Forget the Funnel

Forget the Funnel

Author

Georgiana Laudi, Claire Suellentrop

Year
2023
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Review

I can’t wait to try the approach outlined in this book. Having a customer-led growth framework makes a lot of sense. A company is a value exchange mechanism, it must provide customer value and capture some of it. The authors did a great job of showing how this framework is complementary and intersects nicely with customer research and JTBD theory. The way it promotes a radical focus is helpful, in my experience it’s often a lack of focus that stops product teams making rapid progress.

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Key Takeaways

The 20% that gave me 80% of the value.

  • The problem: marketing and product teams operating haphazardly, flinging ideas around, trying to see what sticks. The real problem is, you’re guessing. You’re relying too much on experimentation
  • The solution: research and understand your best customers.
    • ‣
    You need to understand…
  • The customer-led growth framework:
    1. Get inside your best customers’ heads
    2. Map and measure your customers’ experience
    3. Unlock your biggest growth opportunities
  • Why forget the funnel? The traditional marketing funnel (awareness, consideration, purchase) doesn’t work in a recurring revenue-based businesses, that needs customers to continue paying month after month
  • You can be more effective at reaching, resonating with, and retaining great-fit customers if you know more about their psychology (why they do what they do)
  • You need buy-in and alignment from teams across the company and leadership to implement the Customer-Led Growth framework. You’ll need a cross-functional team
  • You can’t afford not to take this time. Your team implementing inefficient, ineffective tactics is already wasting time.
  • Lack of clear ownership, vague or nonexistent goals, and/or lack of specificity is what creates dysfunction
  • Create a figurative documentary of your best customer’s journey…
    • from the struggle
    • to the search for solutions
    • to finding your product
    • to trying it
    • to buying it
    • being satisfied with it
  • Gather insights by asking questions, gathering answers and analysing what you find
  • Identify your best customers: Not all customers are created equal. Learn from your best customers, as they’re the kind of the customer you want more of
    • ‣
    Your best customers…
  • Don’t take what customers say (their opinions) at face value. Look for the underlying psychology → the pains and needs behind their actions and desires.
‣
10 Questions to ask your best customers
  • If you’ve identified 500 or more ideal customers → start with a survey, if you have fewer than 500 people, or only have time to use one method, choose interviews
  • Once you understand how your best customers fell in love with your product, you’ll be able to be a better matchmaker going forwards
  • If you don’t have enough existing customers to learn from → the next best thing is audience research (Learning from your target audience or potential customers out in the world experiencing the problem that you help solve)
    • Study what your target customer are doing in the real world
    • the conversations they were having in forums and communities
    • the way they described their pain points and needs
    • the other solutions they were trying, and why those solutions didn’t work for them
  • You’re aiming to learn:
    • what influences the people you’re trying to reach
    • who they listen to and trust
    • where they go when they’re looking for new solutions
    • other solutions they’re trying, and why those solutions are/aren’t working for them
  • Not everyone in your audience, out in the wild, is automatically an ideal customer
    • When you learn from your best customers you know they’re a fit
    • Results are therefore more of a hypothesis you’ll want to prove or disprove
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Website Survey Questions (documenting your customers’s life before they’ve found a solution)
  • Jobs-to-be-Done:
    • The struggle… {that pushed them to look a new solution}
    • That motivated customers… {things their existing solution lacked}
    • To seek a desired outcome {how would life be better}
  • How to find customers’ Jobs-To-Be-Done
    • You’re looking for the job the customer hires your solution for
      • what led them to fire their past solution
      • search for new ones
      • ultimately choose yours
    • You need to find out
      • The struggle… (When I…)
      • That motivated customers … (Help me…)
      • To seek a desired outcome (So I can)
  • The Customer Job Statement:
    • When I ____ , help me ____ , so I can _____
    • Struggle, motivation, desired outcome
      • Customer Interview
      Struggle Quote
      Struggle Theme
      Motivation Quote
      Motivation Theme
      Desired Outcome Quote
      Desired Outcome Theme
      A
      B
      C
      D
  • The four steps to get to a job to be done
  • Each job statement can represent vastly different customer needs and priorities. If you don’t focus you’re back to chaos. Identifying the top-priority customer Job give you valuable guardrails. You can…
  • Your customer Job is based on customer data. This is not guesswork

Deconstructing the Customer Experience

  • Focus on value delivered to the customer → not value delivered to the business
  • ARRR frameworks have two drawbacks:
  • One you have the JTBD, you can deconstruct the experience of those customers, into phases that make up their experience (in a way that makes sense to them)
  • Mapping it starts by breaking it down into three main phases:
  • Within each phase you need to find out what customers are thinking, feeling and doing
  • Now you have a framework to place your insights from customer research into a customer experience map
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Struggle Phase
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Evaluation phase