
Last week, we published a blog post in which Susan Nabeth Moore explored how Customer Success has changed the traditional Marketing and Sales revenue funnel and the way we conceive of the customer journey.
This week, Susan takes us for a brief trip through the main macro milestones of the “recurring revenue boomerang” customer journey.
DEMAND
Awareness
Potential customers need to know WHY they should invest. They will be aware that your innovative product promises to solve pain points, facilitate achieving business objectives or obtain business gains by doing existing tasks in an optimised manner. Potential customers will also be aware of the impact of not investing in your product.
At this stage of the journey, marketing teams do a great job generating, nurturing and qualifying potentially successful customers with a product-people fit. Potential customers are now pretty savvy about your product and those of your competitors. This matching of the potential successful customer and raising awareness of the gains from your product is an essential first step in orientating the rest of the customer journey on the right trajectory. It’s like that sporty kid “Maid Marian of Boomerangs” putting on an amazing spin!
Consideration
Now that the customer is aware of potential gains, they desire to move forward and consider themselves in the future state, savouring the benefits and related operational considerations.
Marketing teams work in relay with sales at this point qualifying and nurturing potential customers to take them the next step forward.
Trial
The customer’s desire to find out more encourages them to obtain pragmatic knowledge on HOW your product meets the promise. A trial period usually creates the “wow” effect and gives an initial glimpse of what future gains and potential ROI could look like. Here the customer appreciates more the practical “How to do” relating to your product.
Sales teams play a key role in having the customer define what are the expected outcomes for a successful trial. In certain organisations, customer success teams may also participate, e.g. in a POC (proof of concept).
Decision and Contract
After a conclusive trial where expected pre-requisites are met, sales teams convince the customer of the gains in closing the contract and determine the further “How to Do”and “How to Be”. These include a projection into a future vision of how the product fits into the organisation, processes, methodology, tool landscape and roles and responsibilities of impacted actors. It also engages customer sponsorship and management buy-in, defining what success means and how progress towards that vision of success will be measured. For that, measurable key performance indicators will be defined.
Sales and customer success teams work in relay to ensure that the customer context, vision of success and expected outcomes are clearly defined. To keep to our metaphor, the well-spun boomerang has now started to gain momentum on its outbound course.
TURNAROUND
Adoption
Customer “on-boarding” is the stage where adoption of the product should be firmly anchored.
Adoption is one of the biggest challenges in recurring revenue models. It impacts directly each individual user at their different speeds of changing their usual reflexes and routines. Swift initial adoption by all users will help ensure a smoother boomerang return for both customers and vendors. At this stage and in addition to the usual excitement, it’s here when the first hands-on impression is engraved. This will often leave a lasting emotional perception, even influencing subconsciously the later decision to renew the subscription.
Customer success teams play a vital role in partnering customers to help maximise adoption and generate added value. Customer management buy-in and engagement is key. Relevant and measurable adoption indicators are defined, measured, and celebrated. Our happy boomerang has now made a U-turn and is at the beginning of the return journey, symbolic of initial returns.
EXPAND
Performance
While each impacted individual adopts the product at their own pace, they’re all now up to speed rowing together in the same boat and “cruising” at a rate of knots where initial business wins can be celebrated as a team.
Key performance indicators have been previously defined, implemented and are now measured.
Customer success teams partner their customers to continually optimise their potential of boosting business performance. Added value performance stimulates the customer’s desire to expand current investment and/or purchase new offers. For that, customer success teams relay with sales and marketing, according to the organisation, processes and roles. Our boomerang is now gathering excited momentum on its return journey.
Transformation
At the transformation milestone, customers are now “sailing”.
They use your product as a reflex in a “business as usual” like manner. The product has most probably become sticky in their processes and methodologies as full gains and ROI are now proved and increasing. The contract renewal will just be a formality and the customer will most likely wish to buy more of the same or try new packages.
Customer success teams work in relay with sales and marketing to keep the customer sailing at high speed with their business transformation.
Our boomerang is now on it’s advanced success return trajectory, enjoying all the benefits of its flight path.
BOOMERANG
Advocacy
Your customers are now successful and have achieved their expected outcomes, so they not only wish to buy more or even invest in new packages but they also genuinely want to tell the world all about it. They have become natural advocates of your product, services and company and are “surfing” on the waves of their success. Their whole boomerang experience has turned them into becoming the best sales agents you could ever wish for. Customer advocacy, of course, can happen at any time of the journey in different forms (e.g. word of mouth referrals, reviews, business cases, participation in events, testimonials, NPS…) and as soon as the customer is thrilled and successful enough to want to spread the word.
Peer advocacy is worth gold. It not only creates credibility and legitimacy with potential prospects but according to McKinsey studies, peer word of mouth generates more than 2X the sales generated by marketing and advertising. The cherry on the cake, according to research by Deloitte, customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate.
Customer success teams partner advocates and relay with marketing and sales teams (depending on the organisation and processes) for advocacy programmes.
So now the boomerang has come full circle gathering on its trajectory all the health and wealth benefits for both customers and vendors.
In the recurring revenue model, the challenge is to proactively ensure the boomerang keeps a healthy flight path and is not grounded after collision with other boomerangs or self-flying objects or destabilised by external forces: churn is the cruel and costly curse of the recurring revenue boomerang!
As in all good sports, the competition continues and the boomerang will be thrown again to generate further win-win returns. As in all good fairy tales, all the “Merry Men” live happily and successfully ever after…