How to Structure a Sales Funnel for a Prop Firm

Let’s understand what a sales funnel is and what it does.

A sales funnel is a journey you design to turn people who don’t know your business into clients.

It consists of three main stages, based on how ready your prospects are to buy:

1. Top of the funnel: bring new people into your ecosystem.

2. Middle of the funnel: help them get to know, like, and trust you.

3. Bottom of the funnel: turn that interest into a purchase.

Each stage has its own objective. Let’s start at the top.

01. Top of the funnel: bring people in

The goal at the top of the funnel is to bring people who don’t know your prop firm into your ecosystem.

I would split this stage into two parts, based on the audience’s awareness:

• Unaware: “I don’t know what prop trading is.”

• Solution aware: “I know what prop trading is, but I don’t know which prop firm would suit me.”

Most of the prop firms I’ve worked with target both audiences, but I would prioritise the solution-aware audience.

Why?

Because they’re closer to buying. They already understand the model, and they may have experienced the problems your firm can help solve.

There’s another reason, too. Building a funnel for someone who is completely unaware of what you do usually takes a lot more work.

You need to introduce the opportunity, educate them, and help them feel ready to take the uncomfortable step of starting something new. That process may take months, if not years.

When you focus the top of your funnel on a solution-aware audience, you’re targeting people who have already done the work of learning about prop firms through your competitors, influencers, or other sources.

In my experience, this can make those ads more profitable in the short term than ads aimed at a completely new audience.

Learning about a new opportunity and deciding to pursue it through a faceless company can be a tough sell. That’s why it can make sense to work with influencers who teach beginners how to trade and use prop firms themselves, if your marketing budget allows it.

Start with people who already understand the opportunity. Give them a reason to consider your firm.

That would be my overview and recommendation for this phase. Next, let’s move to the middle.

02. Middle of the funnel: build familiarity and trust

The middle of the funnel’s objective is to warm up the new people in your ecosystem.

Let’s say you’ve created a top-of-funnel ad for a solution-aware audience. They now know your prop firm has interesting rules, but for some reason, they haven’t bought from you yet.

In marketing, you’ll often hear about the “rule of seven”: the idea that a person needs several touchpoints with your company before buying. Those touchpoints might be your Reels, ads, Stories, or other content.

Treat seven as a rule of thumb, rather than an exact number or a guarantee. The point is that one encounter often isn’t enough, even when someone already understands prop trading.

Your goal in this phase is to show up consistently in front of potential clients and make a good impression each time.

Your social media content plays a big role here.

What should you post?

People buy from people they know, like, and trust.

Your content should help with at least one of those three things.

Know: let people meet the business

Create content that introduces the founders, the team, and what makes your business different.

Let’s say you offer perpetual futures, or “perps”. That could be a distinctive part of your offer. Explain it on your page.

Like: let your culture show

Create content that makes people smile or appreciate you. Film a funny sketch with your team recreating a recent trend, or publish an artistic post that shows your taste in design.

My best advice here is to be yourself and let your company’s culture be seen.

Trust: show real proof

Create content about your clients: their payouts, interviews, and positive reviews. Show how much you’ve paid out, or highlight a genuine partnership with another company.

This is a very important part of the funnel. Most of the traders I know have low trust in prop firms and stick with the biggest ones, even after seeing a “better” offer from a firm they’ve only encountered once.

You really want to be active. Go out and do shit.

A good example of this stage is Pipstone Capital, which we’ve had the pleasure of working with.

Their founder actively hosts cool events, creates Reels, runs a podcast, and brings the community together. His content helps people get to know him and his prop firm, like the company, and trust it.

03. Bottom of the funnel: turn interest into action

Lastly, we reach the bottom of the funnel, where the conversion happens.

If you’ve ever used a prop firm, do you remember the exact moment you bought a challenge?

It’s a useful question to ask yourself. It can give you a better perspective on this stage.

I would describe the bottom of the funnel as the last few minutes before a potential client enters their credit card details.

What does that look like?

Often, they’ve just seen an ad or a piece of content that addresses the exact objection holding them back:

• “I don’t have the money.”

• “I don’t know how to start.”

• “I don’t trust this firm.”

• “I don’t understand their rules.”

That content helps them decide whether your offer fits their trading plan and whether they’re ready to take the next step.

They click the ad, land on your website, and quickly judge whether it looks credible.

Then they find the challenge they were looking for, enter their payment details, and click “pay”.

In my experience, the bottom of the funnel is often the combined result of the top and middle working together. The first gets you on their radar. The second gives them reasons to feel comfortable choosing you.

Attention brings people in. Familiarity and trust help them take the next step.

This is how I structure sales funnels for prop firms.

If you want direct guidance and done-for-you execution of these steps, feel free to book a discovery call with me or one of my team members.