Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

ACTIVATION

The final part of the flipped funnel is about flipping the switch of community or social networking. Up until now, our efforts have been focused on individuals or one-to-one interaction. Now it’s time to connect the dots and activate the collective potential of the wise crowds.²⁴ This explodes the number of potential connections and subsequent transactions, based on formalizing some kind of structure around which all customers—including current employees—are connected.

Whereas the first three stages of the funnel are more commonplace, this final phase is decidedly not. In fact, as the flipped funnel widens, we notice an inverse relationship in terms of adoption, incidence and usage. That’s not a coincidence, given the fact that every step away from the A of Action is one more step removed from the norm or status quo.

That’s not to say it’s not going to change—it is . . . and soon. Eventually, everyone reading this book will likely investigate some kind of customer activation program that goes way beyond loyalty to a point at which customers become an inextricable part of the brand’s evolution and life-force. So consider this your opportunity to activate the final phase of the flipped funnel, hopefully before your competitors do. Activation is the final piece of the puzzle where returning and referring customers become explicitly part of something bigger—arguably, part of the marketing ecosystem itself, at an authentic and communal partnership level.

Take Nike, ...