SaaStock 2018 Dublin. Everyone wants more sales. In this presentation, David Skok unlocks the secrets to how he has been able to work with company after company and help them discover breakthroughs that drastically improve their conversion rates. The secret behind it all is become a master at understanding how your buyer thinks as they go through their purchasing journey, and as they experience your marketing and sales.

1. [ ]GET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEAD
IMPROVE CONVERSION RATES

2. WHY DO WE NEED
A GROWTH PROCESS?

3. MyProduct.com
HOW IT WORKS
DESCRIPTION
Our collaboration
product allows you
…
BUY NOW!
Only $9,999
In a perfect world…

4. WHY DOESN’T
THIS WORK?

5. BUYER QUESTIONS
AND CONCERNS
BUYING PROCESS

6. How do we respond?

7. 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

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

9. Studying Funnel Blockage Points
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

10. The Source of most Problems
Vendor
Centric

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

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

13. THE BUYERS JOURNEY

14. THE BUYERS JOURNEY
Awareness Consideration Purchase

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

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

17. 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!
• Help in choosing a particular
solution
• Explain how your Product
can solve their pain
• Free Trial / Demo
• Customer stories
• Nurture with regular content
(Newsletter)
• Case studies
• Results achieved
• How you helped achieve
them
• Other proof points
• Customer references
• ROI data

18. • 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

19. Buyer Personae
Who is involved in the buying process?
Champion Economic Buyer
/ Decision Maker
IT required for sign off

20. Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• Identifying Characteristics
• Company Profile (your ICP)
• Any special characteristics relevant to this purchase
• E.g. Developers:
• Don't have a budget
• Prefer Open Source, and don't like to pay for software
• Professional Role
• What does a day in their life look like?
• Key business goals?
• What does their Boss expect of them?
• How does our product help them achieve those?
• Motivations / Aspirations?
• What would make their job easier?

21. Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• 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 the triggers that cause them to buy?

22. Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• Are they searching for a solution?
• If yes, how do they go about doing that?
• Who influences them? (Sites, organizations, and people)
• (Helps us figure out how to market to them)
• 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 have?
• What competitors will they also evaluate?
• What will they like or dislike about each of those?

23. FUNNEL DESIGN
GET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEAD

24. Designing a Growth Process to match Buyer’s Journey
Strangers VisitorsAttract CustomersCloseLeadsConvert PromotersDelight
Awareness PurchaseInterest
Post
Purchase

25. Top of Funnel
Drive the right traffic
that matches your
ICP and convert to
raw leads
Middle of Funnel
Convert raw leads
into MQLs
Sales
Convert MQLs into
closed deals
Customer Success
Onboard, support and
ensure customer
success as measured by
a customer KPI
Designing a Growth Process to match Buyer’s Journey
Strangers VisitorsAttract CustomersCloseLeadsConvert PromotersDelight
Credit: HubSpot
Awareness PurchaseInterest
Post
Purchase

26. Top of Funnel
Inbound Marketing
Paid Marketing
Website
Strangers Conversion
Event
Raw
Lead
Outbound
SDR’s
Account-based Mktg
Targeted
Strangers
Mktg
Qualified
Lead
Qualify?

27. Account Based Marketing
• ICP powers all marketing
• Ideal Customer Profile
• Build lists of matching accounts
• Discover.org, Lead Fox, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, etc.
• Track who is in buying cycles
• Visiting G2 Crowd, Bombora
• Track which companies are on your website
• Targeted outreach
• Aircover from Ads
Thanks to Eric Spett, Terminus

28. Middle of Funnel
Raw
Lead
Lead
Scoring
Lead
Nurturing
Database
High
Low
Nurture
Webinars, events,
newsletters, etc.
Enrich
Use software like
ClearBit to enrich
the email address
to identify company,
job title, etc.
Segment
Identify interesting
segments based on
attributes (verticals,
job functions, etc.)
or actions
Mktg
Qualified
Lead
Yes
No
Qualify?

29. Mktg
Qualified
Lead
Sales – Lead Stages
Qualify
Sales
Qualified
Lead
CustomerClose
Discovery
Call
Opportunity
Ready to
buy?
Sales
interaction
Note: Your process will likely be different, and there will be more Opportunity stages in your CRM pipeline

30. Initial Guess at Growth Process
Website Free Trial

31. Map Buyers Process to Your Steps
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website Free Trial
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification

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

33. Optimize Your Steps to Fit
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification
Free Trial
ROI
Calculator
Competitive
Features
Matrix

34. Optimize Your growth process to Fit
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification
Free Trial
ROI
Calculator
Competitive
Features
Matrix
Incent
customers to
do reviews

35. 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

36. Choosing a Go-to-Market Model
Freemium
Viral
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s

37. How I assumed the two would relate

38. A rough estimate of CAC versus Sales Complexity
Freemium
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s
$0-
$10
$50 –
$200
$1,000 -
$2,000
$3,000 -
$8,000
$25,000 –
$75,000
$75,000 –
$200,000
Rough Estimates of Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)

39. The relationship is roughly exponential
Clearly adding
Human Touch
dramatically
increases costs

40. Sales Complexity
CAC (logarithmic)
10x
10x
10x

41. The Obvious Take-away
• Do everything you can to remove human touch
from sales and onboarding

42. What creates Sales Complexity
• High Price point
• Complicated to evaluate?
• Integration needed with other systems?
• Multiple people involved in purchase decision?
• Risk to business of a bad buying decision?
• E.g. loss of data, business unable to operate if system is down, etc.
• Requires purchase of other products / services to complete the solution?
Freemium
Viral
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s

43. Start with the buyer
Understand the Complexity of your Sale
• Price point
• Larger investments need greater justification, & more levels of sign off
• How complicated to evaluate?
• Single person, or multiple people?
• Integration needed with other systems?
• How many people involved in the purchase decision?
• Risk to their business of a bad buying decision?
• E.g. loss of data, business unable to operate if system is down, etc.
• Does it require other products or services to be purchased to complete the solution?
Freemium
Viral
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s

44. Land & Expand
Much easier to get a large order
once the product is proven

45. Product-Led
Growth Models
$1
$10
$100
$1,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
Freemium No Touch Inside Sales Channel Field Sales
Sales Complexity 
CAC Logarithmic

46. Fixing broken funnels
by getting inside your
buyer’s head

47. FRICTION CONCERNS
Find the worst blockage point in your funnel

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

49. EXAMPLE BLOCKAGE POINT
WEB SITE EMAIL CAPTURE FORM
Typically a low conversion step

50. FRICTION CONCERNS
Problem: Buyer’s fear Email Overload and Spam

51. MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
We try to motivate with good content
But frequently irritate the buyer with the barrier that stops them
from getting at the content, and lose them at that step

52. Drift Redesign

53. OUTBOUND COLD CALLING

54. Outbound Cold Calling
Cold Call
Arrange
Meeting with
Sales Rep

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

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

57. Redesign
Cold Outreach
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

58. 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:

59. USING CHROME EXTENSIONS

60. CLEARBIT LEADS + DATA ENRICHMENT
New Leads
Enrich Existing
Leads

61. 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

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

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

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

65. CLEARBIT CHROME EXTENSION - ENLARGED

66. ELIMINATE STEPS
THAT HAVE
DEPENDENCIES ON
OTHER PEOPLE

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

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

69. DEFINING WOW!
Thanks to Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
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!

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

71. REMOVE STEPS
& REMOVE FRICTION

72. EXAMPLE

73. As eCommerce shoppers…
… what makes us buy?

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

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

76. 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

77. Landing Page
Lots of Fields

78. Next,
Wait for Email…

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

80. 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

81. 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

82. First Step in the Redesign
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Sign up
Learn the
UI

83. New Landing Page: JUST YOUR
EMAIL

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

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

86. 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

87. 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

89. Eliminate the risk that they 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

90. Guided Navigation
Human Help available

91. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Before After
Trial Request ->
Logged into App
Trial Request ->
Product Page
Trial Request ->
Taking action 3x Overall Improvement
Uplift - % Conversion, Before and After

92. 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

94. Google Shopping

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

97. Last Remaining Problem Area…
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
• Huge Friction & Delay
• Other People involved

98. 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!

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

100. 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

101. Funnel Optimization Meeting
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

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

103. SILOED THINKING
MARKETING SALES
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS PRODUCT

104. THE NEW GROWTH TEAM
MARKETING
SALES
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS
PRODUCT

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

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

107. Selling can be the worst way to sell
Build
Trust
Consult
SellFirst Contact
First Contact
Build
Relationship

108. Design a funnel that
Delights
Entices and
Motivates

109. [ ]FOR MORE INFORMATION
WWW.FORENTREPRENEURS.COM