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

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT OF BUSINESS

Everything is connected and interconnected. So whatever happens in one of your stores (Domino’s), one of your airplanes (United), or one of your written responses (Target)—even at the most junior, isolated, or granular level—can have long-term enduring effects on your business, reputation, image, and ultimately your sales.

In a world of connectivity, social networks, and social megaphones, the stakes have never been so high. The question is not WHETHER to flip the funnel, but WHEN. And the answer should not be WHERE to flip the funnel, but EVERYWHERE; not HOW, but HOW MUCH.

If customer experience is the sum total of all interactions, transactions, and encounters between a customer and a company, its brands, products, and services over a determined period of time, THEN it stands to reason that all of this will inevitably lead to materially impacting future sales—both repeat purchases from existing customers AND new business via existing customers.

You’ll notice that nowhere in this revised equation have I focused on the traditional funnel’s laborious quest for often-fleeting acquisition (new business from new customers). Do they go away? Not at all. But no longer are they the bullies that dominate the corporate conversation either.

Instead of dissecting how to incrementally tweak an already failing acquisition model in desperate search of new blood, we can shift our focus and momentum to rededicating ourselves to our customers with a renewed ...