For the past half-century, buying has been framed as a hierarchy of effects: moving a prospect from awareness to interest to desire to action. The AIDA formula and its variants are the basis (often, the unconscious basis) for customer-acquisition activities in most firms. It’s an inside-out process that assumes buyers move sequentially through a “funnel” or “pipeline.”
Sales Teams Need to Stop Focusing on the Customer Funnel
Instead, build an “experience chain” that aligns the customer journey across physical and digital channels.
March 13, 2023
Summary.
Understanding where customers are, how they navigate streams in your market, and how to interact with them in a given stream is now central to crafting a good customer experience, and that has implications. Among other things, companies need to shift from thinking about a value chain to an experience chain. The value chain is about moving products from the point of production to consumption. An experience chain starts with the customer and aligns the touchpoints inherent in omni-channel buying journeys. This goes beyond “experience marketing” where brands highlight how their products can make the buyer’s life easier or more productive. It’s about the journey from need recognition through evaluation to purchase and post-sales activities.
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New!
HBR Learning
Customer Focus Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Customer Focus. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Learn how to keep your customers—and their most important needs—front and center.