#55: The Lead Generation Squeeze Funnel Every B2B Business Should Be Using To Get More Leads

Learn More Earn More Business Growth Podcast

Host: Brian Webb

Episode 55: The Lead Generation Squeeze Funnel Every B2B Business Should Be Using To Get More Leads

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Whether you're a B2B or B2C business owner or leader, you know that you should be using sales funnels, but you kind of sort of don't get it kind of, sort of, but not really. Today, I'm going to walk you through the ultimate lead generation squeeze funnel. Let's get to it.

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TRANSCRIPT

Brian Webb:

Whether you're a B2B or B2C business owner or leader, you know that you should be using sales funnels, but you kind of sort of don't get it kind of, sort of, but not really. Today, I'm going to walk you through the ultimate lead generation squeeze funnel. Let's get to it.

This is The Learn More, Earn More Business Growth Podcast.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Brian Webb. This podcast is designed to be your number one premier place to learn the framework, secrets, and growth hacks, to grow and scale your business smarter and faster. While you're working on pursuing your dreams and growing your business, I'll be here to help you make better decisions and avoid costly pitfalls and expensive mistakes along the way. So let's go ahead and jump into today's episode.

            Hey everyone. Welcome back to The Learn More, Earn More Business Growth Podcast. I'm always excited to have you come back and hear what's going on week after week. But before I jump into today's episode, I want to tell you about something. Just one month ago, I launched a brand new newsletter and it's on LinkedIn. And if you go to learnmoreearnmorenewsletter.com, it will take you right there. I've already published several articles and by the way, it's a month old, and we're just shy of 800 CEOs, vice presidents, business owners, and entrepreneurs who have already subscribed and it just keeps growing every week. So go to learnmoreearnmorenewsletter.com. Enter that into your browser. It will redirect you to the actual newsletter on LinkedIn. And it's just another channel where I can help you grow your business smarter and faster for free. So one subscribe today, learnmoreearnmorenewsletter.com. And you know what? Newsletter is a bit of a misnomer. And let me explain.

            It's not a newsletter as in go somewhere to get more information that you don't care about that's totally ignorable. No, newsletter is just the engine that LinkedIn uses to distribute the content. But really it's more like a multimedia experience that visually reinforces some of the same principles that I teach here on the podcast. You might recognize some of these titles. The Top Reasons You're Wasting Money On B2B Marketing That Does Not Work. You're Known, But Are You Being Noticed? Three Steps To Easily Choose The Perfect Brand Color Palette For Your Business. Why Active Campaign Is My Favorite Marketing Automation Platform For Growing Businesses Smarter And Faster. The B2B Shock, An All Sales Funnel To Attract High-Value Customers And Add Millions To Your Business In 2022. And there are plenty of great articles that are in the works for the weeks to come. New articles published every Monday, go check it out, learnmoreearnmorenewsletter.com and it will take you right to the newsletter on LinkedIn. I'll hope to see you there and become a part of that community of other like-minded business professionals, just like you.

            So, as I said, you're a business owner, you're a business leader. You know that you need sales funnels. You keep hearing us crazy marketers talk about them all the time, but you don't really understand what they are. You kind of do. Most people think that a sales funnel is just a sequence of emails when in reality, it's way, way, way more than that. And there are a lot of tactics that get involved and certainly strategy. So today I'm going to walk you through what I call the ultimate B2B lead generation squeeze funnel. The more expensive your products or services are, meaning the more high ticket that you are, the more education it requires for someone to understand the nuance of your value proposition, you've got to use sales funnels. Even if you don't face those two challenges, sales funnels are still the best way to generate leads online. It takes numerous, dozens of interactions with your brand before your prospective audience will ever go through the three natural phases of a relationship with you. By the way, the same phases that you go through before you adopt someone else's products and services.

            One, curiosity, maybe awareness.

            Second, you build trust over time through enlightenment.

            And third, you finally get to that engagement or that commitment.

            And by the way, we call this a squeeze funnel because what you're trying to do is squeeze information. Their name, their email address, maybe their cell phone number. You're trying to squeeze information from somebody so that you can nurture them over time. The vast majority of your website visitors, go look at your own Google Analytics, most of them show up and leave without clicking on a single button. And the rest that do are typically there for a minute or less then they go. And once they leave, you've lost them. So what we want to do when you have people come to your website, your prospective customers, we want to invite them into your story, we want to bring them into a journey where you can slowly over time, help them to understand that you have the solution to their problem.

            So step number one of this funnel is identifying your ideal customer avatar. I'm not going to go deep here, but there's a process and a framework that we have for that at What Box Digital. You need to know who you're going after so that you know where to find them and how to speak to them.

            Step number two, you need to choose your five sources of traffic that you are going to compel and attract and invite into this funnel. And you're thinking five types of traffic, what in the world does that mean? Well, let me break it down to you.

            First, let's talk about paid traffic. You can use Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Depending on your vertical, maybe you're running print ads in periodicals, or maybe you're running television ads or radio spots. Maybe you're sponsoring a podcast that has your audience. Paid traffic is only one of the five types of traffic that you can use to drive into the sales funnel.

            The second is organic traffic. Organic traffic could be you coming up in a Google search, or maybe there was a news report or a press release done on your behalf. Maybe you're in a business directory.

            So you've got paid traffic, organic traffic. And of course, let's talk about your own traffic, the most valuable. These are people that you have on your email list or your text message list. You can absolutely take everyone that's in your CRM, customer relationship management software, and you can bring them into the funnel as well. And you don't have to pay to bring them into the funnel. That is a traffic that you own. And I've covered traffic in a previous podcast episode so I'm going to keep this light, but let's cover just two more types of traffic.

            We'll get back to the show in just a moment. But first, a quick word from our sponsor: What Box Digital.

            Did you know that most marketing doesn't work at all? Did you know that most business owners and leaders are making the same mistakes over and over and over again? Like so many others, you are likely tired of relying on hope, which is a failed marketing system. This is when you're spending valuable time and money on marketing, and then hoping it works. You've thrown tons of money towards marketing mistakes and failures. And you wish you could get that money back. When you don't have a reliable system for generating leads and acquiring new customers, then you're doomed to exclusively rely on the loyalty of your existing customers and word of mouth, but it doesn't have to be that way. I'm Brian Webb, the CEO and senior guide at What Box Digital, and I've had the privilege of owning and leading a successful marketing agency in the greater Houston metroplex for over 18 years.

            Having worked in over 60 industry verticals, I've led my team and clients to achieve business growth, time and time again. And I want to give you a resource for free. You heard me right, free. I've put together the ultimate 97-point marketing audit checklist, which will allow you to assess and diagnose what is and is not working in your marketing. And it'll only take you about 10 or 15 minutes to go through it. Think of it like an MRI for your marketing, without the expensive medical bills to follow. And to get this free marketing checklist delivered right to your inbox, simply go to getmymarketingchecklist.com, provide your info, and we'll get it out to you right away. And again, it's totally free. I'd encourage you to walk through this checklist with your team and honestly discuss and evaluate every action item on the list. It will be the best 10 minutes you've invested into the growth engine of your business in a long, long time.

            Don't waste another day or another dollar on failed hope marketing strategies that do not work. If you want to grow and scale your business smarter and faster, and with fewer mistakes, you're in the right place. Again, it's totally free. Simply go to getmymarketingchecklist.com right now. Let's fix what's broken in your marketing.

            And I've covered traffic in a previous podcast episode so I'm going to keep this light, but let's cover just two more types of traffic. We've talked about paid. We've talked about owned. We've talked about organic. What about earned traffic? One way that you can earn your traffic is through a podcast just like this one. If you do, you've got an audience. If you've got an audience, you can push them into a sales funnel, into your offer. Maybe you don't have a podcast, but you can go and guest appear on other people's podcasts. Those are ways of earning your traffic and not paying for your traffic.

            And last, let's talk about, what I call leased traffic. As in when you lease a home or when you lease a vehicle. This is the organic side of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and the list goes on. And the reason that I call it leased traffic is because you don't own it. And if any of these major platforms decide to shut down your account or suspend your ad account, you're done. You don't own that audience, the platforms own the audience. You just get to lease it temporarily, as long as you comply with all of their terms of service and the beings in power who get to decide whether you get to keep leasing that traffic or not.

            So step one, we chose our ideal customer avatar.

            Step two, you went and designated all of your traffic sources, paid, owned, organic, leased, and earned.

            Step three, we need some irresistible offer, a lead magnet or a lead generator, also known as that big juicy carrot. What is something that your ideal customer would find valuable enough that they'll give you their name and their email address, even though they know that you might bug them in the future? And to save time talking about lead magnets in this episode, go back to episode number 44, where I cover 13 lead magnets you can create in 30 minutes or less. Episode number 44, it launched on November 15th, 2021. So we've chosen our ideal customer that we want to go after. We have chosen all of our traffic sources for how we want to go after them and get them to the landing page with our offer. You have learned per the previous podcast episode how to create a lead magnet, that special offer that allows them to opt into your final. And now I'm going to briefly take you through what this funnel looks like.

            So first, whether you have a post on social media, an email blast, a text message blast, whether you're buying traffic on LinkedIn or Facebook, you are promoting this thing, this resource that's valuable that you want to give away. And the reason that you want to give it away is because they're not ready to buy your high ticket services or products yet. So we've got how to get them to make a micro-step in your direction. Then when we do, we're going to drive them to that landing page. And that page is going to have no menu at the top, it's going to only have that one offer. You can have your primary call to action, which is give us your info, let us send you this asset or this resource. And you can have a secondary call to action. Maybe like watch this video or follow me on a social media platform or join a webinar next week.

            Then from there, once they've done that, here's what's going to happen. And again, this is going to be brief just because it's hard to go deep on a podcast platform. But I want to give you the idea and then I've got a tip for you at the end that's going to reinforce everything that I'm teaching you here today. So now that your ideal customer has said, yes, give me that resource that's going to help me save money, move away from pain, move towards pleasure, achieve a specific goal in a short period of time, learn how to be more efficient. Whatever that resource is, they've opted in. Once they opt-in, you are going to send them an email, not with the resource. You're going to send them the email that takes them to the page where they can get the resource. Here's why.

            If you send that resource in the email, that's kind of all you can do. When you make them click in the email to go to the landing page to get that asset, there are two benefits that you gain by taking this approach in this framework. One, you are training them to open your emails and to click. A lot of people don't realize that there's this thing called sender reputation. That is what the email service providers, ESPs, use to determine the value of your email. The lower your sender reputation is, the more your emails are going to make it into a spam folder, or it's going to end up in a promotions folder on Gmail. So long story short, it just means fewer people are going to get your emails. The more you teach people to open and click through your emails, the higher your sender's reputation.

            But the other reason is when they come to that landing page, you can have other assets there. You can have videos, you can have checklists, and you can have other offers. It's hard to get that into the email. So that's the two big reasons that you want to do it that way. Then we're going to take them through five phases in this funnel.

            First is what I call the problem and solution sequence. You're going to send out one, two, three, a few emails that illustrate, here's a problem that you have. Here's a solution that we have for it. Here's another problem that you're facing. Here's another solution that we have for it. In phase one, you're going to take them through a problem and solution sequence. And by the way, you are not selling and you are agitating pain. I can't reinforce that enough. Our human lizard brain loves the status quo. We love to not change. We love to remain where we are because moving forward feels risky. It's your job to agitate pain and to let them see that they have problems and that you have solutions. But in this sequence, you are never asking for a thing. You're just showing up and delivering value.

            Phase two, social proof sequence. You're going to send them one, two, three, four, a handful of emails that gives them social proof that you are credible. Again, you're asking for nothing. This could be a case study. It could be a testimonial. It could be screenshots of online reviews. This is just your opportunity to demonstrate and to illustrate definitively that you are good at what you do, that your products work, that your services are actually beneficial, that they'll get that return on investment. Phase one, problem and solution. Phase two, social proof.

            Phase three, the objections sequence. You're going to send out a few emails that cover every single objection that you believe your prospect might have in their brain as to why they shouldn't be doing business with you. Face all of those objections head-on. And one at a time, per email. I think I can't afford this. Show them that they can't afford it. This won't work for me. Show them how it is going to work for them. It's too complicated, I don't know if I'll understand it. Show them how to understand it. Give them clarity.

            Phase four, paradigm shift sequence. This is where you're going to show them the before and after of what it's like to engage with you. Right now, you're stressed because you can't get enough leads for your business. When you have systems in place, you don't have to have that stress anymore. You'll have your own before and after sequences that show them how you can change their paradigm, that their life will be different when they partner with your products, your services, your brand, and your business. And again, do this one at a time.

            And the final phase, phase five, kind of the final phase, I'll explain in a minute, is your sales sequence. This is where you are not pushy, but you are extraordinarily direct. This is where you are inviting them to go to lunch with you, set up a sales call, attend a webinar, and grab a happy hour with you. It's a very specific call to action. You have shown up for a few weeks now, you have fielded their objections, and you have shown them what life was like before and after engaging with you. And let me shoot the elephant in the room. Most people are not going to respond. At least not yet. Maybe they will be three months or six months or a year from now, but you can absolutely grow your business with the number of people that will say yes.

            By the way, that's why we call it a funnel. The top, the open mouth of the funnel is huge compared to the bottom. And that's where the funnel metaphor comes into play. We're going to push as many people as we can into the top of that funnel. And then a small percentage of them will end up coming out of the bottom. You can grow your business with what comes out of the bottom of that funnel.

            That's it. And again, there are some tactics, there are some specifics when it comes to technology, what you say, how you do it, how you structure automation, but that's the high-level view of a squeeze funnel that generates leads for your business every single week of the year. Now, when we got to phase five, I said that's kind of the last phase, but it's not necessarily the last phase because now that we have brought these people to your landing pages, we've [inaudible 00:17:38] them, we can track them, which means now you can run retargeting ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, all over the place, YouTube, that can continue to tell your story, or at least create brand awareness even though they're done with that funnel. So what do we do with them now? Are we done?

            Some people will just unsubscribe. And by the way, beautiful, they don't want to do business with you, you don't want them crushing your sender reputation anyway because that means that they're going to be causing you to not be able to reach the people who you can help, that want to hear from you because your sender reputation is suffering. So unsubscribing is a good thing, but are we done? No, no. Now what you're going to do is give them another offer. We call this funnel stacking by the way. Maybe they started off going through this funnel. Maybe the next funnel that you can invite them into is a webinar funnel. They don't know it's a funnel. They just think it's an offer. And it is an offer. It's legitimately an offer. You're going to do something that's generous that helps you to show up and provide value. You're going to extend your runway by stacking one funnel on top of another, of allowing yourself to continue to demonstrate authority, to show generosity, and to show empathy towards their pain.

            Some people will build trust in you in a week. Some will do it in a few meetings. Some, it'll take two years. But as you show up, as you provide value, that's how you generate leads over time. And this is how you build systems. And these systems are just like adding propellers to the wings of your business. Every time you have another funnel up and running, you added another propeller or another jet engine that just gives your business more thrust and more lift. So that's it.

            Remember at the beginning of this podcast, I told you go check out the newsletter, The Learn More, Earn More Newsletter on LinkedIn. Probably as you're listening to this podcast episode, it just feels like there's so many abstractions. Well, if you go to the newsletter. Again, the URL, just type into your web browser, learnmoreearnmorenewsletter.com, and it will redirect you. And you can actually go and hear this, see this, watch a video and see this entire sales funnel fully diagrammed. So that's it. Go check out thelearnmoreearnmorenewsletter.com newsletter. Go and subscribe, by the way, join the community, and be a part of the tribe. It's a bunch of leaders that are all subscribing to it. I'd love to have you there too. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. It's always my goal to give you as much value as possible to grow your business smarter and faster. Let's keep going and growing together. I will see you on the next episode.

            Thanks for joining me today and listening to this episode of The Learn More, Earn More Business Growth Podcast. We can be found on all the major platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, and even Amazon Music. I genuinely hope you enjoyed today's episode. And if you did, I'd be honored if you subscribe to the show and leave us a rating and an honest review. I'd love to connect with you on Instagram. You can find me at @brianwebb and the show sponsor, What Box Digital, can be found at, as you might guess, @whatboxdigital. You can also find me and What Box Digital on Facebook and LinkedIn with the links in the show notes. This will allow you to stay up to date and never miss out on exciting new announcements, events, special offers, and opportunities. And you'll be in the know when we drop a new episode of The Learn More, Earn More Business Growth Podcast.

            And if you'd like to send me a DM on Instagram to say hello, or share your thoughts on how we can make this podcast even better for you, I'd love to hear from you. Again, thanks for listening. Let's go and grow together. I'll see you on the next episode.

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DESCRIPTION

The Learn More Earn More Business Growth Podcast is sponsored by Whatbox Digital, a marketing and consulting agency in the Greater Houston Metroplex. This podcast is your premier place to learn the frameworks, secrets, and growth hacks to grow and scale your business and revenue smarter and faster.

#55: Season 2: Episode 10