[ ]GET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEADIMPROVE CONVERSION RATES

WHY DO WE NEED

A GROWTH PROCESS?

MyProduct.com

HOW IT WORKSDESCRIPTION

Our collaboration

product allows you

…

BUY NOW!

Only $9,999

In a perfect world…

WHY DOESN’T

THIS WORK?

BUYER QUESTIONS

AND CONCERNS

BUYING PROCESS

How do we respond?

Break the process down into a series of steps…

Design a series of steps

that we want customers to go through

Website Free Trial Purchase

Results in a Funnel

Not all people entering the first step will get to the second, etc.

Studying Funnel Blockage Points

Suspects Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

The Source of most Problems

Vendor

Centric

NOT MOTIVATED TO DOTHAT THEY ARE

CUSTOMERS WILL DO

SOMETHING

YOU ARE HOPING YOUR

A better way to approach to Funnel Design

Buyer

Centric

Buyer-Centric

THE BUYERS JOURNEY

THE BUYERS JOURNEY

Awareness Consideration Purchase

Mismatch:Sales often handle every lead as though they were in the Purchasing phase

I’m paid to sell. I better be selling.

Likely Distribution of Web Site Visitors

Vendor

Web Site

80%

Awareness

15%

Consideration

5%

Purchase

Different Dialog and Content for each stage

Awareness Consideration Purchase

• Create Problem & Pain

awareness

• Discuss how people are

solving

• Discuss benefits people are

seeing

• Don’t mention your product

• Don’t sell!

• Help in choosing a particular

solution

• Explain how your Product

can solve their pain

• Free Trial / Demo

• Customer stories

• Nurture with regular content

(Newsletter)

• Case studies

• Results achieved

• How you helped achieve

them

• Other proof points

• Customer references

• ROI data

• Just lost my data in hard drive crash• Backup software/service

• Starting a new software project• Dev Tools, etc.

• Performance issues with existing app• APM tools

• Difficulties tracking bugs across multi-tier apps• Bug tracking software

TRIGGERS

Buyer PersonaeWho is involved in the buying process?

Champion Economic Buyer

/ Decision Maker

IT required for sign off

Getting to know your Buyer Personae

• Identifying Characteristics• Company Profile (your ICP)

• Any special characteristics relevant to this purchase• E.g. Developers:

• Don't have a budget

• Prefer Open Source, and don't like to pay for software

• Professional Role• What does a day in their life look like?

• Key business goals?• What does their Boss expect of them?

• How does our product help them achieve those?

• Motivations / Aspirations?

• What would make their job easier?

Getting to know your Buyer Personae

• What pain do they have that we address?

• Is it latent pain, or obvious pain?

• How do they describe the pain and what they are looking for?

• (Helpful for messaging)

• Is solving this pain a high priority for them?

• If not, what features would make it a higher priority?

• What are the triggers that cause them to buy?

Getting to know your Buyer Personae

• Are they searching for a solution?• If yes, how do they go about doing that?

• Who influences them? (Sites, organizations, and people)

• (Helps us figure out how to market to them)

• Most important features? Decision criteria?

• What are their reactions to our product/company?• What will they like?

• What will they not like?

• What are the main questions and concerns they have?

• What competitors will they also evaluate?• What will they like or dislike about each of those?

FUNNEL DESIGNGET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEAD

Designing a Growth Process to match Buyer’s Journey

Strangers VisitorsAttract CustomersCloseLeadsConvert PromotersDelight

Awareness PurchaseInterestPost

Purchase

Top of Funnel

Drive the right traffic

that matches your

ICP and convert to

raw leads

Middle of Funnel

Convert raw leads

into MQLs

Sales

Convert MQLs into

closed deals

Customer Success

Onboard, support and

ensure customer

success as measured by

a customer KPI

Designing a Growth Process to match Buyer’s Journey

Strangers VisitorsAttract CustomersCloseLeadsConvert PromotersDelight

Credit: HubSpot

Awareness PurchaseInterestPost

Purchase

Top of Funnel

Inbound Marketing

Paid Marketing

WebsiteStrangers Conversion

Event

Raw

Lead

Outbound

SDR’s

Account-based Mktg

Targeted

Strangers

Mktg

Qualified

Lead

Qualify?

Account Based Marketing

• ICP powers all marketing

• Ideal Customer Profile

• Build lists of matching accounts

• Discover.org, Lead Fox, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, etc.

• Track who is in buying cycles

• Visiting G2 Crowd, Bombora

• Track which companies are on your website

• Targeted outreach

• Aircover from Ads

Thanks to Eric Spett, Terminus

Middle of Funnel

Raw

Lead

Lead

Scoring

Lead

Nurturing

Database

High

Low

Nurture

Webinars, events,

newsletters, etc.

Enrich

Use software like

ClearBit to enrich

the email address

to identify company,

job title, etc.

Segment

Identify interesting

segments based on

attributes (verticals,

job functions, etc.)

or actions

Mktg

Qualified

Lead

Yes

No

Qualify?

Mktg

Qualified

Lead

Sales – Lead Stages

QualifySales

Qualified

Lead

CustomerCloseDiscovery

CallOpportunity

Ready to

buy?Sales

interaction

Note: Your process will likely be different, and there will be more Opportunity stages in your CRM pipeline

Initial Guess at Growth Process

Website Free Trial

Map Buyers Process to Your Steps

ResearchShortlist

Vendors

Check

Review SitesEvaluation

Website Free Trial

BUYER

VENDOR

ROI &

Justification

GET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEAD

How are they

reacting as they

go through our

funnel steps?

What are they

thinking as they

go through their

process?

ResearchShortlist

Vendors

Check

Review SitesEvaluation

Website Free Trial

BUYER

VENDOR

ROI &

Justification

Optimize Your Steps to Fit

ResearchShortlist

Vendors

Check

Review SitesEvaluation

Website

BUYER

VENDOR

ROI &

Justification

Free TrialROI

Calculator

Competitive

Features

Matrix

Optimize Your growth process to Fit

ResearchShortlist

Vendors

Check

Review SitesEvaluation

Website

BUYER

VENDOR

ROI &

Justification

Free TrialROI

Calculator

Competitive

Features

Matrix

Incent

customers to

do reviews

ADDRESS ALL DECISION CRITERIA

Address

Security Concerns

3rd Party

Security Audit &

Whitepaper

BUYER

Is this a safe vendor

to choose?

• Customer Stories

• Safe Channel

Partners

Choosing a Go-to-Market Model

FreemiumViral

No TouchSelf-

Service

Light TouchInside Sales

High TouchInside Sales

Field SalesField Sales with SE’s

How I assumed the two would relate

A rough estimate of CAC versus Sales Complexity

FreemiumNo Touch

Self-Service

Light TouchInside Sales

High TouchInside Sales

Field SalesField Sales with SE’s

$0-$10

$50 –$200

$1,000 -$2,000

$3,000 -$8,000

$25,000 –$75,000

$75,000 –$200,000

Rough Estimates of Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)

The relationship is roughly exponential

Clearly adding

Human Touch

dramatically

increases costs

Sales Complexity

CAC (logarithmic)10x

10x

10x

The Obvious Take-away

• Do everything you can to remove human touch

from sales and onboarding

What creates Sales Complexity

• High Price point

• Complicated to evaluate?

• Integration needed with other systems?

• Multiple people involved in purchase decision?

• Risk to business of a bad buying decision?

• E.g. loss of data, business unable to operate if system is down, etc.

• Requires purchase of other products / services to complete the solution?

FreemiumViral

No TouchSelf-

Service

Light TouchInside Sales

High TouchInside Sales

Field SalesField Sales with SE’s

Start with the buyer

Understand the Complexity of your Sale

• Price point• Larger investments need greater justification, & more levels of sign off

• How complicated to evaluate?• Single person, or multiple people?

• Integration needed with other systems?

• How many people involved in the purchase decision?

• Risk to their business of a bad buying decision?• E.g. loss of data, business unable to operate if system is down, etc.

• Does it require other products or services to be purchased to complete the solution?

FreemiumViral

No TouchSelf-

Service

Light TouchInside Sales

High TouchInside Sales

Field SalesField Sales with SE’s

Land & Expand

Much easier to get a large order

once the product is proven

Product-Led

Growth Models

$1

$10

$100

$1,000

$10,000

$100,000

$1,000,000

Freemium No Touch Inside Sales Channel Field Sales

Sales Complexity

CAC Logarithmic

Fixing broken funnels

by getting inside your

buyer’s head

FRICTION CONCERNS

Find the worst blockage point in your funnel

MOTIVATIONS

FRICTION CONCERNS

Re-design, or try to use what motivates them

EXAMPLE BLOCKAGE POINT

WEB SITE EMAIL CAPTURE FORM

Typically a low conversion step

FRICTION CONCERNS

Problem: Buyer’s fear Email Overload and Spam

MOTIVATIONS

FRICTION CONCERNS

We try to motivate with good content

But frequently irritate the buyer with the barrier that stops them

from getting at the content, and lose them at that step

Drift Redesign

OUTBOUND COLD CALLING

Outbound Cold Calling

Cold Call

Arrange

Meeting with

Sales Rep

FRICTION CONCERNS

Problem: No Buyer wants a cold call from a salesperson

MOTIVATIONS

FRICTION CONCERNS

Get inside your buyers head – look for a suitable

motivation

Redesign

Cold Outreach

Invitation to…

(something of

value)

• Educational Event

• Meet their peers

• See data that is of value

• See their own data in a new way

• Etc.

Build

RelationshipBuild Trust

Use publicly accessible Data to build personalized assessments

Hi Barbara,

In doing a bit of research on fortinet.com, I noticed that you’ve lost a significant amount of traffic to the site (4,400 visits) over the past month. Is this something the team is aware of or have any idea what could have contributed to it? I also noticed while you folks dropped off the 1stpage of Google in 11 searches, there are tons of opportunities for your team (916 search opportunities!)

See below:

USING CHROME EXTENSIONS

CLEARBIT LEADS + DATA ENRICHMENT

New Leads

Enrich Existing

Leads

CLEARBIT

• Data Quality

• Highly skeptical• Seen lots of products like this before

• Enrichment data wasn’t good

• Data Coverage

• Skeptical• What % of our leads would be covered in this database?

Buyer’s Key Concerns

I have to go through IT to

get Salesforce connected

FREE TRIAL BLOCKAGE POINT

Connect to

Salesforce

SOLUTION: CHROME EXTENSION

Browser

connection to

Salesforce

See enriched

data in

Salesforce UI

Judge quality

of data

Report shows

data coverage

%

Chrome

Extension

CHROME EXTENSION

• Easy to install

• Low buyer concern

• Re-write the page’s HTML

CLEARBIT CHROME EXTENSION - ENLARGED

ELIMINATE STEPS

THAT HAVE

DEPENDENCIES ON

OTHER PEOPLE

Freemium, Free Trials, Open Source

The Product is

your sales person

WHAT IS YOUR TIME TO

WOW! ?

Thanks to Gail Goodman of Constant Contact

DEFINING WOW!

Thanks to Gail Goodman of Constant Contact

A moment where your buyer sees

something cool and exciting• Motivates them to continue exploring

The moment when your buyer

gets excited enough to want to buy

Mini Wow!

Full Wow!

TIME TO WOW!

• How many steps?

• How much time does it take?

• How much FRICTION is involved

REMOVE STEPS

& REMOVE FRICTION

EXAMPLE

As eCommerce shoppers…

… what makes us buy?

Photos

Feature Summary

Recommended Accessories

Rich description

Video

Reviews

Detailed Specifications

Answer: Rich Product Content

Salsify – Product Content Supply Chain Automation

Brands

Photos

Videos

Text

Specs

Etc.

Retailer

Portal

Retailer

Portal

Retailer

Portal

Retailer

Portal

Salsify’s Original Trial Experience

Sign up

Wait for

email with

Account

Open the

App

Learn the

UI

Import

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

Landing Page

Lots of Fields

Next,

Wait for Email…

Sign In… Now What?

• Lots of work still required

Get Inside your Buyers Head and Analyze for

Problems

Sign up

Wait for

email with

Account

Open the

App

Learn the

UI

Import

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

Redesign Trial Steps for Problems (Friction, Concerns,

& Motivations)

Sign upWait for

email with

Account

Open the

App

Learn the

UI

Import

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

Delay causing

major drop off

First Step in the Redesign

Import

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

Sign upLearn the

UI

New Landing Page: JUST YOUR

EMAIL

Motivation: “If these guys are

using it, it must be pretty good…”

Still leaves a problem:• Locate & Export Content

• Then import to Salsify to have

something to play with

Then:

Land directly in App

Major Friction + Other people involved = Long Delays

Import

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

Sign upLearn the

UI

Offer a chance to

start with Sample

Data

Sign upImport

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

They now have the

MOTIVATION to

import their own data

Play with

Sample

Data

Mini Wow!

Learn the

UI

Eliminate the risk that they won’t find the path to Wow!

Learn the

UI

Import

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

• High friction

• Too much risk they

won’t find the path

to Wow!

Sign up

Guided Navigation

Human Help available

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Before After

Trial Request ->

Logged into App

Trial Request ->

Product Page

Trial Request ->

Taking action 3x Overall Improvement

Uplift - % Conversion, Before and After

Next Problem Area…

Sign upImport

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Export to

new

Retailer

Sign up

with new

Retailer

Play with

Sample

Data

• High Friction

• Long Delay

Google Shopping

Problem Solved – Export to Google Manufacturer

Center

Sign upImport

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Play with

Sample

Data

Export to

Google

Last Remaining Problem Area…

Sign upImport

Content

Locate &

Export

Content

Play with

Sample

Data

Export to

Google

• Huge Friction & Delay

• Other People involved

Scrape publicly available data from existing retailer’s

pages

Sign up

Play with

Sample

Data

Export to

Google

No import

needed

Scrape

Content

for them

• They have my content in here already

• They’re showing me all the issues

Mini Wow!

Eliminates Need for Sample Data

Sign up

Play with

Sample

Data

Export to

Google

See their

own Data

Scrape

Content

for them

Final Redesigned Process • Fast Time to Wow!

• High conversion rates

Sign upExport to

Google

See and solve

problems with

their own Data

Scrape

Content

for them

Funnel Optimization Meeting

Suspects Suspects

Suspects

SuspectsSuspects

Suspects

Suspects Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Suspects

Funnel Whack-a-Mole

• Solve for blockage points

• As you fix one, the problem will move elsewhere

SILOED THINKING

MARKETING SALESCUSTOMER

SUCCESS PRODUCT

THE NEW GROWTH TEAM

MARKETING

SALES

CUSTOMER

SUCCESS

PRODUCT

USE FUNNEL FLOW CHARTS

Website Free Trial

Handle

other

questions

Proposal

High Level Overview

xx xx xxx xx xx xxx

MicroFunnels where needed

Treat your Buyer like a Bank Account

Make a

deposit

before you

try to make a

withdrawal

Selling can be the worst way to sell

Build

TrustConsult

SellFirst Contact

First ContactBuild

Relationship

Design a funnel that

Delights

Entices and

Motivates

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