Can you teach an old framework new tricks?
Sales funnels have been a staple of inbound marketing frameworks since their inception in 2005, and they’ve been a sales concept for well over 100 years!
We can’t deny that the sales funnel is an incredibly useful concept for a reason, but it’s not the only way to move prospects closer to an eventual purchase.
Today, the flywheel is taking hold as a means to move prospects to take action by using the momentum of your own delighted customers.
Originally, engineer James Watts designed the industrial flywheel as a way to store rotational energy, which otherwise must be used as it’s produced—when it loses momentum and reaches inertia, the kinetic energy is gone.
This is a great metaphor for the process of growing a business by maintaining customer satisfaction, turning happy customers into word-of-mouth marketing machines. You attract prospects, engage with them in authentic ways to convert them to customers, and delight them at every touchpoint to turn them into tireless promoters of your brand.
HubSpot shifted its business to the flywheel model when they realized two fundamental incompatibilities between their growth process and the traditional sales funnel:
1. HubSpot invests in a customer-fueled growth process that is circular rather than top-down.
2. HubSpot systematically targets friction in the customer experience to build meaningful experiences.
Sales funnels require you to spend energy to acquire a single customer and then sacrifice that expenditure after getting the sale.
Because you’re not focused on the customer after making a purchase, the funnel model does nothing to keep the momentum going after landing a customer.
Converting a prospect to a customer is an outcome of the sales funnel rather than the beginning of a relationship. But what about all the resources you pour into every sale, never to be replenished again?
Getting a customer is only the beginning of the flywheel; definitely not a stopping point!
The framework is structured around growth as the primary force that drives a cycle of three stages: Attract, Engage, and Delight.
The Attract stage helps strangers become prospects who want to know what you can do for them. The Engage stage is focused on helping the prospect find the information they need to make a buying decision.
Finally, the Delight stage is where you go above and beyond to make the customer so delighted, they become a promoter—inviting a steady stream of potential prospects to keep the flywheel turning.
A sales funnel moves your prospect through the stages awareness, interest, decision, and action. After action, that customer is gone from the funnel, and so is the energy you spent to acquire them.
There’s no room for a promoter or analogous role in this framework. It moves in just one direction and stops following the customer after they convert.
While the sales funnel still has its applications, there are a few gaps that the flywheel steps in to fill.
For instance:
"Growth is the axle that the flywheel turns around, and promoters are the driving force that keeps it moving."
The first thing you’ll notice about a flywheel is that it’s circular, not linear like most sales frameworks.
Instead of coming to a stop when the prospect becomes a customer, the flywheel keeps moving. Delighted customers become promoters, and promoters bring in fresh potential prospects.
A promoter is a thrilled customer who just wants to tell the world how great their experience was, and "there is no more powerful force on earth than a loyal customer’s word-of-mouth."
In fact, nearly 70% of consumers seek opinions before making a buying decision.
Promoters are vocal about their experiences—and hopefully, they’re loud enough for consumers to find their opinions (on social media and review sites) first.
Retaining customers is critically important:
Obviously, to promote a customer, you have to retain them.
Every single time a prospect becomes a customer, the focus becomes delighting them with the hopes of upgrading them to a promoter. And delighting the customer makes them want to stick around.
You can delight the customer by anticipating their needs and overdelivering the experience they want. Finding points of friction (and sanding them down) is an indirect way to delight and retain as well since every customer wants a seamless experience.
The flywheel reveres the customer, as it should be.
After all, "the customer is the lifeblood of your company, the only path to business success, and the driving force behind the flywheel." Who deserves more respect than the customer?
While the sales funnel writes the customer off once they’re acquired, the flywheel treats each customer like the person that they are.
Instead of invoking Awareness, Interest, and Decision, the flywheel Attracts, Engages, and Delights prospects and customers. The language itself is telling since it focuses entirely on the customer experience. Who doesn’t want to be delighted or engaged?
Plus, "the customer has the promoter’s role to move to once you’ve delighted them. That means every customer has an active role in growing your company."
Is the sales funnel getting you (and your metrics) down?
At ContentBacon, we’re proponents of the flywheel and all it can do to supercharge growth. The momentum can drive you over a stuck point, helping you harness your loyal promoters for the best word-of-mouth in the world!
Check out Bacon Bits for more inbound insights!