BUYER CENTRIC FUNNEL DESIGN
DAVID SKOK, MATRIX PARTNERS

WHY DO WE NEED
A SALES PROCESS?

MyProduct.com
HOW IT WORKS
DESCRIPTION
Our collaboration
product allows you
…
BUY NOW!
Only $9,999.99
In a perfect world…

WHY DOESN’T
THIS WORK?

BUYER QUESTIONS
AND CONCERNS
BUYING PROCESS

How do we respond?

Break the process down into a series of steps…
Design a series of steps
that we want customers to go through
Website Free Trial Purchase

Results in a Funnel
Not all people entering the first step will get to the second, etc.

Studying Funnel Blockage Points
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

The Source of most Problems
Vendor
Centric

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

A better way to approach to Funnel Design
Buyer
Centric
Buyer-Centric

THE BUYERS JOURNEY

THE BUYERS JOURNEY
Awareness Consideration Purchase

Mismatch:
Sales often handle every lead as though they were in the Purchasing phase
I’m paid to sell. I better be selling.

Likely Distribution of Web Site Visitors
Vendor
Web Site
80%
Awareness
15%
Consideration
5%
Purchase

Different Dialog and Content for each stage
Awareness Consideration Purchase
• Create Problem/Pain
awareness
• Discuss how people are
solving
• Discuss benefits people
are seeing
• Don’t mention your
product
• Don’t sell!
• Product info
• Free Trial / Demo
• Customer stories
• Nurture with regular
content (Newsletter)
• Try to create trigger
• Sales

• Just lost my data in hard drive crash
• Backup software/service
• Starting a new software project
• Dev Tools, etc.
• Performance issues with existing app
• APM tools
• Difficulties tracking bugs across multi-tier apps
• Bug tracking software
TRIGGERS

Buyer Personae

Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• Identifying Characteristics
• What are their key business goals?
• How does our product help them achieve those?
• What does their Boss expect of them?
• What pain do they have that we address?
• Is it latent pain, or obvious pain?
• How do they describe the pain and what they are
looking for?
• (Helpful for messaging)
• Is solving this pain a high priority for them?
• If not, what features would make it a higher priority?
• Are they out there searching for solutions?
• If so, how?
• Most important features? Decision criteria?
• What are their reactions to our product/company?
• What will they like? What will they not like?
• What are the main questions and concerns they will
have?
• What are the steps in their purchasing process?
• What are their likely decision making criteria?
• Who else has to be involved in the decision (e.g.
Business buyer, IT)?
• Who influences them? (Sites, organizations, and
people)
• (Helps us figure out how to market to them)
• Other characteristics that are relevant to this
purchase
• E.g. Developers:
• Don't have a budget
• Prefer Open Source, and don't like to pay for software

MAP BUYERS PROCESS TO YOUR STEPS
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Evaluation
ROI &
Justification
BUYER
Website Free Trial
VENDOR

GET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEAD
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Evaluation
ROI &
Justification
Website Free Trial
BUYER
VENDOR
How are they
reacting as they
go through our
funnel steps?
What are they
thinking as they
go through their
process?

OPTIMIZE YOUR STEPS TO FIT
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Evaluation
ROI &
Justification
Website Free Trial
BUYER
VENDOR
Competitive
Features
Matrix
ROI
Calculator

ADDRESS ALL DECISION CRITERIA
Address
Security Concerns
3rd Party
Security Audit &
Whitepaper
BUYER
Is this a safe vendor
to choose?
• Customer Stories
• Safe Channel
Partners

FRICTION CONCERNS
For Broken Funnel Steps: Get Inside your Customer’s Head

MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
Re-design, or try to use what motivates them

EXAMPLE BLOCKAGE POINT
DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEB SITE

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

WEBSITE GRADER
MARKETINGPRODUCT
A great example of how the Product
team can solve marketing problems

Freemium, Free Trials, Open Source
• Great strategy
• Free products have a chance of going viral
• Greatly lowers CAC, but at the expense of high engineering costs
• Other positives
• Addresses the Evaluation phase, and answers a ton of questions about the product
• The customer does the work

Freemium, Free Trials, Open Source
The Product is
your sales person

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

DEFINING WOW!
A moment where your buyer sees
something cool and exciting
• Motivates them to continue exploring
The moment when your buyer gets
excited enough to want to buy
Mini Wow!
Full Wow!

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

REMOVE STEPS
& REMOVE FRICTION

EXAMPLE

As eCommerce shoppers…
… what makes us buy?

Photos
Feature Summary
Recommended Accessories
Rich description
Video
Reviews
Detailed Specifications
Answer: Rich Product Content

Salsify – Product Content Supply Chain Automation
Brands
Photos
Videos
Text
Specs
Etc.
Retailer
Portal
Retailer
Portal
Retailer
Portal
Retailer
Portal

Salsify’s original trial experience
Sign up
Wait for
email with
Account
Open the
App
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer

Landing Page
Lots of Fields

Next,
Wait for Email…

Sign In… Now What?
• Lots of work still required

Get inside your Buyers Head and analyze for Problems
Sign up
Wait for
email with
Account
Open the
App
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer

Redesign Trial Steps for Problems (Friction, Concerns, & Motivations)
Sign up
Wait for
email with
Account
Open the
App
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Delay causing
major drop off

First step in the redesign
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Sign up
Learn the
UI

New Landing Page: JUST YOUR EMAIL

Motivation: “If these guys are using
it, it must be pretty good…”

Still leaves a problem:
• Locate & Export Content
• Then import to Salsify to have
something to play with
Then:
Land directly in App

Major Friction + Other people involved = Long Delays
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Sign up
Learn the
UI

Offer a chance to start
with Sample Data
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
They now have the
MOTIVATION to
import their own data
Play with
Sample
Data
Mini Wow!
Learn the
UI

Eliminate the risk that the won’t find the path to Wow!
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
• High friction
• Too much risk they
won’t find the path
to Wow!
Sign up

Guided Navigation
Human Help available

Uplift - % Conversion, Before and After
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Before After
Trial Request ->
Logged into App
Logged in ->
Product Page
Product Page ->
Taking action 3x Overall Improvement

Next problem area…
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Play with
Sample
Data
• High Friction
• Long Delay

Problem solved – Export to Google Manufacturer Center
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google

Last remaining problem area…
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
• Huge Friction & Delay
• Other People involved

Scrape publicly available data from existing retailer’s pages
Sign up
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
No import
needed
Scrape
Content
for them
• They have my content in here already
• They’re showing me all the issues
Mini Wow!

Eliminates need for Sample Data
Sign up
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
See their
own Data
Scrape
Content
for them

Final Redesigned Process • Fast Time to Wow!
• High conversion rates
Sign up
Export to
Google
See and solve
problems with
their own Data
Scrape
Content
for them

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

OUTBOUND COLD CALLING

Outbound Cold Calling
Cold Call
Arrange
Meeting with
Sales Rep

FRICTION CONCERNS
Problem: No Buyer wants a cold call from a salesperson

MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
Get inside your buyers head – look for a suitable motivation

Redesign
Cold Call
Invitation to…
(something of
value)
• Educational Event
• Meet their peers
• See data that is of value
• See their own data in a new way
• Etc.
Build
Relationship
Build Trust

Use publicly accessible Data to build personalized assessments
Hi Barbara,
In doing a bit of research on fortinet.com, I noticed
that you’ve lost a significant amount of traffic to the
site (4,400 visits) over the past month. Is this
something the team is aware of or have any idea what
could have contributed to it? I also noticed while you
folks dropped off the 1stpage of Google in 11 searches,
there are tons of opportunities for your team (916
search opportunities!)
See below:

ARE THERE DIFFERENT
BUYER TYPES WHOSE
IDEA OF WOW! ARE NOT
THE SAME?

TribeHR
HR Information System
Applicant Tracking
Performance Management
CEO
Wow!
Head of Recruiting
Wow!
HR Administrator
Wow!

USING CHROME EXTENSIONS

CLEARBIT LEADS + DATA ENRICHMENT
New Leads
Enrich Existing
Leads

CLEARBIT
• Data Quality
• Highly skeptical
• Seen lots of products like this before
• Enrichment data wasn’t good
• Data Coverage
• Skeptical
• What % of our leads would be covered in this database?
Buyer’s Key Concerns

I have to go through IT to
get Salesforce connected
FREE TRIAL BLOCKAGE POINT
Connect to
Salesforce

SOLUTION: CHROME EXTENSION
Browser
connection to
Salesforce
See enriched
data in
Salesforce UI
Judge quality
of data
Report shows
data coverage
%
Chrome
Extension

CHROME EXTENSION
• Easy to install
• Low buyer concern
• Re-write the page’s HTML

CLEARBIT CHROME EXTENSION - ENLARGED

ELIMINATE STEPS THAT
HAVE DEPENDENCIES ON
OTHER PEOPLE

Funnel Whack-a-Mole
• Solve for blockage points
• As you fix one, the problem will move elsewhere

SILOED THINKING
MARKETING SALES
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS PRODUCT

THE NEW GROWTH TEAM
MARKETING
SALES
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS
PRODUCT

USE FUNNEL FLOW CHARTS
Website Free Trial
Handle
other
questions
Proposal
High Level Overview
xx xx xxx xx xx xxx
MicroFunnels where needed

Funnel Metrics
"IF YOU CAN NOT MEASURE IT,
YOU CAN NOT IMPROVE IT."
- LORD KELVIN

Funnels:
Governed by Two
Primary Levers
Top of Funnel Flow
(Quantity)
Conversion
Rate

The Key Metrics
VISITORS
CAMPAIGNS
TO DRIVE
TRAFFIC
TRIALS
CLOSED DEALS
CONVERSION
%
CONVERSION
%
OVERALL
CONVERSION %

FINAL THOUGHTS

Treat your Buyer like a Bank Account
Make a
deposit
before you
try to make a
withdrawal

For more details on all these topics:
visit ForEntrepreneurs.com
Presentation Slides:
forentrepreneurs.com/launch-scale-2017

APPENDIX

DEVELOPER TOOLS EXAMPLE
For those building infrastructure, not applications

EXAMPLE

Defining Wow!
• Mini Wow! Moment
Sees a React component wired up to data
with very little work
• Build a GraphQL Server
• Connected to their own data
• Web, iOS and Android clients connect
to that data (React/React Native)
• Full Wow! Moment

Buyer Journey (partial)
Validate
how easy it
is to build a
React app
with
GraphQLReact
Developer
Play with it
(Trial)
Demo/sell
to others in
company
CTO &
Backend
Developer
buy in
Play with it
(Trial)

Trial involves three hard steps
Set up a
GraphQL
Server that
fetches our
data
Deploy so it
is
accessible
by URL
Create
React &
ReactNative
component
Demo
access to
data in iOS
& Android

Tons of Friction in first two steps
Build a GraphQL Service
• Have Node installed
• Download a boilerplate project
from GitHub
• Npm install some packages
• Run the server
• Open GraphiQL in your browser
• Edit server code
• Switch to GraphiQL in your
browser
• Run the query to see the new
result
To Deploy to a URL
• Hope your server boilerplate has a
production deploy setup
• Identify a hosting provider
• Install the hosting CLI or tools
• Sign up for account on hosting
service
• Run deploy command
• Wait for it to deploy
• Open GraphiQL in your deployed
server to check it's still working
• Done

Redesign:
Wow! in a matter of minutes
Launchpad "new" screen: https://launchpad.graphql.com/new
Ticketmaster Example
Launchpad: https://launchpad.graphql.com/9pw9nnkjr
Expo client-side example: https://snack.expo.io/B1Bk_-k7-
For more details:
Video of Workshop: https://github.com/stubailo/ticketmaster-workshop
List of examples: https://github.com/apollographql/launchpad

SUMMARIZING WHAT APOLLO DID:
• Clear understanding of Wow!
• Analyzed Friction and Concerns for buyer
• Redesigned, removing steps and friction

JBOSS EXAMPLE

JBOSS EXAMPLE
EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE
FREE DOWNLOAD

IMPACT
CUT THE DOWNLOAD RATE
BY MORE THAN 10X

MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
Re-design, or try to use what motivates them

JBOSS EXAMPLE
• Making $27,000 a month selling documentation
• Solution:
• Give away documentation
as motivation to get their
email address
• Result:
• 10,000 leads a month

SEPARATED BUYER PERSONAE SLIDES

Identifying Characteristics
• What characteristics define them as part of
our target sector
• What characteristics eliminate them
• Other characteristics that are relevant
to this purchase
• E.g. Developers:
• Don't have a budget
• Prefer Open Source, and don't like to pay for
software

What Drives and Motivates them?
• What are their key business goals?
• How does our product help them achieve those?
• What does their Boss expect of them?
• What pain do they have that we address?
• Is it latent pain, or obvious pain?
• How do they describe the pain and what they are looking for?
• (Helpful for messaging)
• Is solving this pain a high priority for them?
• If not, what features would make it a higher priority?

What are they looking for?
• Most important features?
• Decision criteria?
• What are their reactions to our product/company?
• What will they like? What will they not like?
• What are the main questions and concerns they will have?
• What Competitive product are they likely to gravitate towards that we will have to move them away
from?

How do they go about purchasing?
• Are they out there searching for solutions?
• If so, how?
• What are the steps in their purchasing process?
• Who else has to be involved in the decision (e.g. Business buyer, IT)?
• Who influences them? (Sites, organizations, and people)
• (Helps us figure out how to market to them)