Issue #93

FIRST a Funnel That Converts

When someone enters your business world for the first time, what happens next is critical - it determines whether they stay engaged and buy or move on.

A strong funnel guides them through a clear sequence. Each step builds logically on the one before.

My mid-funnel process is simple and repeatable. It has five parts: Find, Investigate, Reflect, Secure, Track.

I’ll use an example of helping a sales VP throughout, but it is easy enough to translate this into your own world’s language.

Give it a go, it has earned me a lot of money over my career.

Find: Anchor the Conversation

The “Find” is the opening moment - a cold message, a warm reply, a conversation at an event. This comes from your top of funnel activities like marketing and outreach.

If you're having a bit of trouble with the top of your funnel, read this, it will give you some ideas.

Your job is to begin with something the buyer recognises from their own experience. Reference real problems that show up for them.

Example - maybe their proposals keep stalling, demos are not converting, second meetings going quiet, or reps booking calls with no decision makers attending.

Open with, “I’ve seen teams recently where second meetings are booked, but the opportunity stalls after that. Does that sound familiar?

You’re not diagnosing, you’re describing, giving them the chance to say, “Yes, we’ve seen that too,” or “No, but we see this…” Now the door is open.

Investigate: Surface a Pattern They Feel

Now you can give them a short diagnostic. Keep it simple and focused.

The goal is to help them notice what’s actually happening in their deals, to continue our example.

Often it is the way they are positioning their offer in the marketplace, read this to get a better understanding of the value of positioning.

I would say, “Can you recall where your last couple of deals dropped off?”

or

“What tends to happen between the proposal going out and the deal closing?”

This is focused on finding patterns they haven’t noticed. Putting shape to something they’ve sensed but not tracked. That clarity is what earns their attention.

Reflect: Connect the Pattern to the Cause

This is where the prospect learns something they didn’t have language for before. You’re pointing to a specific pattern and explaining why it keeps happening.

Draw from your own experience across deals, teams, and stages. A really useful tool here is the “Five Whys”.

It is simple, you ask “why” to whatever answer you get - five times. It is easy to become annoying, so do it with good humour.

At the end you will be in a position to say, for example:

“You’re getting silence when the prospect is not fully aligned internally. They are just not ready for the solution.”

The right “Reflect” doesn’t overwhelm. It sharpens. It gives the buyer a clearer view of how their own system behaves and why.

Secure: Ask For Commitment

This is the moment to lock in progress. You’ve built enough clarity to justify a small ask. Don’t back off. Offer a specific action that keeps the problem-solving alive.

Example, “Send me the last proposal that didn’t close, with the call summary, I’ll review it for you. I should be able to find a couple of areas to improve conversion. Can you get it over tomorrow?”

This is not forcing urgency, it’s keeping the momentum going. They’re now taking part in their own solution. That shift is everything.

Track: Persist Till It’s Fixed

Once they take that step, your follow up must be consistent. Don’t introduce a new problem. Don’t change tone.

Continue with the problem you’re working on, and take it deeper.

If, as in our example, you’re helping with proposal timing, follow up by editing the structure or the offer framing.

Don’t jump around, stay with the issue until progress is clear.

Funnels can collapse here if energy becomes unfocused. Keep solving the problem you started with. Then you can progress.

​

​

Summary: How to Use F.I.R.S.T.

Find - open the conversation with a situation the buyer recognises as a problem.

Investigate - help them to uncover a repeated failure point. You do this together. Create trust by revealing what they suspected but hadn’t confirmed.

Reflect - shape the problem by naming the cause behind the pattern. This isn’t theory or storytelling. It’s grounded in your (company’s) experience.

Secure - turn clarity into commitment. Ask them to take a step to solve the problem. The offer is useful, specific, and time-bound.

Track - stay on track. Continue working on the same issue until progress is real. Get it done, then move on.

This funnel doesn’t feel like selling. It feels like helping someone take back control of their business.

If you want to use this model to rebuild your sales process or onboarding flow, dm or reply and we’ll map it out together.

Remember where you heard it FIRST.

I help founders and enterprise sellers in three ways:

1. Buy my Sales foundations course here and get up to speed
2. Drop me an email about coaching you or your team
3. I'm on LinkedIn everyday, real stories, usable tools and strong opinions.

Send this edition on to your friends, so they can adapt their funnels.

If you run a sales team, then run this past them as a way to get them to think about how they guide prospects forward.