Quick Navigation:

• The 10 Truths about Marketing Automation and Why Sales Funnel Agencies don’t Want You to Know Them 
  • Most Work Is Outsourced
  • They Will Need Your Input to Succeed
  • It’s Templated
  • You Pay Less for Experience
  • A Sales Funnel Might Not Work for You
  • It’s Hard to Scale a Startup
  • Optimising Your Funnel Might Not be an Option
  • The Results are As Good As Your Offer
  • You Cannot Expect Overnight Success
  • Your Business Might not Be Ready
• Conclusion

In the world of digital marketing, there are some people (and Sales Funnel agencies) that simply love pulling the wool over your eyes. As a client of a marketing agency, you might not be aware of the tips and tricks and what they do. Eventually, you should not really care how they work, you should only be interested in the results. 

However, there are a few dirty tricks some agencies are using to get you signed up. At LMNts Marketing, we offer a transparent plan with an easy-to-understand pricing structure. However, this is not the case every time you engage with Sales Funnel Agencies. 

In this post, we would like to put things right, so you can make an informed decision about who you engage with when getting a sales Funnel designed and launched. 

The 10 Truths about Digital Marketing Automation and Why Sales Funnel Agencies don’t Want You to Know Them 

Now, when you engage with marketing and sales funnel agencies, you might think that they have it all figured out. In fact, many people looking for a marketing agency imagine them like a superhero sitting on the top of a pedestal with a magic wand in their hands. This couldn’t be further from the truth. So, if you want to understand how these agencies (and freelancers) work, you will have to dig deeper. That’s what we’ll do next. 

1. Most Work is Outsourced

Well, you cannot expect small agencies (unless they are really good) or freelancers to do all the work. They cannot be writing the email copies, the sales letters, design the pages, and test the ad campaigns. If it is a larger company, they might only outsource ads and copywriting, but most of the time this happens. 

Of course, companies don’t want you to know this as you – as a customer – would probably just go away and outsource the tasks yourself. However, if the marketing agency chooses the right suppliers, you could still end up with a well built funnel. 

As a result, you might still have a good funnel that converts, but chances are that not everyone will be on the same page. So there will be some inconsistencies. It’s like trying to build a jigsaw from five different boxes of puzzles. You will never get a clear picture, and you will not be sure which picture to create.

At LMNts Marketing, we have a small but mighty team that works closely with our sales funnel architect (me) to create high conversion funnels tailored to your business goals. We don’t outsource copywriting, ads, or design. 

2. They Will Need Your Input to Succeed

Many sales funnel agencies will promise a painless process when it comes to building your marketing automation. However, this means that they don’t gather enough information to be able to work with your brand. As a result, you will get a generic funnel that will either convert or not. 

Making the process easier than it really is is a trick many agencies use to lure you in. If they told you that you had to create content, share information, and let them know about their ideal client, you might be questioning the price or what they do.

At LMNts Marketing, we are transparent about the process and we expect full collaboration from all our clients. That’s the reason why we always start with a Marketing SWOT and an ideal client avatar. While you might think that you are doing a part of the work, it’s not true. After all, you just buy the jigsaw; we connect the pieces and deliver the picture. 

3. Most Sales Funnels are Based On Templates

No matter if you are using ClickFunnels, LeadPages, or GrooveFunnels, your agency will be using the same templates you can access. They will not reinvent the wheel for your sake! So, the technical aspect of funnel building is simply useless. The know-how and the strategy is what you pay for. 

Most agencies will tell you that they offer you a one-off design, which is not true. The reason why they say that is because they don’t want you to undervalue the service because then you wouldn’t be paying £7-20K for a funnel. It’s as simple as that. 

At LMNts Marketing, we are a unique agency as we design the funnel map with you. While it takes longer to get it right, we work with the assets you already have, and tailor the offers to your target audience. So, it’s more like a done-with-you service in the beginning. However, we believe in getting it right the first time. 

4. The Less Experienced the Sales Funnel Designer Is the More Your Marketing Automation will Cost You

This might shock you, but it is true. Many freelancers -even agencies – will charge you based on how long they are spending on the project. So, they go away, check out your requirements, work out the man hours and outsourcing costs, and give you a price. The slower they are at sales funnel design (the less experienced they are) the more time it will take and the more they will charge. 

So, working with an experienced digital marketing automation company can actually pay dividends. You will not only get a project-based price and transparent cost structure, but also better results. 

We have heard about agencies who said they could do sales funnels just to cash in on the client. Then they approached us to outsource the project. That’s not what we stand for. 

5. A Sales Funnel Might Not Work with Your Buyers’ Journey and CRM

The main question is whether or not the funnel will work for your business. Many clients will ask whether it will work. Well, it depends what your goals are. If you want just any lead, throw enough traffic to any old landing page, and it will eventually convert. But – as you might know – there is a huge difference between a lead and “the perfect lead”. 

Not to mention that you will have to integrate the funnel in your business. As an example; if you are selling high ticket training or one-to-one services, you will probably have to close the deal on the phone. For this, you will have to connect your CRM system to your funnel. Without it, your sales team will be frustrated and you will end up doing things twice, which is not a good business practice. 

At LMNts, we are ActiveCampaign partners, so we can make sure that your sales team are able to pick up leads that are ready to be closed. You will also have a highly segmented list of suspects, prospects, leads and existing customers, so you can personalise every interaction.

6. It is Harder to Scale with a Funnel when You are Just Starting Up than When You Are Already Making Sales

Most agencies will just work with anyone or everyone. However, the truth is this: it’s easier to deliver £4,000 in sales by doubling a £2,000 sales figure than taking someone from 0 to £2,000. So, if you have no customers, no list, and no offers, it might take you up to six months to build a funnel. If you are doing it on your own, it will take even longer. 

We tend not to work with startups, but if we do we make sure that they understand that it would take them longer to see results than someone who already has an audience, following, and loads of content. Most marketing agencies will not tell you about this because if they did they would not get your business.

7. Optimising Your Existing Marketing Funnel Can Take Anything Between 5 Minutes to 3 Months

If you have an existing sales funnel which doesn’t deliver, it might be easier to scrap it than rebuild it. It depends on the situation. I have seen funnels that were just missing a strong enough call-to-action to convert. Or a couple of warm-up emails. But sometimes it’s not worth it. 

Most of the time – as I have seen hundreds of funnels  – I can tell which way to go. But a less experienced funnel designer will be struggling to understand what you were trying to do and how the steps are connected. So, they might try to rebuild the funnel when it’s already 95 percent there, or fix it when it takes less time or effort to build it from scratch. 

The work is not about turning the screw; it’s about which screw to turn. 

8. Your Results are As Good as Your Offer

You can get a bells-and-whistles sales funnel built; if your product or service sucks and it is not different from anything other people offer, your funnel will suck too. There’s nothing even the best sales funnel agencies can do about it. 

So, working with you on your funnel is an essential part of the process. Unfortunately, most companies rush through to the design phase and try to market a half-baked business idea which is a non-starter. 

An experienced sales funnel company will see whether your offer needs improving before they could build a successful marketing automation system. If you don’t have a strong enough USP or a strong mission, you will never be able to attract the right clients. No sales copy, landing page, lead magnet, or value ladder will save you. 

9. You Cannot Expect Overnight Success

No matter if you are the best out there, or you work with one of the best sales funnel agencies out there, you will not be able to convert enough sales at the first point of contact. That’s a job for a sales funnel. You should be patient and trust the process, or you will keep on changing things on your ads, your sales copy, 

Most agencies will not tell you that you will have to be patient, as you will be discouraged from giving them the money. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs who are looking for an “easy button” turn out to be our worst clients and we regularly reject people still looking for it. Other marketing agencies will simply do the funnel and worry about the conversions later. 

Unless you have money to survive on until your funnel starts converting after paying for your funnel and ads, you should steer away and try something else. Of course, an agency will get paid less for a branding campaign or social media management package than a funnel, So they will not tell you about the timescales for conversion and return on investment.

10. Your Business Might Not Be Ready for the Influx of Clients

When talking to entrepreneurs, we always hear: “we need leads”. And – according to Daniel Priestley – “everything is downstream from lead generation”. Let’s say that you have all the leads you ever wanted. You have an automated funnel that churns your leads. My question is: what are you going to do with the leads?

Are you honestly able to manage all those clients without compromising the quality of service? Hands on heart, is your sales team prepared? Do you have the capacity to manage all the work? Have you automated your CRM and the processes, so you can grow your business? We always tell clients that we can fix their marketing, but we cannot fix their business. For example, what if we created a high conversion sales funnel for you six months ago and you neglected your new or old clients? Whenever a new prospect comes across your sales page, they Google your reviews. And there are all those negative ones. Do you think you will maintain your conversion rates? 

Have you started thinking about whether or not you are ready for a funnel? Take our 3-minute quiz and find out. 

Conclusion

Don’t get us wrong; we didn’t write this blog post to throw mud at other sales funnel agencies. There are some honest businesses, and none of them want you to lose money on your marketing. And – after all – it is a partnership. You have your own responsibilities for your business, and sales funnel agencies have a responsibility to deliver what takes you closer to your goals. If the partnership works, you will both benefit, and good sales funnel agencies can help you get your message across and help more people.

Resources:

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-funnel

https://erinpennings.com/funnel-truth-whats-so-funnel-about-it/

https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-marketing-funnels-work/

13 Interesting Sales Funnel Statistics You Should Know