The shift from the transactional sales we left behind in the 90s to today’s increasingly recurring business models like ‘as-a-service’, requires a shift in thinking about “sales process” design and the traditional vertical funnel. Today, we need a Full-funnel Revenue Architecture – a horizontal bow tie funnel that places appropriate emphasis on post sales customer success, execution and management to realize revenue performance. Predictable sustainable and accelerated revenue performance relies increasingly on the customer continuously realizing benefits and impact. Customer lifetime value and revenue realization are increasingly derived by maximizing the right side of the bow tie funnel.
Another aspect of the full-funnel approach is the greater requirement for seamless integration across marketing and sales activities and a collaborative approach between buyer and seller teams. Buyers expect efficient, effective, high quality buying experiences and they don’t care or consider whether these experience are based on your marketing efforts or your sales efforts. Buyers are in control and they choose when to access your web content, independent 3rd party review sites or when to speak 1:1 with your sales and service teams. In fact, they often interact with all of these touchpoints in different sequences and in unstructured and unpredictable ways.
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