How do you manage and reduce sales friction and churn in the customer journey?

2 What is sales churn and why does it matter?

Sales churn is the percentage of customers who stop buying from you within a given period of time. It can be caused by various reasons, such as dissatisfaction, switching to a competitor, changing needs, or budget constraints. Sales churn matters because it reduces revenue, profitability, and customer lifetime value. It also indicates that your value proposition, customer service, or retention strategies are not effective enough to keep customers loyal and happy.

3 How to measure sales friction and churn?

In order to manage and reduce sales friction and churn, you must first measure them. Conversion rates, sales cycle length, customer satisfaction score (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), customer retention rate (CRR), and customer churn rate (CCR) are all metrics and tools that can be used to track and analyze sales friction and churn. Conversion rates measure the percentage of prospects who move from one stage to another in the sales funnel, while sales cycle length measures the average time it takes to close a deal. CSAT and NPS measure the average rating of how satisfied customers are with your product or service, and the percentage of customers who would recommend your product or service to others, respectively. CRR and CCR measure the percentage of customers who stay with you over a given period of time and the percentage of customers who leave you within a given period of time, respectively. By tracking and analyzing these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into sales friction and churn and take the necessary steps to reduce them.

4 How to reduce sales friction and churn?

Once you have measured sales friction and churn, you can take action to reduce them. To do this, it is important to align your sales and marketing teams, optimize your sales funnel, communicate effectively, build trust and rapport, deliver value and satisfaction, and nurture and retain customers. This includes ensuring that your sales and marketing messages, goals, and processes are consistent and coordinated, eliminating unnecessary steps, simplifying forms, providing clear guidance, offering incentives and urgency, using multiple channels, personalizing your messages, providing value, following up regularly, demonstrating credibility, empathy, and professionalism, addressing objections and concerns, meeting or exceeding customer expectations, providing quality products and services, solving customer problems, providing ongoing support, feedback, and education, and rewarding customer loyalty and referrals.

5 How to improve sales performance and productivity?

By reducing sales friction and churn, you can improve sales performance and productivity in several ways. This includes increasing conversion rates and revenue, decreasing sales cycle length and costs, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, and boosting sales team morale and motivation. By making it easier and faster for prospects and customers to buy from you, you can generate more sales and income. Removing barriers and delays in the sales process can help close more deals in less time and with less effort. Delivering value and satisfaction can increase customer retention, referrals, and upselling opportunities. Reducing frustration and stress can improve sales team engagement, collaboration, and performance.