Transforming ideas into actions: Leveraging the SOON funnel

This is an excerpt from The Strategic Customer Success Manager by Chad Horenfeldt

Up to this point, we’ve concentrated on the foundational elements of strategic conversations, which centered on the OARS framework. But what do you do when you want to spur your clients to take action? For example, how do you convince your clients to start adopting certain products or features? How can you persuade your customers to commit to a product upgrade? I always struggled in this area until I learned about the SOON funnel framework, which encourages your clients to self-discover possible solutions while nudging them toward action.

LifeLabs Learning designed the SOON funnel—success, obstacles, options, and next steps—to help leaders coach their employees through challenging situations. The company recognized that the types of questions leaders ask their employees lead to employees taking action, so it created a framework to simplify this process. A former colleague of mine, Brittany Barrett, brilliantly applied the SOON funnel to client conversations to achieve a similar purpose.

The SOON Funnel

Success: What would success look like?

Success is what your clients aim to achieve. It’s the gap between where their current state and desired outcome. It’s the goal of their journey. This could be simply onboarding your product successfully or achieving specific business outcomes. In the earlier example, the client defined success as increasing sales revenue.

Focusing the client on their definition of success can lift them out of the weeds and remind them of their ultimate objective. Success questions elevate the conversation and move the client to take action.

I refer to these types of questions as trigger questions as they have the power to redirect the conversation from issues to solutions:

• What would success look like for you (in this situation)?

• How would you define success?

• What metrics do you use to define success?

• How would you like things to be different from how they are today?

• What would you picture as a way to solve this current dilemma?

• What do you hope to achieve in the next ninety days (in this area)?

Once your client begins answering and painting a picture of success, it might be tempting to offer solutions right away. But that doesn’t mean you can just jump right into solution mode. If you skip a few steps, it could derail the entire conversation. You first need to identify anything blocking your client’s path. Before you can help clients move toward success, you must first understand what’s getting in their way: obstacles.

Obstacles: What are the obstacles in the way?

Obstacles are the barriers keeping clients from achieving their defined success. This typically involves resource challenges, such as limited bandwidth or budget to fully leverage your products. Gaps in your product offering or key product bugs may also hinder their progress.

Additionally, clients may lack the necessary expertise to leverage your solutions or face internal blockers, like a resistant boss. Consider what or who may be impeding their ability to complete their quest.

To openly discuss their concerns, you can simply ask, “What obstacles stand in your way?” The scenario at the beginning of this chapter opened with this key question: “What are the real obstacles to engaging your customers?” You can also ask:

• What is stopping you from moving forward?

• What is holding you back?

• What might get in the way?

• What concerns you the most?

• What hesitations do you have?

• Whose buy-in do you need to get in your organization?

Your client may be stuck in their own bubble, unaware that they’re the major obstacle. For example, they may claim your product is hard to use or not flexible enough. They may make assumptions or excuses to avoid the necessary changes for success. You need to be the bubble burster!

Dig into your customers’ obstacles using the OARS framework. Share success stories or benchmark data showing they’re below average and need to change. Ask them value questions such as “If we helped you solve this problem, what else could you get done?” This helps them be more open to moving past these obstacles, and it embodies the idea of radical customer candor (see chapter 9).

Your objective is to challenge your clients’ assumptions and help them see things from a broader perspective. By documenting all their concerns and obstacles, you can identify paths to their desired outcomes.

Options: What are some possible options?

You’ve reached a pivotal moment in the conversation where you need to steer your client in a particular direction. While it’s tempting to tell your client what to do, doing so could jeopardize the progress you’ve made. When tensions escalate or you’re trying to change someone’s behavior, they may be offended by being told how to act. The better path is to work with your client on some possible approaches. Ideally, the conversation and insights will inspire them to come forward with their own ideas.

Clients need to own the solution, so ask what approaches they think might work—even if they aren’t sure. In the example at the beginning of the chapter, the client determined on their own that they needed to dedicate more resources. Don’t underestimate your clients—involve them by simply asking.

Start with something like, “Let’s work together on possible approaches to address the situation at hand.” Asking for their help builds trust and makes them more willing to act. Then, follow up this statement with one of these questions:

• What are some possible options you suggest?

• How can we help you achieve your objectives?

• What ideas do you have about how we can resolve this?

• How have you tackled this problem in the past?

• How else could this be handled? What other teams or people could be involved?

I often pair an affirmation with an open question. Picturing my client as the hero, I might say, “You’ve had to deal with so much since you joined your company. What you’ve been able to accomplish is really impressive. Based on your experience, what are some possible approaches you would suggest?” I use affirmations to boost their confidence and show them that their input is valued. Ideally, your clients will suggest solid ideas. If they’re unsure or off track, offer your own recommendations.

How to present your recommendations and options to your clients in the right way

While it’s better to have your client suggest a path forward, when they’re indecisive, step in and do it. Research conducted by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna and described in their book The Jolt Effect found that win rates by sales reps increased when sales reps presented a personal recommendation when their prospects were stumped. This applies to SCSMs as well. When recommending solutions to your clients, you can take one of these three approaches or a combination of them: leveraging social proof, using storytelling, or suggesting two to three options.

Leveraging social proof: Social proof involves using relevant customer examples that support your suggestions. Start off by saying, “If it’s OK with you, I would like to make a recommendation based on how customers who are similar to you have handled this situation. How does that sound?” If they agree, which they undoubtedly will, you can then proceed to relate relevant client examples: “A customer that is very similar to you did . . . which resulted in . . . Would you like to hear more?” This is much more powerful than just expressing your opinion with: “I recommend that you do . . .”

Social proof was popularized by psychologist Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Cialdini maintains that if someone isn’t sure how to behave in a certain situation, they will look to their peers for proper guidance. You can leverage this psychological theory by imparting customer examples that your clients will latch onto.

Storytelling: Social proof and storytelling go hand in hand, and it’s best to use storytelling when describing customer examples. Storytelling is a vital CSM skill to master. A simple storytelling technique is to outline the key details of the story, followed by a summary of the issue, and finally wrapping up with the happy ever after solution that led to a positive ending. 

When presenting your social proof customer story, give some context as to who the customer is and what they do. This can include the company size, the team that leverages your product, and the product features they leverage. The more similar they are to your client, the better, and the more details you provide, the more real it will appear. In storytelling, always consider why the audience will care about what you’re going to tell them.

Next, let them know the predicament the customer in your story found themselves in, which should be similar to your client’s. Finally, explain what they did that solved the problem and the positive results they experienced. That’s all you need to do in a nutshell. Prepare a few similar stories and practice them to ensure they feel authentic.  Don’t overcomplicate this.

Provide two to three options: Another proven tactic to get your clients to adopt your suggestions when there isn’t a clear path is to provide them with a few options rather than just putting forward a single approach. By providing two to three choices, you’re giving them a sense of control and autonomy. This works well in renewal negotiations. However, if you sense some strong hesitation from your clients during this process, it’s best to skip the options and provide a personal recommendation, as suggested by Dixon and McKenna. Just be sure you have established a trusted relationship first.

Next steps: What are the next steps?

Having identified your client’s objectives, the barriers they face, and the strategies to meet their needs, your focus should now be on driving them to take action. The best way to do this is to ask them, “What are the next steps?” Take a moment to ask this question rather than telling them. When the action items come from their own mouth, they’ll more likely commit to them.

You can ask your client what the next steps are in other ways:

• What is the first step we need to take?

• Where should we go from here?

• What needs to be done to get this moving?

• What is the first thing you are going to do after this meeting?

Once the client outlines the next steps and you have a clear path forward, you can build out a success plan (see chapter 17 for how to create one). If you sense some reluctance or you don’t feel they’re fully onboard, it’s best to assess their motivation [That is the next section in the book].

Want to read more? Check out The Strategic Customer Success Manager. Available on Amazon and your local book stores.