Notepads & Whiteboards For A Winning Sales Funnel

When planning a sales funnel, it helps to go back to the old days and draw it out on paper or a whiteboard to create something more visual.

It may just be me but when I want to map out something or plan a sales funnel, I feel more creative when I have a pen in my hand than when typing.

With a pen and paper or whiteboard, I am free to scribble anything that comes to mind and translate on paper exactly what I am thinking.

That is something I cannot do on a computer or even I can, it would take a lot longer than to jot it simply down.

When the planning is in the idea phase, it makes sense to write on paper or on a whiteboard rather than to design on a computer, it’ll save everyone’s time.

With a whiteboard, you can get the whole team involved in the planning of the sales funnel with each having their coloured pen that they can use to write down thoughts and ideas.

Why is a Sales Funnel Important

Creating a sales funnel is crucial for an online business to understand how to create quality leads and how to generate repeat business more efficiently and effectively.

By having a sales funnel, you will be able to identify any leaks in your sales from when a user enters the funnel to when they break away before making it to the bottom of the funnel.

Another important reason for having a sales funnel in place is so that you can identify which customers will buy again.

These customers are a quick win to help generate consistent revenue growth.

A sales funnel doesn’t just help identify which customers will buy again and which will become promoters; it will also help improve your different departments in the workplace.

For example, if you can clearly see that the sales funnel is leaking at the stage where leads should be being nurtured, then maybe your sales team aren’t contacting these leads enough, or your email marketing campaigns are not relevant enough to reach out to customer’s pain points.

What Makes a Winning Sales Funnel

Good sales funnel all comes down to the research and planning that goes into it.

Remember that the primary objective is to meet your ideal customers wants and needs and discovering what pain points they have that drives them to buy your product or service.

You will need to create a customer avatar before establishing your sales funnel to identify these needs and goals.

Once you have gathered this data and have built your customer avatar, you will be able to plan how you are going to help solve their pain points with blog posts, eBooks, free trials, webinars and more.

Digital media is what will attract users and generate leads.

From that point, it is about qualifying leads and nurturing them.

57% of B2B companies have said they prioritize ‘converting qualified leads into paying customers’ with their sales funnel.

Without a sales funnel, you won’t be able to identify qualified leads and could be wasting valuable time and effort on leads that are simply not interesting in buying.

1. Leuchtturm1917 Notepads

Image Source: Leuchtturm1917

Now that you know why a sales funnel is important and that planning is crucial to the success of it, it’s time to delve into the first notepad on my list of favourite notepads and whiteboards to use for your sales funnel planning.

Leuchtturm was founded in 1917 and has been making quality notebooks and stationary ever since.

There is a quote on the website: “quality gives ideas a solid foundation on which they can develop”, this pointer is exactly what you need to plan a sales funnel that is going to be the foundation of your success.

You will find a range of notepads from hardcover notepads to softcover notepads and from genuine leather notepads to book linen notepads.

You will also find notepads in a range of sizes from pocket size to A4 and also notepads that flip up instead of to the side.

One of the notepads that stand out and would be perfect for planning your sales funnel is the highly praised Jottbook, which has removable plain paper.

2. Baron Fig Notepads

Image Source: Baron Fig

Baron Fig’s tagline is “notebooks for thinkers” and you will certainly be doing a lot of thinking when planning your sales funnel and so it makes sense to add the Baron Fig notebooks onto my list.

Baron Fig was started by two friends who found themselves complaining about the lack of quality notepad choices on the market and done something about it.

They have now created quality hardcover and pocket notepads that many ‘thinkers’ choose to jot down their plans and ideas.

They even give back to the environment by promising to plant a tree every time a book has been bought.

One of the biggest reasons why people choose Baron Fig to plan their sales funnel is because when opened, they don’t bend or curve as usual notebooks do.

They open flat and stay flat so you can use up every inch of the page.

You can get notepads with blank, ruled or gridded paper, but I recommend choosing either the plain or gridded paper for your sales funnel planning.

3. Whitelines Notepads

Image Source: Whitelines Link

Whitelines is not as old as Leuchtturm, but they certainly don’t lack in quality.

This time, the company was founded by three friends rather than two, as with Baron Fig, who all had an idea to create a new kind of paper to make writing a lot easier.

They have a range of notepads including wire notepads, stapled notepads and hard bound cloth notepads.

They also have a choice of a wire top notepad and a flip over notepad for those of you who don’t like the traditional flip to the side notepad.

What’s even more interesting about Whitelines is that they have created an app that allows you to scan your paper notepads to the app that is great if you want to share your sales funnel plan with others in the team or have others in your team share with you.

To use this app, you will need the Whitelines Link Notepad that comes in a range of sizes.

4. IdeaPaint Whiteboards

Image Source: IdeaPaint

If notepads aren’t your thing or if you want something that the whole team or office can get involved with, then maybe you will be better off choosing a whiteboard… or better yet, whiteboard paint.

IdeaPaint is known for its dry-erase paint that you can paint onto any smooth surface to create a ‘whiteboard’.

Smart right?

You won’t need to take up any space in the office with chunky whiteboards, just use the walls to plan your sales funnel or even people’s desks.

IdeaPaint has been praised by The Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Fast Company and CNBC to name but a few.

Their products include a white dry erase paint that will turn any surface into a whiteboard or a clear dry erase paint that will turn any surface into a dry erase board.

For example, you might want to create a wood dry erase board, an orange board or even a blackboard.

5. Clarus Glassboards

Image Source: Clarus Glassboards

Clarus Glassboard has put another unique spin on the ‘whiteboard’ by turning glass into dry erase boards.

They make fully customizable glass boards for you to either hang up on the wall, stand up on the floor or even to create a glass partition.

They could customize the size, the color, and even the shape if you wanted a giant funnel-shaped glass board to plan your sales funnels.

Products in their range include the Glassboard Float, which hangs up on the wall, the Go Mobile range that has every color in the rainbow, the Furniture Glass, which you could have as desk dividers, and the Architectural range to create glass board walls.

Not only will you and your team have a lot of fun planning your sales funnel on these glass boards, but they will also look fantastic in the workplace too.

A massive bonus is that they do not stain like some whiteboards, and so they should last you a very long time.

Get to Work…

There should be plenty of inspiration to get started on planning your sales funnel.

Personally, I like the IdeaPaint the best simply because of its awesomeness, how easy it is to get on the walls and also because of how good it looks in the office.

However, it can get be a bit distracting if you’re a doodler like me.

Another use it has though is that it is great to keep score of the coffee rounds in the office.

Whether it is a notepad or whiteboard you use to plan your sales funnel, make sure you don’t forget the important factors so your sales funnel won’t fail.

Have you started planning your sales funnel? What are you using to plan your funnel?

Share your ideas with everyone by leaving your comments below.