Closing the Gaps in Your Customer Sales Journey Funnel with the Bowtie

Still using the traditional customer sales journey funnel to track your customer journey?

Hey, no judgment, it’s a solid starting point. But it’s kind of like using a paper map to get around downtown Toronto or London. Sure, it shows you where things are, but it doesn’t tell you what’s changed, what to avoid, or how to get where you really want to go.

In B2B SaaS, the goals have changed. It’s not just about closing deals anymore, it’s about following the Science of Revenue Growth to keep customers, grow with them, and turn that one-time win into long-term, recurring revenue.

That’s where the Bowtie Model comes in. It picks up where the old-school funnel leaves off, helping you build stronger relationships, deliver more value, and turn customers into fans.

Why the Traditional Funnel Falls Short

For a while, the marketing and sales funnel has been the go-to for businesses. It works as a revenue acquisition system, dividing the customer journey into stages:

• Awareness: Prospects become aware of a problem.
• Education: They learn about potential solutions.
• Selection: They choose the right solution (hopefully yours!).
• Closed/Won: You get a new customer and revenue.
  
  

Sounds simple, right? But here's the catch: the traditional funnel is seller-centric. It focuses on closing the deal, often with promises of value. But in the recurring revenue world, it’s all about the impact your product has on the customer.

Here are the key constraints of the classic marketing and sales funnel:

1. Doesn't Cover Recurring Revenue: The funnel stops where recurring revenue begins. Retention and expansion – the real engines of growth in SaaS – happen outside the funnel's view.
2. Seller-Centric: It's all about you closing the deal, not about the customer achieving their goals.
3. Linear Thinking: It assumes customers move neatly from top to bottom, which is rarely the case. Customers bounce back and forth between stages.
4. No Closed Loops: It lacks feedback loops, meaning you're not constantly learning and improving based on customer input.
   
   

Why the Bowtie Is the Future of the Customer Sales Journey Funnel

The Bowtie Model extends the classic funnel to address these shortcomings. It recognises that "closing a deal" is just the beginning of a potentially long and fruitful relationship. It adds stages that focus on post-sale engagement, ensuring customers achieve the promised impact and keep coming back for more.

The Key Stages of the Bowtie Model

The Bowtie Model expands the traditional funnel with four additional stages:

• Mutual Commit: Both parties commit to a long-term relationship. You promise to deliver impact, and the customer promises to keep paying for the value they receive.
• Onboarding: Quickly guide customers to experience the initial impact of your product. Whether it takes seconds or weeks, the goal is to get them seeing results ASAP.
• Adoption: Integrate your product into the customer's daily routines. Provide training, support, and updates to optimise usage and impact.
• Expansion: Grow your business with the customer through additional licenses, upgrades, or extra modules and features.
  
  

This model transforms the acquisition system into a comprehensive Go-To-Market (GTM) system, encompassing all sub-systems necessary for a recurring revenue model to succeed.

Value vs. Impact: Shifting the Focus

The Bowtie Model highlights the crucial difference between value and impact.

• Value: The perceived benefits a customer expects from your product. It's the promise you make.
• Impact: The tangible, measurable results the customer achieves by using your product. It's the promise fulfilled.

The old funnel focused on selling value. The Bowtie focuses on delivering impact. This shift is essential for operationalising customer-centric thinking.

Operationalising Customer-Centricity

To deliver recurring impact, you need to ensure customers are actually using your product. Are they achieving adoption? If not, what can you do to help them? What impact did you commit to during the sales process, and by when?

Mapping the journey back from the customer's desired outcomes aligns all your company's resources.

The Power of Closed Loops in the Customer Sales Journey Funnel

The Bowtie Model thrives on closed-loop systems. These are feedback loops that allow you to learn from your actions and feed outcomes (like customer feedback) back into the system in real-time.

Examples of closed loops include:

• Renewals: Customers renew and expand their business with you.
• Risk Sharing: During onboarding, customers mention other teams that could benefit from your solution.
• Advocacy: Satisfied customers become advocates on social media or through customer advisory boards.
• Ideal Customer Profile: Update your acquisition strategy based on your best customers.
• Referrals: Customers discuss your solution with peers during the sales process.
• Nurturing: Interested but not-yet-ready customers stay updated on your offerings.

Time to Ditch the Traditional Funnel and Embrace the Bowtie?

So, is the traditional sales funnel dead? Not entirely. It still serves a purpose in understanding the initial acquisition process. But in the world of recurring revenue, it's simply not enough. The Bowtie Model acknowledges that the customer journey doesn't end with the sale – it's just the beginning.

By adopting the Bowtie, you're not just selling a product; you're investing in a long-term partnership with your customers. You're committing to their success, and in turn, they're committing to yours.

Here’s a quick recap of the key differences between the funnel and the Bowtie:

The Bowtie Model picks up where the traditional funnel leaves off, focusing not just on winning customers, but on keeping them, growing with them, and turning short-term wins into long-term value.

If you're curious about how small tweaks in your process can lead to big revenue gains, check out our guide, The Science of Revenue Growth. It breaks down how to use the Bowtie Model to sharpen your acquisition, retention, and expansion strategies.