Recurring Revenue: Bridging the Gaps in the Customer Lifecycle With Asynchronous Comms
For recurring revenue businesses, success is not just about attracting customers but about retaining and expanding them. We know that throughout a purchasing process, we are permitted just 5% of the buyer’s journey (Gartner). Once a prospect becomes a customer it’s likely we see even less, as they are all hands to the pump to drive value from their investments.?
In knowing that by 2025, 80% of all buyer and seller interactions are going to take place on digital channels, as sellers we must embrace this shift.? In order to do so, the art of asynchronous communication and buyer enablement across every phase of the customer lifecycle will be vital.
Here’s an overview of how they can be implemented at various points in your processes.
1. Awareness: Winning a place on the Day 1 Shortlist
As Harvard Business Review reports, a staggering 90% of businesses will ultimately decide to work with a vendor that was on their day 1 shortlist. To earn our spot here, we need to stand out amidst the noise.
Enter video content—a game-changer in today's digital age. According to IdeaRocket, people are 27 times more likely to click on a video than static content. Marketo's use of video illustrates this well, as it boosted their conversion rate by a whopping 1,103% and increased email click-through rates (CTR) by 144%. It even sped up their journey to becoming Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) by sixfold.
2. Education: Empowering Buyers
It comes as no surprise that modern B2B buyers prefer to self-educate before engaging with sellers. Miller Heiman Group notes that over 70% define their needs and nearly 50% identify solutions before making contact. What might come as a surprise to many is that 72% of buyers prefer learning about products or services through video, according to TrustRadius.
For HubSpot, this approach led to booking four times more new meetings.
3. Selection: Navigating Complex Decision-Making Units
Close rates have plunged by 42% in recent years, warns Winning by Design. Decision-making units (DMUs) have grown, with Gartner counting 22 distinct roles in the buying process. So, how do we gain DMU-wide buy-in??
If we are looking to spread our influence within said stakeholder group, one of the most effective ways to do so, is by making it easy for our champions to relay information. ?
People are 52% more likely to share compared to other content types (HubSpot).
While we’re at it, why not use a digital sales rooms (DSRs) to consolidate insights and interactions into one place, to make life as easy as possible for our buyers to gain buy-in internally?
Additionally, it offers us real-time insights into buyer behaviour.
4. Commit: Speeding Up the Sales Process
HubSpot reports that more than 1 in 5 reps lose deals because the sales process takes too long. Businesses using digital sales rooms experience threefold to fivefold increases in buyer engagement and 95% faster time to insight (Forbes).
Remember, commitment is just the beginning for recurring revenue businesses, and a DSR ensures seamless handovers and buyer experiences.
5. Onboarding: Accelerating Learning
Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text (3M Corporation), and we remember 5 to 9.5 times more from videos than text (Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience & Insivia). So if we want to make a lasting impact, we need to show our buyers how best to leverage the tool and drive adoption, the challenge here is often the lack of man-power… why not create asynchronous onboarding content and store it in easy to use, easy to access hub fopr your buyers??
According to NovoEd, 79% prefer asynchronous training/onboarding over in-person learning.
HubSpot's Sales Manager, Adam Rataj, attributes his 94% customer retention rate and strong referrals to effective asynchronous training and onboarding.
6. Adoption: Fighting Churn with Engagement
Shockingly, most industries see adoption rates for enterprise applications below 20% (Salesforce). Lack of support and weak relationships cause 30% of this low adoption and subsequent churn (Relently).
Video FAQ sections and DSRs alleviate this issue, fostering strong engagement and collaboration. Miovision, for example, increased its outreach capacity fourfold while maintaining high customer engagement.
7. Expansion: Capitalizing on Existing Relationships
Forbes reveals that selling to existing customers is 5 to 7 times cheaper than acquiring new ones. Existing customers are also 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more on average compared to new customers (Bain & Co and HBR).
Asynchronous customer success efforts drove a remarkable 62% increase in customer engagement for Pipedrive and ultimately doubled its upsell monthly recurring revenue (MRR).