Building a Long-Term Sales Funnel Strategy for Sustainable Network Marketing Growth

We say a customer is the king of every business. In that case, managing customers could be like maintaining a thriving kingdom. In the network marketing context, where building trust and keeping up relationships holds prime importance, a well-constructed network marketing sales funnel is the key element for sustainable growth.

What is a network marketing funnel?

An MLM or network marketing sales funnel is an efficient way through which Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can be explored to enhance the capabilities of a network marketing business. No matter whether the journey of a customer with the business is short or long, a sales funnel is a conveyor belt through which every customer travels with the brand. Having said this, it is important to understand why a network marketing sales funnel is significant for the business.

Why is the network marketing sales funnel important?

Being the roadmap that guides prospects to stay engaged from the prime brand awareness stage to becoming loyal brand advocates, a network marketing sales funnel can facilitate the following:

• For systematic lead generation where, MLM sales funnel catalyzes attracting and qualifying leads delivering a steady flow of potential customers into the channel.
• To build lasting relationships embedded with trust, reliability and credibility.
• To efficiently optimize conversions through personalized communication that can turn leads into customers.
• To drive repeat purchases, referrals and effective retention that can fuel growth and profitability.

What are the stages of a network marketing sales funnel?

While network marketing sales funnel expedites a business process from an individual being a lead to a customer, the various phases involved in the process are crucial to turn the sales funnel beneficial for the network marketing business.

1. Awareness or prospecting – Where an individual becomes aware of the brand, its products and opportunities it provides through their marketing tactics like social media, word-of-mouth marketing and curated content.
2. Discovery – Leads are qualified, brand-lead initial meeting takes place and brand identifies the needs and interests of the leads. This is a phase where a brand builds a connection with its leads and builds trust.
3. Evaluation or consideration – Potential customers evaluate the brand, its products, and services in this stage. They later compare the same with the competitors and analyze the brand and its offerings through reviews and testimonials to decide whether to team up with the brand.
4. Intent – At this point, prospects would be on the verge of making a purchase decision. Brands should make the best use of this moment and offer enticing offers that are clear and concise. It could be anything like free trials, limited period promotions, premium first experiences etc to push them to take immediate action.
5. Purchase – We have reached the bottom stage of the network marketing funnel and here, the prospect becomes customer, who pays and makes the purchase. At this point, brands must ensure that purchases can be made with minimum friction and increased user-friendliness.
6. Loyalty or post–purchase stage – For effective retention of customers for a longer time and deliver efficient post–purchase services, this stage is crucial. Keep in constant touch with customers through follow-up emails, feedback, prompt responses, and loyalty programs.

How to build a funnel for network marketing?

For a network marketing business that defines ways through which an MLM sales funnel can benefit the business, it is important to have a preset mandate on what grounds a sales funnel should be built. To begin with, the primary factor should be identifying who your ideal customers are, without having to spend your time and money on those who aren’t meant for your MLM business. Define your target audience by gauging their demographics, interests, needs, wants, and pain points.

The next step is to curate content through which brands can educate and inspire their target audience that addresses their likes and dislikes. Then comes lead generation where brands necessarily need to implement strategies that can effectually attract leads and capture them. For which, landing pages, social media engagement and opt-in forms can be leveraged.

Keeping these leads engaged is the next important thing in the line. This engagement could be through personalized communication, follow-up emails, social media interactions and direct conversations that can strengthen bonds and relationships. Leads should be offered with values to enhance their esteem through educational resources, product demo, free samples, premium or exclusive offers etc.

Providing ongoing support, training, and mentorship programs for new customers and distributors is a necessity to ensure long-term engagement.

The role of CRM in network marketing funnels

A CRM system for network marketing is the bridge that eases the path between a network marketing/MLM business and customer relationship management. CRM is an integral part of a network marketing business that does the following:

• Customer data centralization – MLM CRM is an efficient platform where every customer information, their interaction and transaction can be consolidated into a single database. This lets brands get a holistic view of every customer involved in the business.
• Workflow automation – CRM eases business operation by automating repetitive tasks like following up emails, lead scoring, task reminders, facilitating lead nurturing processes.
• Communication personalization – Personalized communication is the key to enhancing engagement and conversion rates. A network marketing CRM system can enable personalized communication based on lead behavior, choices, and preferences and by analyzing each stage of the buyer’s journey with the brand.
• Performance analysis – The sales funnel is an integral part of network marketing CRM. Hence, CRM analyzes funnel performance, conversion rates and customer behavior to enable data-driven decision making.
• Collaboration facilitation – The CRM platform could also ease collaboration among team members facilitating seamless communication and meticulous tracking of customer interaction.

An ideal MLM sales funnel for network marketing businesses

Like any other feature or facility that you try to integrate into your network marketing business, creating a network marketing sales funnel is also a tedious and extensive process. You got to build it from scratch incorporating every aspect pertaining to your business.

As the first step to building a network marketing sales funnel, it is important to analyze customer behavior, their purchase history, and other vital data to set marketing strategies and structure the upper funnel. Then comes grabbing your customer’s attention through engaging and informative blog posts and other social media activities. This could help disseminate brand awareness and let a potential customer know about the products and services offered by the brand.

Now that the customer is aware of the product or the brand, when they further dig in to know more about both, they have got to have a proper platform to see it all. That is through a landing page that defines the brand in length, its USP (unique selling proposition), products, and services.

Since the potential customers have come in a loop with your brand, the next step is to build a stronger and continuous bond with them. For this, prospecting emails is an efficient technique. To make it more effective, including offers and discounts could be a great way to stay in constant touch with customers and get them to come back to your brand.

Then comes retaining the relationship. This is the last but crucial part of the network marketing funnel where a brand effectively retains customer relationships through post-purchase feedback and follow-up. This process does not just focus on improving revenue and sales but also creating a positive impact on customers regarding customer handling and relationships.

End note

In short, a network marketing sales funnel is an effective tool through which, streamlining business operations, driving in customers, retaining them, improving sales and everything regarding the growth and development of a direct selling business can be effectively handled. In the due course of building a network marketing sales funnel, you get to understand your customers better and alter your business strategies accordingly. Whether B2B or B2C, sales funnel is a crucial factor for a business’s long term and sustainable growth.