Building a Sales and Marketing machine for a B2B software company involves many functions working together. This slide deck explores the process of funnel design that is highly buyer centric. It looks at the Buyer journey, and how to successfully construct a buying process that they buyer will enjoy going through, which is very different from the typical sale process that is designed from the vendors standpoint, and fails because the buyer is not motivated to go through the steps.

1. BUILDING A SALES &
MARKETING MACHINE
Upsell/
Cross Sell
CAC/LTV
Virality
Engagement
Retention
Freemium
Conversion
Rates
BY DAVID SKOK
Free
Trials

2. THE ART & SCIENCE
OF GROWTH HACKING
Upsell/
Cross Sell
CAC/LTV
Virality
Engagement
Retention
Freemium
Conversion
Rates
BY DAVID SKOK
Free
Trials

3. GROWTH HACKING
Accelerate Growth
Through
Work on Funnel
A PERSONAL DEFINITION
INCREASE
FLOW &
CONVERSION

4. THIS USED TO BE MARKETING’S JOB
WHAT’S CHANGED?

5. TODAY’S WORLD
• Freely available information
• Free Trials
• On-line reviews
• Social Media commentary
THE CUSTOMER IS DOING THEIR RESEARCH
BEFORE THEY COME AND TALK TO YOU

6. YOUR ON-LINE PRESENCE
IS KEY

7. THE PRODUCT IS
YOUR SALESPERSON

8. THERE’S A RICH FLOOD
OF NEW DATA

9. METRICS

10. REQUIRES A NEW
COMBINATION OF SKILLS
BOTH MARKETING AND TECHNICAL

11. Data
Science
THE GROWTH HACKER
Creative
Marketing
Inbound
Marketing
Customer
Experience &
Product
Design
Funnel
Optimization
Instrumentation
& Metrics

12. THE BASICSOF FUNNEL DESIGN

13. Suspects Closed Deals
Loyal
Customers
who are
Advocates

14. Suspects Closed Deals
Loyal
Customers
who are
Advocates
Virality

15. IN A PERFECT WORLD…
1 Step

16. IN A PERFECT WORLD…
MyProduct.com
HOW IT WORKS
DESCRIPTION
Our product
allows you …
BUY NOW!
Only $9,999.99

17. BUYER
THE
QUESTIONS & CONCERNS
• Will this solve my specific problem?
• Is this the best product in the market?
• Can I trust this vendor?
• How hard is this to implement & use?
• Is it a safe choice? (Who else is using it?)
• Will I get a return on my investment?
• Is it scalable, secure?
• Etc.

18. DESIGNING YOUR FUNNEL

19. WHAT IS A FUNNEL?
ACTION
MOVEMENT
ACTION
MOVEMENT
ACTION
MOVEMENT

20. HOW DO WE DESIGN THE ACTIONS?

21. BUYER
THE

22. THE BUYERS JOURNEY
CONSIDERATION
CLOSED
DEAL
AWARENESS
PURCHASE

23. TRIGGERS
• Moving house
• Movers, phones, cable TV, furniture, insurance, etc.
• Starting a new software project
• PaaS (Platform as a Service), Dev Tools, etc.
• Need to hire a lot of new employees
• Applicant Tracking System
• Just lost my data in hard drive crash
• Backup software/service
• Read about a new scary computer virus
• Anti-virus software

24. Suspects
ToFu
Top of the
Funnel
MoFu
Middle of
the Funnel
Closed
Deals
Sales
Bottom of
the Funnel
Loyal
Customers
who are
Advocates
Customer
Sucess
Retention
Funnel
Retain
Expand
Upsell / Cross sell
Nurture
&
Qualify
Inbound &
Outbound
Marketing
Typical B2B Funnel
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION PURCHASE

25. Suspects
ToFu
Top of the
Funnel
Raw Lead
Inbound &
Outbound
Marketing
ToFu – Top of the Funnel
AWARENESS
Email address
or other
contact info

26. Suspects
ToFu
Top of the
Funnel
Inbound &
Outbound
Marketing
ToFu – Top of the Funnel
AWARENESS
Latent Need?
• Buyer not aware they have a need
• Or not aware there is a solution
Apparent Need?
• Buyer is aware they have a need,
and they are looking for a solution

27. Suspects
ToFu
Top of the
Funnel
Inbound &
Outbound
Marketing
ToFu – Top of the Funnel
AWARENESS
Latent Need
• Market needs Education
Apparent Need
• Understand how they are looking
• Ensure you get found during their
research

28. Suspects
ToFu
Top of the
Funnel
Inbound &
Outbound
Marketing
ToFu – Top of the Funnel
AWARENESS
Inbound Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Blogging, YouTube, etc.
• Social Media for distribution
Outbound Marketing
• Cold calling – (Sales Development Reps)
• Outbound email
• Working with Partners

29. MoFu
Middle of
the Funnel
Nurture
&
Qualify
MoFu – Middle of the Funnel
CONSIDERATION
Raw Lead MQL - Marketing Qualified Lead

30. MoFu – Nurture and Qualify
Nurture Qualify
Lead Nurturing
Database
Raw Lead MQL

31. MoFu – Segment, Nurture & Qualify
Personalized Nurturing
QualifyRaw Lead MQL
Segmented Database

32. What do we know
about them?
Buyer
Attributes
What do their
actions tell us?
Behaviors
DATA: THE CROWN JEWELS

33. MARKETING INTERACTIONS

34. ENGAGEMENT / PRODUCT USAGE
SCREEN SHOT FROM TOTANGO

35. EXAMPLES OF USAGE:
• IN APP MESSAGING
– “We noticed that you haven’t tried X feature. It has the following benefits.
Here is a link to a Video showing you how to use it.”
• EMAIL
– Send to all RAW LEADS that are in the FINANCE vertical, we have a Webinar
showing how Customer X uses our product to do fraud detection.
• SALESFORCE.COM QUEUES
– Add all Trial Users whose Engagement Score is below 50 to the Customer
Success Teams call queue

36. METRICS
"IF YOU CAN NOT MEASURE IT,
YOU CAN NOT IMPROVE IT."
- LORD KELVIN

37. METRICS FLOW / QUANTITY
CONVERSION
RATE

38. WHAT TO MEASURE
FOR EACH STEP / ACTION:
NO OF ACTIONS % CONVERSION RATE
TIME TIME

39. VISITORS
CAMPAIGNS
TO DRIVE
TRAFFIC
TRIALS
CLOSED DEALS
CONVERSION
%
CONVERSION
%
THE KEY METRICS
OVERALL
CONVERSION %

40. Visitors
Trial
5%
10%
$5,000 Customer
NOT ALL LEAD SOURCES ARE EQUAL
Google Ad Word Funnel FaceBook Ad Funnel
Visitors
Trial
2%
20%
$8,000 Customer

41. ROI by LEAD SOURCE
OVERALL
CONVERSION %
(BY LEAD SOURCE)
Cost per lead
Lifetime value of the Customer

42. THE
MAGIC OF
FUNNEL
MATH

43. Raw Lead
Marketing
Qualified Lead
Sales Accepted
Lead
Opportunity
Closed Deal
FUNNEL MATH
20%
90%
25%
20%
CONVERSION
RATES

44. Raw Lead
Marketing
Qualified Lead
Sales Accepted
Lead
Opportunity
Closed Deal
REVERSE FUNNEL MATH
20%
80%
25%
20%
CONVERSION
RATES
Closed Deal1
Opportunity5
Sales Accepted
Lead
20
Marketing
Qualified Lead
25
Raw Lead125

45. SALES CAPACITY – A KEY PROBLEM
• An extremely common
scenario:
– Portfolio companies
miss their bookings by
not having enough
sales capacity
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
Bookings
Actual vs Budget
Actual Budget
Shortfall

46. SOLUTION
• Track Sales Capacity as a key metric
• Hire ahead of the budget and sales plan
• Build a recruiting machine
• Build a superb On-Boarding training program

47. REFINING THE SOLUTION
• Become experts at Sales Coaching
– Measure each step of the sale process
• Outbound calling
• Leaving messages
• Doing Demos
• Closing
– Take the best at each stage and use to coach the
worst
• Quickly remove the consistent non-performers

48. BUT EVEN IF YOU ARE MICROSOFT,
CISCO, ORACLE, OR GOOGLE
YOUR FUNNEL WILL HAVE
BLOCKAGE
POINTS
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

49. IN DIAGNOSING MANY FUNNEL BLOCKAGE POINTS,
I HAVE FOUND THAT THERE IS A
CLEAR
PATTERN…

50. NOT MOTIVATED TO DO
THAT THEY ARE
CUSTOMERS WILL DO
SOMETHING
YOU ARE HOPING YOUR

51. IN OTHER WORDS…
YOU DESIGNED YOUR FUNNEL
THE WAY YOU HOPED IT WOULD
WORK…
BUT YOU MAY NOT HAVE THOUGHT ENOUGH ABOUT
THE CUSTOMER’S POINT OF
VIEW

52. JBOSS EXAMPLE
CUT THE DOWNLOAD RATE
BY MORE THAN 10X
PUT A REGISTRATION FORM
ON THEIR WEB SITE BEFORE
A FREE DOWNLOAD
IMPACT

53. FRICTION
GET INSIDE YOUR
CUSTOMER’S HEAD
CONCERNS

54. UNDERSTAND WHAT
MOTIVATES THEM
MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS

55. JBOSS EXAMPLE
• Making $27,000 a month selling documentation
• Solution:
• Give away documentation to
get their email address

56. EXAMPLE: DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEB
SITE
GETTING FOUND
Not going to find your site
unless:
- On top page of Google
search results
- Recommended by a trusted
source
- Referred to in social media or
blogosphere
friction &
concerns

59. LESSONS FROM WEBSITE
GRADER
• Free tools drive viral spread
• Low customer work required
• High value delivered
• Score leverages competitive urge, and acts as a trigger
• Builds trust through clear
demonstration of expertise

60. GOOD LINKAGE TO NEXT STEP

61. using engineering for marketing
GROWTH HACKING

62. USING DATA TO DRIVE WEB
TRAFFIC
SYSOMOS: SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING
LEVERAGED THEIR DATABASE TO
CREATE BLOG POSTS WITH DATA ON
TOPICS OF CURRENT INTEREST:
• IRAN ELECTION RIOTS
• TWITTER’S GROWTH
• FACEBOOK USAGE

64. LED TO:
SYSOMOS ARTICLES IN
ECONOMIST, NY TIMES
WEB TRAFFIC TO READ THE FULL REPORT
LEADS – IMPRESSED BY THE CAPABILITIES
OF THE SOFTWARE

65. FREE TRIALS
THE PRODUCT IS YOUR SALES PERSON

66. WHAT IS YOUR TIME TO WOW! ?
Thanks to Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
WOW!

67. TIME TO WOW!
• How many steps?
• How much time does it take?
• How much FRICTION is involved

68. REMOVE STEPS
& REMOVE FRICTION
e.g. Provide Sample Data instead of requiring them to load their own

69. WOW!
ANALYZE TRIAL STEPS AS THOUGH
THEY WERE FUNNEL STEPS
Create a
full profile
Import
Contacts
Do a
search for
Prospects
See search
results
Imagine a Sales Rep signing up for the old LinkedIn

70. WOW!
LOOK FOR BLOCKAGE POINTS
Create a
full profile
Import
Contacts
Do custom
search for
Prospects
See search
results
Imagine a Sales Rep signing up for the old LinkedIn
HIGH FALL OFF RATES HERE

71. For an Outlook/Exchange User
WOW!Create a
full profile
Import
Contacts
Do custom
search for
Prospects
See search
results
Download
an App
Install
the App
Run
the App

72. APPLY BLOCKAGE POINT THINKING
WOW!
FRICTION
MOTIVATION
CONCERNS
Replace the downloaded App with request for email
credentials and get contacts from Exchange.
Create a
full profile
Import
Contacts
Do a
search for
Prospects
See search
results

73. • Concern:
– I have tons of very private and confidential
emails. I don’t want anyone to read those.
You want me to give you
the password
to login to my email?!!!

74. APPLY BLOCKAGE POINT THINKING
WOW!
FRICTION
MOTIVATION
CONCERNS
Replace the downloaded App by
connecting to Contacts on iOS/Android
Create a
full profile
Import
Contacts
Do a
search for
Prospects
See search
results

75. RE-THINK THE PROCESS
Source: Josh Porter – Designing for Social Traction
CONVENTIONAL
APPROACH
SIGN UP
FOR TRIAL
CONVERT
TO
CUSTOMER
WOW!
WOW! FIRST,
REGISTER LATER WOW! SIGN UP
CONVERT
TO
CUSTOMER

76. MAY VARY FOR
DIFFERENT
CUSTOMER TYPES
E.g. LinkedIn
• Different personae:
– Recruiter
– Sales person
– Individual looking to find a job
MAKE SURE THERE IS A CLEAR PATH FOR EACH ONE
WOW!

77. A/B TESTING
WEB SITE, LANDING PAGES, PRODUCT DESIGN

78. ADD VIRALITY
Customer
first sees
your app
Tries it
Creates/sees
information
that they
want to share
Creates an
invitation,
looks up
addresses,
and sends
Friend
receives
information +
invite to join
Friend
decides to
take a look

79. MEASURE FLOW & CONVERSION
Customer
first sees
your app
Tries it
Creates/sees
information
that they
want to share
Creates an
invitation,
looks up
addresses,
and sends
Friend
receives
information +
invite to join
Friend
decides to
take a look
CONVERSION
%

80. APPLY BLOCKAGE POINT ANALYSIS
Customer
first sees
your app
Tries it
Creates/sees
information
that they
want to share
Creates an
invitation,
looks up
addresses,
and sends
Friend
receives
information +
invite to join
Friend
decides to
take a look

81. FOR MORE ON VIRALITY
The Science behind Viral Marketing
http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/the-science-behind-viral-marketing/

82. WHY CHURN IS SO IMPORTANT
SaaS & RECURRING REVENUE

83. Revenue Lost with 2.5% monthly Churn
Renewals
Lost due
to Churn
YEAR 3
$3m $7m
Becomes harder &
harder to replace
this with new
bookings
Renewals
Lost due
to Churn
YEAR 6
$30m $70m

84. CHI SCORE
CUSTOMER HAPPINESS INDEX

85. PROACTIVE STEPS TO REDUCE CHURN
• Identify high risk customers (CHI score)
– Messaging (In-App, email) to try to correct
– Calls from Customer Success team

86. PRODUCT STICKINESS
CONTRASTING EXAMPLES
• SEO
– High value in first 90 days
– But not sticky
• Marketing Automation
– Valuable Data that grows over time
– Part of important daily workflows

87. NEGATIVE CHURN
INCREASED REVENUE
FROM
RETAINED CUSTOMERS
LOST REVENUE
FROM
CHURNED CUSTOMERS
>

88. IMPACT OF NEGATIVE CHURN
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
$-
$1,000.0
$2,000.0
$3,000.0
$4,000.0
$5,000.0
$6,000.0
$7,000.0
$8,000.0
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58
5% Churn
0%
Negative 5% Churn

89. REQUIRES PRICING THOUGHT
At least one axis where pricing increases:
Enterprise
Edition
Pro
Edition
Basic
Users
Features
Depth of
Usage
Examples:
- Mailing list size
- Database size
- Amount of storage used

90. BUSINESS VALUE

91. MOST STARTUPS MARKET
AROUND FEATURES

93. • Ensure the product delivers this value
• Ideally in a measurable way
• Focus Customer Success team on getting this result
• Measure the increase/change from a baseline
• Provide feedback on ROI by quarterly email
WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS VALUE?

94. BUYER
THE
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
GET INSIDE
YOUR BUYER’S
HEAD

95. BUYER PERSONA
What characteristic most clearly identifies this Persona?
• Job role?
• Looking for a particular type of product?
When purchasing this kind of product:
• What pain are they trying to solve?
• What are their desired Business Outcomes?
• What are their key Decision Criteria?
• Is this buyer persona going to be receptive to our product?
• If not, what would they be receptive to?
• Feature changes
• Competitive products
• What are their Perceived Barriers to making a purchase?

96. BUYER PERSONA
• Role / job description?
• What is the primary goal of this person’s job?
• What is the greatest pain in this person’s work life?
• What is their role in the decision making process?
• Who do they report to?
• How does their boss measure their success?
• Who are their key influencers?
• What publications do they read, & what events do they attend?
• What messaging will appeal to them?
Secondary Questions – useful for Messaging & Content Marketing

97. For More information
• Visit my blog at www.forEntrepreneurs.com