ready to buy can and those who are on the fence get a free sample offer.

      My last thought is that if you're dealing with people who can't or won't spend $9.50 to test a product that could be profitable for their business, I would question if those are the types of people/businesses you want to be working with.

      These are just my generic thoughts without knowing anything about your business or products.
      Thanks for the feedback - this helped.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    A funnel being wider at the top and narrowing as it goes lower, reduces in size as it goes down. If you were to trickle water in a funnel it flows freely. Dump a quantity of water in a funnel and the water backs up. THIS is friction. The same theory applies to a sales funnel... dump to much and "Friction" holds things up.

    I think you could easily get away with Name, Address, e-mail, and State tax ID #. It wouldn't take much hunting around to figure out some key identifications from each states numbers use this page as an example: https://blog.taxjar.com/verify-a-resale-certificate/ How many digits.. Letters in the front etc

    Once you add things like submit a photo that's no longer "Instant" that's "Friction" They could be at home.. They are using their laptop, and they have to go over take an image with their phone, then back to their laptop and e-mail the image so they can open it in their laptop to add to your form for submission - you might as well shoot the poor guy in the foot and tell them to walk 30 foot hopping on one foot across broken glass, its simply not going to happen.

    I think its BEYOND GREAT you are thinking of how to qualify. That's 90% of the battle right there. But make the process of qualifying obtainable as close to instantly as possible, and I think asking for the State tax ID# is a bit of a hassle, but working as a retailor and contacting a wholesaler that is a VALID and reasonable request that wont feel like your hopping on one foot across 30 feet of broken glass.

    Hope that Helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author shawnlebrun
    Another option that works really well?

    Keep the front end super simple.

    Don't make the funnel complicated.

    Instead, focus on helping FIRST and then
    build a real relationship with your people.

    Offer one thing up front... whether it's a free
    offer or paid.

    But go out of your way to make that first offer
    amazing.

    Then, use follow up email to do all the rest of
    your selling.

    In other words, instead of bombarding them with
    upsells and downsells up front, get them on your
    list and then slowly drip your upsells/downsells to them
    over time.

    This isn't the only way to do it, but it sure makes things
    less complicated up front.

    Plus, the biggie is... while building a real relationship
    over time... you can continue to add value and keep
    selling more and more to these same folks.

    I've built a 9 figure business decades ago by just
    offering one $49 item for sale up front... and then using email
    to sell $149... $499, and $2999 items to the same list.

    Instead of doing an offer with a bunch of upsells and downsells,
    I just took a different approach of offering those same items for
    sale, but doing it over time... selling those things to the people on
    my list.

    Just another method...
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  • Profile picture of the author air3lement
    Thanks so much!!

    It's just about ready for launch.

    Anyone want to see how it came out, and possibly give some last minute feedback as well?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tanda Copywriting
    Hi air3ement,

    When it comes to perfecting your funnel structure, you need to keep the following principles in mind:
    1) Make it super easy for them to enter the funnel
    2) Try to get some MONETARY commitment early especially in B2B (giving you extra details counts as less of a commitment than sending you money)
    3) Earn on the BACKEND of the funnel - most people will not trust you enough to spend a lot straight away. You need to follow-up with a powerful and engaging email campaign that they actually want to read. Give them tips to use your products. Tell them what they can do with their samples. Give them valuable MARKET DATA why the products will sell and be a success for them. Educate them - even on things that are tangentially related to your business. And link them back to your funnel steps.

    Given the two principles above, I would personally charge them for shipping. These are B2B sales, if these stores cannot afford to spend $9.50 to test a product that would probably make many thousands for them, then they're not who you're looking for. So I would create a free + shipping offer as your optin.

    The goal of this part of the funnel is to get the emails of people who are actually willing to spend some money. This is your front-end. After this, you can take them through a series of upsells where they can purchase with 1-click (assuming you're using Clickfunnels). I would offer them discounts... Order X now, and enjoy a 25% discount.

    Then make your BIG BUCKS through email marketing and re-targetting. This is my general level advice. If you want to discuss in more detail feel free to PM me. I own a direct response marketing agency and we've built multiple 6 and 7-figure funnels, so I'm more than happy to even have a look at yours if you want and advise you!
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