For several decades, I was on the “buy-side” of technology products and services. True then, true now: there are no tricks or shortcuts in good sales strategies, and the vocabulary for those strategies remains sorely inadequate.
Perhaps this seems quaint, but I’ve long advocated that there is a *relationship* between buyer and seller, and the only useful advice to beginning salespersons is to first, nurture and then, manage those relationships.
The proponents of funnel analytics suffer from a long history of useless terms (and other magical incantations): the product is a service, value selling, find a need and fill it (etc.) are all reductive, avoiding any discussion of relationships, and the keystone aspects of healthy relationships: honesty, integrity, listening – all of the elements that build trust, over time.
Sure, I understand the urge to provide novice sales teams with a methodology that gives them confidence as they charge into a potential customer’s conference room.
We might as well tell those teams that successful sales are governed by the phases of the moon. In that regard, for those who remain starved for Helpful Hints: according to "The Old Farmer’s Almanac" of 2020: the best days for launching a sales project next month are September 19-21.
The Fordist, industrial, mechanical, and Newtonian notion of a business funnel is obsolete. It has been supplanted by complexity and networks. Most people do know this yet. Here's a screed...
Another very annoying marketing term is 'penetration.' As if markets are fixed, static, monoliths. Gee, if we could just 'penetrate' the market everything would be fine. My typical reaction to this dopey term is a rhetorical question, "Why do you want to f*ck the customer?"
Let's retire funnel and penetrate forever.
Soon I'll be covering the most dangerous word known: community. It needs to be retired too, and fast.
Having had to present my sales funnels to managers, CEOs, CROs, boards, it’s always interesting to see how people think of these funnels. And now I see people are selling them! For 999!
Having read Aldous Huxley as an (impressionable) youth, I always think of him and the doors of perception when I hear “funnel”. Huxley put forward the idea of the human mind as a “reducing valve” that funnels the super-consciousness of the mind at large. Meta funnel indeed!
Why thank you ... to be fair - the $999 funnel doesn’t stand up to a great deal of scrutiny!
I also was fascinated that one of the pieces of advice was to keep it simple for YOURSELF ... no mention of the poor dude being 'funnelled'. I suggested that one way of developing a good relationship was to keep things simple for your customer - which inevitably means that it gets more complicated for you .... but the customer experience improves ... oh no - you don’t want to do that ... keep it simple!!!!
Example - build into the funnel that if someone reponds to an email and buys a product ... stop sending them emails from that funnel ....
I get Ogie's notion of a 'reducing valve.' The mechanical metaphor is not the best.
Better is a perpetual evolving gossamer that furnishes conscious & subconscious filtering. It provides osmotic, multi-directional flow paths versus a linear valve or funnel. Giovanni Strazza's all-marble 'The Veiled Virgin' evokes the dynamic.
Concerning Ogie's 'all possible perceptual, emotional, and cognitive experiences,' the Big & Important ones emerge from come from science fiction, protoscience, and spirituality. See:
On a more serious note - I read something recently about how humanity takes on the language of technology in describing itself ... I need to find it - so far I have failed.
Courtesy of my good friend John Maloney - yes the one threaded through this conversation ..... https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/26/shape/ doesn’t exactly nail it - BUT - the theme is clear. Thankyou John.
Nice read and we prefer to think of it as a conversation with quality content that creates deeper reflection through curiosity around a key question as part of building a supportive community.
If we have the quality content, it implies we have quality people and a community of practice will continue to camp around it. We can then position, price and iterate from there with the community.
People do pay and its usually for quality content and people to learn from as a result of this.
For several decades, I was on the “buy-side” of technology products and services. True then, true now: there are no tricks or shortcuts in good sales strategies, and the vocabulary for those strategies remains sorely inadequate.
Perhaps this seems quaint, but I’ve long advocated that there is a *relationship* between buyer and seller, and the only useful advice to beginning salespersons is to first, nurture and then, manage those relationships.
The proponents of funnel analytics suffer from a long history of useless terms (and other magical incantations): the product is a service, value selling, find a need and fill it (etc.) are all reductive, avoiding any discussion of relationships, and the keystone aspects of healthy relationships: honesty, integrity, listening – all of the elements that build trust, over time.
Sure, I understand the urge to provide novice sales teams with a methodology that gives them confidence as they charge into a potential customer’s conference room.
We might as well tell those teams that successful sales are governed by the phases of the moon. In that regard, for those who remain starved for Helpful Hints: according to "The Old Farmer’s Almanac" of 2020: the best days for launching a sales project next month are September 19-21.
GOSH DARN ... are you telling me that I am launching the Podcast a month too early?
August 23-24 is fine for advertising to sell, also for picking fruit and mowing hay. As such, sir, your plan works, moon-wise.
PHEW!
The Fordist, industrial, mechanical, and Newtonian notion of a business funnel is obsolete. It has been supplanted by complexity and networks. Most people do know this yet. Here's a screed...
http://www.colabria.com/biology-of-business/
and some background.
http://www.colabria.com/the-weakness-of-strong-ties/
Another very annoying marketing term is 'penetration.' As if markets are fixed, static, monoliths. Gee, if we could just 'penetrate' the market everything would be fine. My typical reaction to this dopey term is a rhetorical question, "Why do you want to f*ck the customer?"
Let's retire funnel and penetrate forever.
Soon I'll be covering the most dangerous word known: community. It needs to be retired too, and fast.
oh - interesting - community is dead? tell me more ...
Excellent People First!
Having had to present my sales funnels to managers, CEOs, CROs, boards, it’s always interesting to see how people think of these funnels. And now I see people are selling them! For 999!
Having read Aldous Huxley as an (impressionable) youth, I always think of him and the doors of perception when I hear “funnel”. Huxley put forward the idea of the human mind as a “reducing valve” that funnels the super-consciousness of the mind at large. Meta funnel indeed!
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Aldous-Huxleys-cerebral-reducing-valve-On-the-inlet-right-side-of-the-cerebral_fig1_323345114/amp
Why thank you ... to be fair - the $999 funnel doesn’t stand up to a great deal of scrutiny!
I also was fascinated that one of the pieces of advice was to keep it simple for YOURSELF ... no mention of the poor dude being 'funnelled'. I suggested that one way of developing a good relationship was to keep things simple for your customer - which inevitably means that it gets more complicated for you .... but the customer experience improves ... oh no - you don’t want to do that ... keep it simple!!!!
Example - build into the funnel that if someone reponds to an email and buys a product ... stop sending them emails from that funnel ....
Too hard!
I get Ogie's notion of a 'reducing valve.' The mechanical metaphor is not the best.
Better is a perpetual evolving gossamer that furnishes conscious & subconscious filtering. It provides osmotic, multi-directional flow paths versus a linear valve or funnel. Giovanni Strazza's all-marble 'The Veiled Virgin' evokes the dynamic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veiled_Virgin#/media/File:Veiled_virgin.jpg
Concerning Ogie's 'all possible perceptual, emotional, and cognitive experiences,' the Big & Important ones emerge from come from science fiction, protoscience, and spirituality. See:
http://www.colabria.com/the-fiction-of-big-science/
BTW, did you know Ogie (Huxley), C.S. Lewis, & JFK all died on the same day, 22-Nov-1963?
Of course on clicking through to the collabria link ... I stumbled on this one
http://www.colabria.com/future-of-work-farce/
... we were obviously separated at birth!
On a more serious note - I read something recently about how humanity takes on the language of technology in describing itself ... I need to find it - so far I have failed.
Courtesy of my good friend John Maloney - yes the one threaded through this conversation ..... https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/26/shape/ doesn’t exactly nail it - BUT - the theme is clear. Thankyou John.
John ... you consistently amaze me with 'who knew' facts ... seriously? All the same day? Bring on the Trivial Pursuits!
Nice read and we prefer to think of it as a conversation with quality content that creates deeper reflection through curiosity around a key question as part of building a supportive community.
If we have the quality content, it implies we have quality people and a community of practice will continue to camp around it. We can then position, price and iterate from there with the community.
People do pay and its usually for quality content and people to learn from as a result of this.
Will leave the funnel for cooking.
Why I don’t disagree - you do know that friends don’t let friends write content ... don’t you Daniel :-)
https://people-first.net/2019/07/27/friends-dont-let-friends-write-content/
I love this, thank you and will share this with others
share away sir ... share away !