How To Make A Sales Funnel For Consultants

Consultants face unique challenges in client acquisition, including establishing expertise, demonstrating value, and converting prospects into high-ticket clients. A well-designed sales funnel can help consultants attract qualified leads, showcase their knowledge, and guide potential clients toward booking paid engagements. This guide will show you how to build, market, and implement a sales funnel specifically for your consulting business.

If you're a consultant looking to generate consistent leads and streamline your client acquisition process, there are several excellent platforms that can help you build effective consulting-focused sales funnels without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

The first step to making your consulting sales funnel is choosing the right platform. However, selecting from numerous options can be overwhelming, especially when you're focused on serving clients and delivering results. Keep reading this guide to see our suggested picks and a step-by-step guide to making a sales funnel for your consulting business.

The Best Platforms For Consultant Sales Funnels

When choosing a platform for your consulting sales funnel, you need specific features that address the unique needs of knowledge-based service selling. The ideal platform should include case study showcasing capabilities, authority-building content delivery, discovery call scheduling, and proposal systems. It should also help you qualify prospects based on budget, project scope, and timeline. Based on these requirements, we've ranked the top 5 platforms for consultant sales funnels:

1. ClickFunnels

Get started with ClickFunnels (Free Trial) 🚀

ClickFunnels offers consultants a comprehensive solution with templates that can be customized for different consulting specialties. Its drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create multi-step funnels that showcase your expertise, qualify prospects, and schedule discovery calls. ClickFunnels integrates with popular scheduling tools and CRM systems while offering powerful automation features for follow-up. It provides a 14-day free trial to test all features.

2. Leadpages

Get Started with Leadpages (Free Trial) 🚀

Leadpages offers user-friendly templates ideal for consultant lead generation. Its alert bars and pop-ups are effective for promoting free consultations, case studies, or assessment tools. Leadpages makes it easy to create lead magnets such as “Industry Reports” or “Assessment Checklists” that demonstrate your expertise while capturing prospect information for follow-up.

3. Unbounce

Get started with Unbounce (Free Trial) 🚀

Unbounce provides consultants with highly customizable landing pages perfect for specific consulting offerings or industry specializations. Its Smart Traffic feature automatically directs potential clients to the landing page variant where they're most likely to convert based on their specific needs. Unbounce excels at A/B testing different messaging and offers to optimize conversion rates.

4. Instapage

Get started with Instapage (Free Trial) 🚀

Instapage allows consultants to create personalized landing pages for different service offerings or client segments. Its collaboration features make it easy for consulting teams to work together on funnel creation. Instapage's heatmap analytics help identify which aspects of your consulting offer most resonate with potential clients.

5. Thrive Architect

Get Started with Thrive Architect (One-time Payment) 🚀

Thrive Architect is a WordPress plugin offering conversion-focused templates ideal for consulting businesses. Its specialized elements like testimonial showcases, pricing tables, and lead generation forms are particularly valuable for creating compelling consulting service pages. The one-time payment model can be cost-effective for consultants looking to minimize recurring expenses.

Conclusion

After evaluating multiple platforms, ClickFunnels stands out as the best choice for consultants due to its comprehensive approach combining expertise showcasing, prospect qualification, and consultation scheduling in one integrated system. While it requires a monthly investment, the potential return through just one or two high-ticket consulting engagements can easily justify the cost.

However, if you're working with a limited budget, Leadpages provides an excellent starting point with many essential features at a lower price point.

Now that we have identified our top choice, let's show you how to make a consulting sales funnel using ClickFunnels.

How to Make a Sales Funnel for Consultants Using ClickFunnels

Building an effective consulting sales funnel involves strategically demonstrating your expertise while qualifying prospects to ensure they're a good fit for your services. The following steps will guide you through making a funnel that attracts ideal clients and converts them into profitable consulting relationships.

Step 1: Sign Up for ClickFunnels

Create your account and take advantage of the 14-day free trial to explore all features before committing.

Step 2: Define Your Consulting Positioning and Ideal Client

Before building your funnel:

  • Clarify your unique consulting methodology or approach
  • Identify your specific area of expertise and niche focus
  • Define your ideal client profile (industry, company size, role)
  • Determine their primary challenges and desired outcomes
  • Understand their decision-making process and objections
  • This clarity will guide your funnel messaging and qualification criteria

Step 3: Make Your Value-First Landing Page

  • Add a compelling headline addressing a specific pain point your clients face
  • Include a brief video introducing your approach to solving this challenge
  • Add bullet points highlighting key benefits of working with you
  • Feature client logos, testimonials, or case study snippets showing results
  • Offer a valuable lead magnet (assessment tool, framework, or guide)
  • Create a simple form to capture basic information and qualifying questions
  • Include trust indicators like credentials, experience, and media mentions

Step 4: Design Your Lead Magnet Delivery Page

After prospects submit their information:

  • Thank them for their interest in solving their challenge
  • Provide immediate access to your promised resource
  • Include a brief video expanding on your methodology
  • Add educational content that demonstrates your expertise
  • Feature a case study relevant to their industry or challenge
  • Offer a complimentary discovery call or assessment
  • Make it easy to schedule directly from this page

Step 5: Build Your Prospect Qualification System

Create an interactive assessment that:

  • Collects essential information about their current situation
  • Identifies specific challenges and opportunities
  • Gathers budget range and timeline expectations
  • Asks about previous attempts to solve the problem
  • Provides immediate value through basic recommendations
  • Sets expectations about your consultation process
  • Creates a natural transition to scheduling a discovery call

Step 6: Make Your Discovery Call Booking Page

Design a page that:

  • Explains the value and outcomes of the discovery call
  • Sets expectations about the call format and duration
  • Embeds your calendar scheduling tool
  • Includes preparation instructions to maximize call value
  • Features additional testimonials specific to discovery calls
  • Addresses common objections to booking time with a consultant
  • Makes the scheduling process simple and mobile-friendly

Step 7: Develop Service-Specific Funnels

Create separate funnel paths for different consulting services:

  • Strategy development
  • Process optimization
  • Team training and development
  • Implementation support
  • Ongoing advisory services
  • Each with tailored content, case studies, and specific outcomes

Step 8: Implement Follow-up Email Sequences

Set up automated email campaigns that:

  • Deliver additional value-added content related to their challenges
  • Share case studies and success stories relevant to their industry
  • Address common objections to hiring a consultant
  • Provide preparation guidance for discovery calls
  • Send appointment reminders and follow-ups
  • Nurture prospects who aren't ready to engage immediately

Step 9: Make Your Proposal and Contracting System

Design a streamlined process for converting consultations to clients:

  • Professional proposal templates for different service offerings
  • Clear pricing and engagement options
  • Digital signature and acceptance systems
  • Initial deposit or retainer payment processing
  • New client welcome and onboarding sequences
  • Project kickoff scheduling and preparation

Step 10: Build Results Tracking and Expansion Systems

Create processes for:

  • Documenting client results and wins
  • Obtaining testimonials and case studies
  • Identifying expansion opportunities
  • Facilitating referrals to similar clients
  • Re-engagement campaigns for past clients
  • Developing long-term advisory relationships

Step 11: Measure, Test, and Optimize

Track key metrics to continuously improve performance:

  • Lead magnet download rates by topic
  • Assessment completion percentages
  • Discovery call booking conversion rates
  • Proposal acceptance ratios
  • Customer acquisition cost by marketing channel
  • Average client value and engagement length
  • Referral and repeat business percentages

By following these steps with ClickFunnels, consultants can make an effective sales funnel that attracts qualified prospects, showcases their expertise, streamlines the consultation process, and converts more inquiries into profitable consulting engagements. This systematic approach not only increases client acquisition efficiency but also improves the quality of clients through better targeting and pre-qualification.