Forget the Funnel

What's "Forget the Funnel" about?

• Customer-Led Growth Approach: "Forget the Funnel" by Georgiana Laudi and Claire Suellentrop introduces a customer-led approach to driving predictable, recurring revenue, especially for SaaS companies.
• Beyond Traditional Funnels: The book challenges the traditional marketing funnel model, emphasizing the importance of understanding and mapping the entire customer journey.
• Practical Framework: It provides a step-by-step framework for businesses to align their strategies with customer needs, ensuring long-term growth and customer satisfaction.
• Real-Life Examples: The authors include numerous case studies and examples to illustrate how companies can implement these strategies effectively.

Why should I read "Forget the Funnel"?

• High ROI Insights: The book offers practical, actionable insights that promise a high return on investment by focusing on customer value.
• Comprehensive Guide: It serves as a comprehensive guide for building a growth strategy that connects strategy with daily operations.
• Proven Framework: The Customer-Led Growth Framework has been tested and proven with various SaaS companies, making it a reliable resource.
• Empowers Teams: It empowers marketing and product teams to make informed decisions based on customer insights, leading to more predictable growth.

What are the key takeaways of "Forget the Funnel"?

• Customer-Centric Focus: Shift from a business-centric to a customer-centric approach to understand and meet customer needs effectively.
• Mapping Customer Experience: Learn to map the customer journey in phases—Struggle, Evaluation, and Growth—to identify key milestones and success gaps.
• Defining KPIs: Establish customer-led KPIs that measure customer success and align team efforts with customer value.
• Operationalizing Insights: Use customer insights to bridge success gaps and drive sustainable growth through targeted strategies.

How does the Customer-Led Growth Framework work?

• Three Phases: The framework consists of three phases: Getting Inside Your Customers’ Heads, Mapping Your Customers’ Experience, and Operationalizing Your Customer Insights.
• Customer Research: It starts with in-depth customer research to understand their struggles, motivations, and desired outcomes.
• Experience Mapping: The next step involves mapping the customer journey to identify key milestones and potential success gaps.
• Actionable Strategies: Finally, it focuses on implementing strategies to bridge these gaps and measure success through customer-led KPIs.

What are the best quotes from "Forget the Funnel" and what do they mean?

• Rand Fishkin's Praise: "My team paid tens of thousands of dollars to work with Claire and Gia, and we earned every dollar back tenfold." This highlights the value and effectiveness of the authors' approach.
• April Dunford's Insight: "‘Talk to your customers’ is problematic advice coming from most people. Not Gia and Claire." This emphasizes the authors' unique and systematic approach to customer research.
• Chris Lema's Endorsement: "This is the new gold standard, and the questions in chapter three will be memorized by product and product marketing teams from now on." It underscores the practical and impactful nature of the book's content.
• Emily Kramer's Advice: "Great marketing starts with knowing your customer." This quote encapsulates the book's core message of customer-centric marketing.

How does "Forget the Funnel" redefine traditional marketing concepts?

• Beyond Funnels: The book argues that traditional marketing funnels are inadequate for recurring revenue models like SaaS, as they focus only on initial customer acquisition.
• Customer Journey Focus: It emphasizes mapping the entire customer journey, including post-purchase phases, to ensure ongoing customer satisfaction and retention.
• Value Moments: The authors introduce the concept of value moments, where the focus is on delivering customer value rather than just achieving business-centric metrics.
• Iterative Process: The framework encourages continuous learning and adaptation based on customer feedback and evolving needs.

What is the significance of customer research in "Forget the Funnel"?

• Foundation of Strategy: Customer research is the foundation of the Customer-Led Growth Framework, providing insights into customer needs and behaviors.
• Understanding Motivations: It helps businesses understand the motivations and desired outcomes of their best customers, leading to more effective marketing strategies.
• Identifying Success Gaps: Research identifies success gaps in the customer journey, allowing companies to address these areas and improve customer satisfaction.
• Informed Decision-Making: By basing decisions on real customer data, businesses can reduce guesswork and implement strategies that resonate with their target audience.

How can businesses map their customers' experience according to "Forget the Funnel"?

• Three Phases: The customer experience is mapped into three phases: Struggle, Evaluation, and Growth, each with specific milestones.
• Thinking, Doing, Feeling: For each phase, businesses should identify what customers are thinking, doing, and feeling to understand their journey better.
• Milestones and KPIs: Define milestones within each phase and establish KPIs that measure customer success and progress.
• Iterative Improvement: Use the map to identify areas for improvement and continuously refine the customer experience based on feedback and insights.

What role do KPIs play in the Customer-Led Growth Framework?

• Customer-Centric Metrics: KPIs are designed to measure customer success rather than just business outcomes, ensuring alignment with customer needs.
• Leading Indicators: Focus on leading indicators that are actionable and can drive improvements in customer experience and satisfaction.
• Tracking Progress: KPIs help track progress across different phases of the customer journey, providing insights into areas that need attention.
• Driving Growth: By aligning KPIs with customer value, businesses can drive sustainable growth and improve customer retention.

How can businesses operationalize customer insights from "Forget the Funnel"?

• Bridging Success Gaps: Identify and address success gaps in the customer journey to enhance the overall experience and drive growth.
• Cross-Functional Teams: Involve cross-functional teams in implementing customer-led strategies to ensure alignment and collaboration.
• Continuous Improvement: Use customer insights to continuously refine and improve marketing, product, and sales strategies.
• Measuring Impact: Regularly measure the impact of changes using customer-led KPIs to ensure strategies are effective and aligned with customer needs.

How does "Forget the Funnel" help in building a customer-led team?

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: The book emphasizes the importance of building a cross-functional team with buy-in from multiple departments.
• Roles and Responsibilities: It outlines specific roles such as Champion, Primary Stakeholder, and Contributors to ensure accountability and collaboration.
• Overcoming Resistance: Provides strategies to overcome resistance to customer research and cross-functional teamwork.
• Empowering Teams: By aligning team efforts with customer value, it empowers teams to make informed decisions and drive growth.

What are some real-life examples of companies using the Customer-Led Growth Framework?

• Autobooks: By focusing on customer insights, Autobooks increased their sign-up rate by 64% and ongoing product usage by 300%.
• SparkToro: Implemented an in-app checklist and onboarding email series, doubling their free-to-paid conversions.
• Life Lapse: Rewrote their homepage to align with customer insights, resulting in a 93% increase in website visitor conversions.
• HiringBranch: Updated messaging and offered a free trial, leading to qualified inbound leads from multimillion-dollar prospects.