The Six Failure Points in the Customer Aquisition Process by Matthew Iovanni, CEO of FullFunnel www.fullfunnel.co

1. 6 Failure Points in the
Customer Acquisition Process

2. 6 Failure Points in the Customer Acquisition Process
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Table of Contents
Introduction
#1: Targeting the Right Customers
#2: Attracting Customers with the Right Message
#3: Choosing the Right Channel Mix
#4: Monitor Qualifying events
#5: Clarity and Persuasiveness During the Presentation
#6: Proposal, Pricing, & Product
Summary
3
4
8
11
12
15
16
20

3. – 3 –
Introduction
During the past three years FullFunnel has worked with +75 clients, in
15 different countries, and across a variety of industries. Companies
usually fit within the following categories:
• Early stage technology companies searching for product/market fit
• Series A+ growth companies looking to expand
• Middle Market Firms with limited repeatable sales processes
• Publicly traded firms with direct and indirect global sales channels
Across this wide variety of companies and programs we’ve identified six
common areas of failure in companies’ customer acquisition programs.

4. 6 Failure Points in the Customer Acquisition Process
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Targeting the Right Customers
The first failure point that can derail a sales & marketing program is who
you are targeting. If you’re going to pinpoint your prospect demographic,
there are a few key questions that every customer acquisition program
needs to have answered up front:
1. Who has a pain that my product or service provides a solution for?
2. How many people have this need?
3. Are these people actively looking for a solution?
Failure Point #1:

5. 6 Failure Points in the Customer Acquisition Process
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Pain Points
Prospects only buy when they are in pain (thanks, Sandler). The
reality of any transaction is that it revolves around some pain,
whether it’s emotional, physical, or professional. Are the potential
customers you’re engaging really looking for your offering?

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Market Size
While some companies do figure out their customer demographics,
there are very few cases where they’ve added a layer of quantification
to their sales programs. If you’re going to identify how much you
need to invest into different customer acquisition channels or overall
sales efforts, you need to know how valuable - or dispensable - a
single prospect is. Getting really granular and putting up strong
estimates of your total addressable market will inform both overall
sales strategy and the selling tactics you will employ.

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Interested Market
Listen up! If no one is actively looking for your product, there is
no way to really project market absorption. You’re going to have to
educate your prospects and create pain before encountering demand.
Although startups almost always encounter this problem, middle
market firms can suffer from this challenge, as well. If the market
is highly commoditized and buyers are approached frequently from
multiple vendors, “seeking out” a solution is not necessary.

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Attracting Customers with the Right Message
The next key failure point is messaging. I’m not just talking about the
quality and persuasive power of those messages. Frequently, distribution
pathways are vastly underutilized, or just plain wrong for the audience.
Failure Point #2:
The American consumer
wants everything and they
don’t want to pay for it.
“
”
Alan Mulally

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Message Content & Quality
What are you saying and how are you saying it. Modern customers,
whether in business or personal engagements, are overwhelmed with
marketing messages promoting a wide variety of products or services.
With the rise of digital channels and social media, consumers are
being bombarded with sales messages. Make an impression by
putting pressure on the prospect’s pain point.

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1. Be brief. Get to the point quickly and clearly.
2. Be a human. Be approachable. Be humble.
3. Focus on the customer’s pain. No one cares about your company,
they care about themselves.
4. Remember prospects are risk-averse, so focus on the positives.
5. Make it easy! The experience must be easy. Don’t burden your
prospects in any way.
5 Tips for Effective Communication

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Choosing the Right Channel Mix
Once the messaging is right, you need to ensure it
reaches your target audience.
Failure Point #3:
Channels Include:
• Inbound Marketing
• Paid Digital Advertising
• Email Prospecting
• Tele-Prospecting
• Social Prospecting
• Print Media
• WOM, Network,
and Referrals
Sales and marketing is about the distribution of capital with the intent of gen-
erating the highest return on deployed capital. Adjust your channel mix base on
cost per lead and cost per qualified opportunity. Don’t underestimate the power
of paying attention. Measure everything.

12. 6 Failure Points in the Customer Acquisition Process
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Monitor Qualifying Events
Failure Point #4:
If you are targeting the right people and engaging them with messaging that
resonates with their pain points, you will get a qualification event - an active
response to your message. This qualification event serves as the measurement
of how effective your sales process actually is.

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Two Key Questions
When someone agrees to a qualifying event, do you always:
1. Demonstrate and promote the value of your solution quickly
and effectively enough to lead to the next step?
2. Convey how your solution benefits the prospect and people like
them, in response to their specific pain?
If you can accomplish these things, you will get the decision maker
or decision-making unit to commit to a full demonstration or
consultation of your offering.

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Identifying a Process Problem
If your sales teams has a qualifying events that don’t progress to
demonstrations or consultations, you have a process problem.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are we talking to the right people?
2. Is our messaging sufficiently informing our prospects?
3. During initial conversations, are we selling, or solving?
4. Do we need to further validate our product/market fit?
Finding the qualifying events is the job of lower stage sales team member such as a SDR,
BDR, or any inside sales position. Only relying on exceptional “closers” is not scalable.
Fulfilling your sales process should be like a paint by numbers exercise. Any college-
educated person with some grit and communications skills can successfully close deals.

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Clarity and Persuasiveness During the Presentation
Failure Point #5:
This failure point is the easiest to identify. If your product is not that
compelling, doesn’t remedy the prospect’s pain points, or is cumbersome and
awkward, they are not going to ask for a proposal or consider buying it.
If you have less than a 20% close rate from presentations, you need to get back
into the lab and work on your product. Plain and simple.

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Proposal, Pricing, & Product
Failure Point #6:
At this point, you’re in good shape. You just need to move your deal across
the goal line.
Industry averages tell us you should win at least 25% of all proposals that
you submit. If that’s not the case, it is very likely your qualification process is
incomplete. I encourage companies to strive for a 33% close rate or better. If
this isn’t you, look for the three Ps.

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Proposal
The failure point in the proposal itself usually falls within the key
business terms and structure of the agreement. Anything from
payment terms, termination, limitation of liability, indemnification,
enforceability, and term can derail your prospects ability to move
forward and execute the deal.

18. 6 Failure Points in the Customer Acquisition Process
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Pricing
Absent BANT, there is only price. If you are losing deals based on
pricing, either you are not actually qualifying your prospect, or you
are pricing yourself out of the market.
Price is really important if you are competing in a saturated
space that views your product as a commodity. Ensuring you are
communicating and validating your key value to the customer is
critically important.

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Product
This is the failure that stings the most. If you are getting constantly
bested by competitors based on features of the product or service
itself, go back to the lab.
Don’t blame your salespeople if you are converting less than 20%
of BANT qualified opportunities. No one likes hearing their baby is
ugly, but if you’re converting below that 20% benchmark and doing
everything else right, have a self-effacing moment and deal with the
problem.

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Summary
When companies are suffering from deficiencies in their customer acquisition
process, underlying failures can be found in one or more of these six areas:
Luckily, uncovering each or any of these failures means you’re closer to
operating more effectively since every failure reveals an opportunity.
You just need to know how to fix it.
Proposals,
Pricing,
Product
Appropriate
Targeting
Quality of
Messaging
Message
Distribution
Clarity of
Qualifying
Events
Presentation
or Product
Demonstration

21. To find the dead weight, cut it from the process, and
replace it with something sustainable, realistically
manageable, and successful. To learn more about
how our team can help you achieve the results you
desire without the costs you dread, click here to
request a consultation.
At FullFunnel, that’s our purpose.
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