As you may or may not know, HubSpot has decided to retire their sales funnel model. In place of the sales funnel is a new model for sales and business growth, known as the flywheel. You might think that this change in model is simply new jargon and a new shape of model for the same content, but this new model actually rethinks the sales process. With a new focus on currently customers, HubSpot’s new flywheel hopes to change the way we think about business growth. We’ve broken down the new model to help you understand the basics.
Why They’re Retiring the Funnel
The sales funnel is a linear approach to measuring growth. As a lead moves down the sales funnel and eventually becomes a customer, the sales process loses momentum and expends fewer resources. That’s what HubSpot wants to change. The funnel model does not consider how customers can help your business grow. The flywheel, on the other hand, represents a circular process where customers feed growth. Because flywheels leverage their momentum to keep spinning, the model focuses on gaining momentum over time, rather than losing it.
The flywheel model also considers friction. Friction stops a flywheel from spinning. The flywheel model therefore focuses on the biggest points of friction in the sales process in order to eliminate them. HubSpot has attempted to address some of these points of friction with free software at the entry point, an easier sales and onboarding process, and helpful customer education. However, your business must also identify its particular points of friction and work to eliminate them.
The Flywheel
The new flywheel model includes three stages, with customers in the center. Businesses grow when customers succeed, as happy customers recommend the business to prospects. Therefore, every team should be working to minimize friction for customers and create the best possible experience.
Attract
The attract stage is where customers enter the flywheel. At this stage, your company interacts with customers for the first time. You should provide value to your customers before you extract value from them. At this stage, you should attract visitors with useful content. You should also eliminate any possible barriers as people try to learn about your company. Provide valuable content to your customers and make their learning process as easy as possible.
Engage
In the engage stage, you engage prospects who are interested in becoming customers. At this stage, you should make the decision making and purchasing processes as easy as possible. Enable buyers to engage with you on their preferred timelines and channels to maximize the efficiency of the process for them. You can also tie sales incentives to customer success, rather than just close rates, so ensure your team is focusing on customer experience rather than simply customer acquisition.
Delight
During the delight stage, you should focus on customer success. When customers succeed, your business succeeds because new customers can help promote your company. You should shift the distribution of your resources to be evenly distributed throughout the entire customer experience, rather than shifting your focus away from already acquired customers.
How to Adjust Your Marketing Strategy
To adopt the new flywheel model, you’ll need to make adjustments to your marketing strategy. The biggest shift is the added emphasis on customers. Don’t just close lads and forget about them. Instead, realize how current customers can help grow your business. If you keep customers happy, they’ll recommend you to others.
First, you should identify the flywheel metrics that your company already tracks. Then, identify your company’s forces at each flywheel stage. Readjust your forces to be spread more evenly and to maximize delight. In many cases, companies have the fewest resources allocated to delight. Finally, you should identify points of friction that affect customer experience. Points of friction might be between customers and employees, in points of handoff between internal teams, or in the customer’s research process. Once you identify these points of friction, you can address the friction, adjust your policies, and maximize delight.
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