Some B2B’s will capture revenue and market share as they experience growth and scale over time (some).
Product-led growth is ideal but it’s not a deal breaker in B2B selling. Begging the question, if you don’t happen to have a product like Drift, Slack, Dropbox how can you compete. That’s a good question, this isn’t about that. It’s about what look out for in your in revenue efforts and spotting funnel vision in your company.
If you’re not familiar:
Funnel Vision is when a B2B SaaS Company has a culture, leader, or sales methodology where acquiring new logos is more valued than retaining and growing the clients you have.
Being laser focused is what some executives are known for. If you think your company is showing potential signs here’s a list to get you started:
Common traits of those affected by funnel vision are:
an obsession to relentlessly acquire new customers
an obsession to serve prospects more than to obsess over serving existing (paying) customers
little regard to the customer experience,
When leadership doesn’t consider clients to be the most important asset, second only to employees
Loose product-market fit, or comprising for short term gains
History of overpromising and underdelivering value
Are you in Sales? What about B2B Sales? Damn. If you are, you’re at risk of contracting ‘Funnel Vision’ — the worst Sales disease of modern-day business leaders.
Are you in Sales? What about B2B Sales? If you are, you’re at risk of contracting ‘Funnel Vision’ — the worst Sales disease of impacting B2B revenues since the discovery of ‘touch-base-itis’.
What is Funnel Vision?
Funnel Vision is a new-age illness that affects thousands of Sales Leaders, Reps and Executives throughout the world of B2B SaaS.
Funnel vision refers to Sales inability to see past the top of the sales funnel for the greater good of their company’s growth.
It is believed to have been contracted during the tectonic shift and evolution of new sales methodologies and buyer behavior driven by the meteoric rise of Software as a Service, or SaaS. Simply put, funnel vision affects those still running an analog sales engine in a digital world.
He haunts B2B vendors with actual accountability for shitty customer experiences.
Churn…the modern day grim reaper of SaaS.
Churn. The modern-day grim reaper of SaaS.
Sowing doubt in your customer base and preying on executives with ‘funnel vision’ — the grim reaper shows no SaaS company mercy.
He haunts B2B vendors with actual accountability for shitty customer experiences.
And with one all mighty swoop of his blade, he slashes your prices makes your CSM’s cry and cancels evergreen contracts without notice.
See, 10 years ago vendors were the grim reapers. They could haunt their customer’s dreams until they renewed. These were the on-prem days, before SaaS really took off and customers were locked into lengthy maintenance and support contracts that broke the bank (think SAP, Oracle, Microsoft).
Here are some other helpful tips to make the most of the resources you have to stay relevant and to survive and thrive in the B2B world:
To increase your odds of staying relevant in B2B:
Play the long game and invest in product-led growth and a seamless customer experience
Build a culture that a) refuses to accept churn as cost of doing business b) where every employee knows the moment(s) they own in the Client journey and the impact it has on CX
You could have the most beautifully designed product…solving the most complex enterprise problems of today…but it won’t matter if you don’t deliver the appropriate customer experience (CX) based on providing value and desired outcomes.
The evolution of what it takes to keep winning in B2B SaaS reminds me a lot of this famous quote from Charles Darwin:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Go spend time climbing mountains or swimming with sharks. Observing nature is observing the longest long game in action – evolution and adaption of life. Same goes for B2B SaaS companies investing in CX.
Nature has always kept deep parallels to the business world, and it will always be better than most businesses at adapting, evolving and surviving.
It was recent –on a sunny windy fall day– at the beach in New England when one of those parallels hit me hard. I was on a walk with my wife when… I realized the following:
The sun‘s shining (value)…
The water’s blue (quality)…
And it’s COLD and windy (experience)…
What appeared to be a promising stroll on the beach turned into a windburn fueled freeze fest —the opposite of a delightful experience.
Questions that rushed to the forefront of mind:
-Was this what my customers feel like working with us and our product?
-What about other companies? Does this happen to them?
-Is CX like walking on a Cold Beach?
Because the value and the quality of the walk was based on the beautiful sunny beach, we assumed our experience would be delightful.
We didn’t pause and consider the unique variables of our situation and how those would affect the outcome we desired or the experience we’d have on the journey (or walk) to the value we sought.
Surely we could have recalled the seasons changing and lateness in the day. And we did.
We checked the weather and knew it was sunny outside. But we didn’t consider other factors like the wind chill or wind speed.
Same goes for AE’s and CSM’s in B2B SaaS today. Proper expectations must be set, and then reaffirmed early and often throughout the Lifecycle with each other and with your prospects and customers.
In my example of a cold walk on the beach, my ‘CX’ was assumed, which herein lies the problem many B2B SaaS companies have today with their CX motion:
a) Account Executives (New Sales) and Customer Success aren’t aligned
b) Account Management (RenewalSales) and Customer Success aren’t aligned
c) No process to ensure expectations and target outcomes are known and aligned on across all parties internally and externally.
What does all this mean?
It means that you could have the most beautifully designed product…solving the most complex enterprise problems of today…but it won’t matter if you don’t deliver an appropriate customer experience based on providing value and desired outcomes.
To keep winning in B2B SaaS, you must do one thing better than any other company:
CRUSH THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Because nobody likes the feeling of walking on a cold beach.
Takeaways:
1. Don’t let your customer’s experience feel like their taking a long walk on a cold beach just to USE your product.
2. Companies that INVEST IN CX today, are and will become the companies of tomorrow.
3. Recurring revenue is one of the most overlooked and effective growth strategies of ALL TIME (yeah I said it)
If you love business and nature, like I do, check out this article by Harvard Business Review published in 2016 about the parallels of business and nature here.
For Coaching or Advisory engagements contact me via email with “I want to stop churn” in the subject line.
The B2B Report 