Dump the Sales Funnel in Favor of Lifecycle Marketing

Introduction:

The modern market is driven by customers. Due to the drastic change in the internet industry and digital platforms, now it is very easy for buyers to select from the array of options available. Therefore, the marketing process has to scrap the old theories and adopt the modern trends that make their process fruitful.

Businesses use two different sales strategies that help them to understand, plan and craft a robust program that converts leads. One is the old and traditional sales funnel strategy and the other one is more realistic – lifecycle marketing process. Both have some similarities but, in many aspects, they are entirely different.?

But why do you think that the sales funnel is not the right choice anymore and organizations should dump it and adopt the Lifecycle marketing strategy?

If this is the question hovering in your mind, it’s the right time to get a clear idea about both the concepts first and at the end, we will find out the reason for embracing lifecycle marketing.

The Sales Funnel:

It is a marketing plan that aims to increase revenue by customer conversion. This process is designed for potential customers to go through the journey of purchasing. This is named a funnel as it starts from a large population and gradually filters down to smaller buckets. It gives you insight into the customers' mindset when they travel through each stage of this journey.

Stages of Sales Funnel Strategy:

From the very beginning of knowing about your brand till the client complete the purchasing, he passes through some stages of the process. In the sales funnel, there are FOUR major stages.

Awareness: This is the first step of the sales funnel and here the customer learns about your product, knows about your brand. There are many ways that people come to know about your brand, maybe through advertising, social media, references, or live demo.

Research: In this stage, buyers get interested in your product or service. It depends on the quality of your product or what problem it is going to solve. They do market research to ensure that you are offering the best.

Decision making: This is the vital stage where the lead is going to make his mind whether to buy it or not. After the competitive research, buyers do further analysis on price, quality, after-sales service, and other parameters to make the decision.

Action: In this stage, the buyer makes the final call of purchasing it or looking somewhere else. If the result is negative, there may be some other ways to nurture the client and get them back.

Lifecycle Marketing:?

On the other hand, lifecycle marketing is quite a modern concept that is more closed to the customers. It targets to provide the leads more information and better experience they want and through the process, converts them into customers and future advocates.

Like sales funneling, it also has some steps, but these are more customer-oriented.

Awareness:

Brands need to focus on authority building in this stage.

What should organizations do at this stage to improve customer activity??

• Share high-quality, SEO optimized, and amazing content in different forms like blogs and articles, video content, podcasts, to increase the inbound traffic to the website.
• Concentrate on creating a community based, circled on your niche, and develop intimacy
• Share more information about your brand, promote your brand awareness through different social media platforms that generate awareness in the audience. Publish real-life creative stories of business managers and clients to make them more personal.
• Email and ad campaigns to reach the maximum audience and attract them to know more about your brand.

Interest and Intent:

In this stage, the lead is more interested and has an intent to be a potential buyer.

What should organizations do at this stage to improve customer activity?

• Try to make it more interactive and conversational. Use the tools that give a personal touch to your customer’s mind like live chat, appointments, and meetings with clients to break the ice. Use your best resource at this stage.
• Show your expertise and knowledge that compels the potential client to go deeper into the conversation
• Use email marketing strategy to grab customer’s attention
• Ad campaigns that focus more on the features and benefits that your products can offer. What kind of problems your product or service can solve?

Decision:

Here the lead is almost ready to make a buying decision. This is high time to hit the right point and convert the lead to a client. Be prepared with all your positive assets to finalizing the deal. Carry samples, positive reviews of happy clients, a draft of the final quotes.

What should organizations do at this stage to improve customer activity??

• A close conversation regarding the deal, technical and commercial aspects.
• Get your sales team ready to offer the quote within the shortest turnaround time.
• Be ready with sample documents or products. If the client asks for any sample, you should be able to give a glimpse at least (videos, live samples, and demos).
• You need to increase the confidence of the probable client by showing positive reviews of happy clients, your client retention ratio, and more.

Loyalty:

It is the after-sales part where the client has already finalized the buying and is not in the experience phase. This stage will make the happy customer your advocate who will refer your product and service to others, free of cost.

What should organizations do at this stage to improve customer activity??

• Seasonal check-ins, casual meetings if possible and take feedback, try to build a stronger relationship with the customer. But your approach must not be irritating.
• Send occasional gifts and thank-you cards.
• Share your thanks through email marketing, publish their reviews on your website or your social media platforms, as a token of thanks.
• Send your product catalog regularly and updates on new product launches. This can build a solid relationship and recurring interest.
• Offer the best after-sales services, stick to your words what you shared before finalizing the deal. This will help you to build trust.

Why sales funnel is inaccurate in the modern scenario?

Every industry is now focused on better customer experience and trying to create more customers while retaining the present ones. Modern buyers' journey is more complicated, and the current internet-oriented market has given ample options. They do not prefer impersonal marketing anymore.

As per studies from Snapapp and Heinz marketing,?60%?of millennials avoid sales and talk to the sales at the final stage. Also, they do not like cold mails at all. Instead, modern buyers gather information, do a comparison, and then make the final call.?

Driven by the digital era, modern buyers are more unpredicted and self-directed. The sales funnel is not capable of accurately articulating the current mindset where lifecycle marketing has the ingredients.?

Final words:

The sales funnel is the call of the past where the options were limited, and organizations were focusing to generate revenue. But the present situation has compelled the organizations to be more customer-centric, personal, and efficient. It is the call of the time that you should change your marketing strategies by observing the buyers’ choice.