Breakfast is a sham

Mes amis,

I promise this isn’t a tin foil hat conspiracy that I’ve sprung out of nowhere for clickbait. Breakfast is an ingenious funnel system which is used for years to condition us into believing we need breakfast - first thing out of bed - to start our day.

That without - whichever product you fancy - we are living with deep pain because we have chosen not to stuff our face with Coco Pops before we leave for work.

I touched on it in a post last week on my LinkedIn but here I want to get into it with some more detail and break it down further.

Let’s get into.

What are funnels?

Think of funnels no different from those you find in your kitchen. Except with our sales funnel, we are filtering unaware leads and turning them into customers.

Stage 1: Unaware

You begin with the top and that’s wide to cast a large net. Here begins the qualification of your leads. In other words, we’re trying to find people interested in the product we want to sell, e.g., cereal for breakfast.

As you progress down your funnel, you’ll find not everybody is a fit. Some leads remain, some leads are disqualified and leave the funnel. As the funnel thins, so do our leads.

But that’s okay. As new people come across you and begin reading your content and other resources you’ve put out there, they begin to move to the next stage.

Stage 2: Problem aware

You’ve cast a large net and wrangled some leads, those leads qualified and they are now aware they have a problem.

While they’re aware their problem exists, the lead is still unsure what the cause is and how to solve it.

This is another opportunity to position yourself as a figure of authority in your niche - become the go-to person everyone thinks of when they have this issue. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. There are a few more funnels to go just before that.

With the prospect aware of the problem they have, they’ll now begin realising the pain they’re going through (thanks to our mind consistently working to make sense of our day-to-day using patterns).

But we’re still not where we want to be. Sure, people are aware that missing breakfast is bad for you and they’re eating breakfast now, but they’re not eating our Choco Madness! So the funnel continues to stage 3.

Stage 3: Solution aware

Right, moving from stages 2 to 3, the prospect is intrigued about what you have to say. Since you:

• Made them aware they had a problem

• Told them how the problem is affecting their lives

• Detailed how it’s holding them back

The prospect is now beginning to see you as an authority in this space and kind of feels like you know what you’re talking about when it comes to getting nutrients in the morning.

However, they still want more proof, so you lure them with your lead magnet because they believe they can solve the problem themselves and don’t need to pay someone with more experience dealing with the problem to come fix it. Other prospects will:

• Be keen to know more

• Want just a little more information

• Want someone to help resolve their issue for them

• Want to be next to the best so they can solve this by themselves

Stage 3 is the sweet spot to be in, mes amis.

You’ve positioned yourself as the authoritative figure and now your audience is growing, but you still need to develop rapport with the more sceptical. And that is why as you develop your funnel, you must develop products for your audience to help them solve their problem.

I know this sounds counterintuitive to just give away your trade secrets and experience, but you don’t have to give them all away. You don’t even have to give them all away for free either - put a price on the most valuable.

Your time should be the most expensive offering in your catalogue, absolutely unless you don’t value your time. Because anybody who’s somebody knows the value of their time and they guard it with fierce devotion.

Stage 4: Product Awareness

We now go down to another level to reach level 4, product awareness. This is where the prospect is now aware that you have the resources to solve their issue.

But they’re still hesitant about it and haven’t implemented it yet. We’ve slimmed out quite a few prospects and getting extremely close to figuring out who our customers are!

Objections have come along the entire journey with us, but here is where you’ll be tested and you’ll need resolve in your product and solution to push through and effectively handle those objections.

It’s here your credibility as an authoritative figure will be tested and you must come out on top. If you’re having doubts, answer these questions:

• If you were to make this sale

• What would life look like for you?

• Who would benefit?

And on the flip side of that:

• Who would suffer if you weren’t able to close?

• What would life look like if you didn’t do all you could to move someone from stage 4 to stage 5 and move them closer to being closed?

Stage 5: Most aware

Alas, stage 5. This is the final stage where the prospect is the most aware of your solution and they are ready to act. They just need a little push.

• Have you got your final affairs in order?

• Do you have your CTA in big bold letters telling them to buy your product?

• Have you told them explicitly where they can buy your product?

• Do they know what the next steps are?

• Have you guided them through this process well enough that buying now has become a no-brainer?

If not, do it. If you think your CTA is simple, make it more simple. Remember, the customer is right there, cash in hand, ready to pay whatever price you’re asking to solve their problem and enjoy the transformation you’ve guaranteed them.

Don’t rest on your laurels, though.

To do all this work of developing their awareness just to lose them to a competitor is cruel, and you don’t deserve that. Be sure to have that CTA in place ASAP.

Until next time mes amis 🫡