This season, take Closing Time with you. Closing Time is the podcast and YouTube Show designed for go-to-market leaders. With episodes around 20 minutes or less, Closing Time dives deep into one topic to give you actionable takeaways from prominent leaders in sales, marketing, customer success, and more. 

According to the American Journal of Medicine, the attention span of the typical adult learner wanes after 15-20 minutes, so the bursts of micro-learning delivered by Closing Time are ideal for professionals in go-to-market fields.

The team at Insightly selects guests based on their knowledge of go-to-market areas, trends in the marketplace, and topics that you need to know to have a seat at the table. The list of episodes includes thought leadership concepts, deep dives into recent research, and practical, how-to guides that listeners can put into practice immediately. 

As we celebrate the 100th episode of Closing Time, it’s a good time to look back at some luminary episodes and divide them into groups for  various roles. Let’s explore 5 curated collections of episodes for professionals in different disciplines of go-to-market.

The CSO Collection – Chief Sales Officer

Is it time to build a BDR/SDR program? Are you ready to lead your team through the next economic downturn? These are questions CSOs ask themselves all the time. In this six pack, hear from Sam McKenna of #samsales on the economics, metrics, and resource allocation data that can help you decide if and when a BDR/SDR function is a good fit. It’s in episode 8: How do you know if you need a BDR/SDR program.  Mike Weir of G2 talks about leading teams when economic conditions are rough by continuing to create environments that focus on development plans, coaching and advancement. This collection has technical CRM experts talking about getting your tech stack right from the start, and advice on compensation from a leader in sales recruiting. CSOs will be on the edge of their seats!

Also included in this collection:

• Episode 16 with Amy Volas: Latest trends in sales compensation
• Episode 63 with Vanessa Hunt: Choosing the Right CRM: It’s an Art, Not a Science
• Episode 64 with Mike Topalovich: Do legacy CRMs need a reality check?
• Episode 87 with Ann Handley: AI-Driven Authenticity: How Sellers and Marketers Can Use AI to Foster Genuine Connections

The Sales Manager Collection

Let’s roll up our sleeves and get close with our sellers. In this collection, we get hands-on with the coaches who are in the trenches, having weekly pipeline meetings, and coaching AEs/BDRs/SDRs every day. They are the hype men and women, keeping the team pumped and excited to sell, sell, sell. Now, are we selling against a competitor or against the status quo? Sales advisor Jen Allen-Knuth talks about the cost of inaction in episode 38: 3 Ways to Defeat Your Buyer’s Status Quo. So if we get a sale, can we upsell/cross sell? Hannah Ajikawo of Revenue Funnels shares tips to help increase ACV – the metric that keeps most sales managers up at night.

Also included in this collection: 

• Episode 24 with Amy Volas: How to get (and keep) a job as VP of Sales
• Episode 28 with Amy Volas: How to Reduce sales turnover: Your hiring process
• Episode 39 with Tyler Lessard: How to get your sales team to adopt video selling
• Episode 59 with Derek Grant: Top 5 ways to Improve your sales cadences. New research!

The Account Executive (AE) Collection

Step right up, sellers! This collection is for you. You’re working the phones, personalizing emails, following up with leads, and generating pipeline. All this while you’re keeping the CRM updated every day. You also know that selling is a craft and you constantly need to keep your skills sharp. In this collection, we turn to Udi Ledergore from Gong where they analyzed mountains of data and came up with call openers that work, terminology around pricing discussions, and even permission to use a few ‘colorful’ words now and then. Learn all about it in episode 74: How to make your next sales call better. Tyler Lessard of Vidyard chimes in on episode 37 with unique ways to use video throughout the sales process – ahead of the demo, as a demo follow-up, and even when delivering a contract. 

Also included in this collection: 

• Episode 10 with Doug Landis: 5 Discovery Call Tips to Help Buyers Overcome the Status Quo Bias
• Episode 22 with Ravi Rajani: 4 ways build authentic rapport & connection over Zoom
• Episode 30 with Sam McKenna: 5 steps to turning a referral into a win
• Episode 58 with Chris Orlob: SaaS Demo Best Practices: How to Crush Your Next Demo Call

The Marketer’s Collection

Talk about a lineup of luminaries. This collection contains episodes featuring Shama Hyder, CEO of Zen Media, Katie Foote, CMO of Drift, and 2x founder Rand Fishkin. Explore topics that are top of mind for markers like attribution, ABM, and branding. In episode 25, Katie Foote talks about the new ‘conversational marketing’ category and how Drift is putting it on the map. Shama Hyder walks you into the dark social funnel in episode 14, talking about how people research privately on social media before they initiate a sales process with your team.

Also included in this collection:

• Episode 62 with Anna Furmanov: Early Stage Startup? 11 Startup Marketing Initiatives to Help You Grow Faster
• Episode 68 with Rand Fishkin: Bouncing back after the death of marketing attribution
• Episode 81 with Dale Harrison: Does Brand awareness work in B2B? Here’s how to prove it does to your CFO
• Episode 86 with Brendan Hufford: Efficient Growth: Using Marketing Sprints to Grow Faster while Spending Less

The Sales Ops/Rev Ops Collection

We didn’t forget you, operations folks! So many episodes of Closing Time talk through the importance of the sales operations and revenue operations teams and how they link marketing and sales teams together. Getting the right tech stack, maintaining it, and getting leads into the hands that need them…operations teams are our anchors. Sales strategist Chris Walker has been on two Closing Time episodes talking about how to refocus and reshuffle sales teams to focus on metrics that drive wins. In part one, episode 69, he talks about the difference between demand capture and demand creation. In part two, restructuring your sales funnel is on the table. 

Also included in this collection:

• Episode 3 with Todd Caponi: Salespeople Ruin Everything: Building a tech stack that works
• Episode 46 with Eddie Reynolds: The 5-step RevOps model for high-growth teams
• Episode 49 with Keith Rabkin: The 4 Keys to Successful Sales Proposals
• Episode 90 with Josh Fedie: How to Optimize the B2B Buyer Experience and Improve Wins Rates in 2024

New this year: Closing Time Customer Spotlights

Closing Time recently expanded its format to include the Closing Time Customer Spotlight. You’ll hear directly from an Insightly CRM customer on how they are using the platform to achieve key metrics in their business. The inaugural episode of Closing Time Customer Spotlight features CEO Frank Gray III of NeuLine Health. Frank talks about how his company was using Insightly and then searching for a HIPAA-compliant platform to help with additional processes. During their discovery, they realized that they in fact did not need to add another platform; rather, they doubled down on their use of Insightly and customized their Insightly instances to meet the needs of their three healthcare businesses. Hear Frank’s story in episode 94 entitled How healthcare business, Neuline Health, uses a HIPAA-compliant CRM. Explore more episodes of Closing Time Customer Spotlights by visiting the Closing Time page. 

Time to hit the road

Grab one or more Closing Time six-packs and hit the road. Take your micro-learning with you on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Or watch on YouTube.

Customer life cycle management has become increasingly important for businesses to stay competitive and retain customers. In today’s digital age, customer relationship management (CRM) systems have made it easier for businesses to manage the entire customer journey from acquisition to loyalty. The customer life cycle in CRM encompasses all stages of the customer journey, from initial awareness to post-purchase loyalty. The goal of customer life cycle management is to optimize customer experience and maximize the value of each customer. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore the different models of the customer life cycle. Each of them explores a way that companies can think about end-to-end life cycle management, explores commonly discussed stages of the customer life cycle in CRM, how they show up in marketing, and provides an example of a hypothetical business and customer journey.

Note on terminology – Life Cycle or Lifecycle?

One thing to note, life cycle is shortened to one word by many in the field, such as with McKinsey’s customer lifecycle management, or with Deloitte data digitization lifecycle. Both are focused on the customer’s end-to-end lifecycle. End-to-end lifecycle management is a focused service that these companies offer in the consulting field. Lifecycle management McKinsey: This firm provides services helping organizations work with clients to analyze the behaviors and needs that characterize their most valuable customers, determine the right objectives, and identify the best ways of reaching them. Deloitte data digitization lifecycle: This firm models the risk management lifecycle, and provides consulting in a number of areas, helping companies manage online and offline (physical and digital) elements of their business. Digitalization is now creating new opportunities by improving and expanding post-sale service offerings, increasing the scope of insights into customers and machines, introducing new service business models, and making service operations more efficient.

For most of this article we’ll use “life cycle” as Miram-Webster dictionary suggests, two words. 

3 Stages of Customer Life Cycle

The three stages of the customer life cycle, which are generally agreed to be awareness, consideration, and decision, provide a high-level framework for understanding the customer journey. However, some critics argue that this model is overly simplistic and does not fully capture the complexities of the customer journey.

The first stage of the customer life cycle is awareness, where the customer becomes aware of the brand’s existence. This can be done through various marketing channels, such as advertising or social media. At this stage, the focus is on creating brand awareness and generating interest in the brand.

The second stage is consideration, where the customer begins to research and evaluate the brand’s products or services. This stage is focused on providing the customer with the information they need to make an informed decision. This can include providing educational content such as white papers or case studies, as well as offering a free consultation to discuss the customer’s needs and how the brand’s products or services can meet those needs.

The final stage is the decision stage, where the customer decides whether or not to make a purchase. This stage is focused on providing a seamless buying experience and addressing any concerns or objections the customer may have.

While the three stages of the customer life cycle provide a basic framework for understanding the customer journey, it is important to note that the customer journey can be much more complex and nuanced. Customers may go through multiple stages of consideration or decision-making, and their interactions with the brand may be influenced by various factors such as social proof or emotional triggers. Therefore, it is important to tailor marketing strategies to the specific needs and behaviors of each customer.

4 Stages of Customer Life Cycle

Let’s explore another model, the 4-stage customer life cycle. Customer life cycle in CRM is a process that involves identifying, acquiring, and retaining customers through strategic marketing campaigns. The 4 stage customer life cycle consists of four stages: acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty. Each stage has a distinct set of objectives and strategies that businesses use to build long-lasting relationships with their customers.

The first stage of the customer life cycle is acquisition. It involves identifying potential customers and attracting them to your business. This stage includes various marketing techniques such as advertising, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and content marketing. The main goal of this stage is to build brand awareness and attract new customers.

The second stage is conversion, which involves turning prospective customers into paying customers. This stage includes strategies such as creating targeted offers, optimizing marketing messaging, and making the buying process as easy as possible. The main goal of this stage is to create a positive experience for the customer and increase the number of conversions.

The third stage is retention, which involves keeping your existing customers engaged and satisfied with your products or services. This stage includes strategies such as loyalty programs, personalized communication, cross-sell and upsell campaigns, and maintaining excellent customer support. The main goal of this stage is to keep customers coming back and create a loyal customer base.

The final stage is loyalty, which involves creating brand advocates and turning loyal customers into your biggest supporters over time. This stage includes strategies such as customer-only emails, training, events, referral programs, special customer-only rewards, and exclusive offers. The main goal of this stage is to create a strong emotional connection between the customer and the brand, which leads to long-term loyalty and repeat business.

5 stages of customer life cycle

The customer life cycle is a framework that outlines the stages that a customer goes through from the initial awareness of a brand to becoming a loyal customer. The five stages of the customer life cycle in general marketing are reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty.

The first stage, reach, is all about getting the brand in front of potential customers. This can be done through various marketing channels, such as social media, advertising, and search engine optimization.

The second stage is acquisition, where the focus is on converting potential customers into actual customers. This can be done through various strategies, such as offering free trials or discounts to encourage a purchase.

The third stage is conversion, where the focus is on turning a customer into a paying customer. This can involve providing a seamless buying experience and providing excellent customer service.

The fourth stage is retention, where the focus is on keeping the customer engaged and satisfied with the brand. This can be done through ongoing communication and providing personalized experiences.

The final stage is loyalty, where the focus is on turning a satisfied customer into a loyal customer. This can involve creating a loyalty program, providing exclusive offers and discounts, and providing exceptional customer service.

Understanding the customer life cycle can help businesses create a more effective marketing strategy, as it allows them to tailor their approach to each stage of the customer journey. By implementing strategies that cater to each stage, businesses can build long-lasting relationships with their customers and increase customer loyalty.

6 Stages of Customer Life Cycle

Many companies, especially those in software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses prefer to use the 6-stage customer life cycle. General acceptance is that the six stages of the customer life cycle in SaaS are: awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, advocacy, and loyalty. 

The first stage of the customer life cycle is awareness, where the customer becomes aware of the company’s products or services. This can happen through various marketing channels, such as social media, advertising, or word of mouth. It’s important for companies to establish a strong brand identity and make themselves known to potential customers in order to increase awareness.

The consideration stage is when the customer begins to research the company and its offerings. They may compare the company to its competitors, read reviews, or look for more information about the product or service. This is a crucial stage for companies to make a good impression and stand out from the competition.

Once the customer has completed their research, they may move on to the purchase stage. This is where they make the decision to buy the product or service. Companies need to make the purchasing process as easy and smooth as possible to encourage customers to complete the transaction. Often, for the customer life cycle in SaaS, the first few steps are collapsed into the “acquire” stage, where the goal is to acquire customers at an optimized rate.

After the purchase, the retention stage begins. This is where the company works to keep the customer happy and satisfied with their purchase. Customer service and support are important in this stage, as well as providing incentives and rewards to encourage repeat business. Also, some companies add the concept of onboarding as a stage just prior to the retention stage, focused on getting the customer up and running effectively.

For the advocacy stage, the goal is to satisfy customers such that they become fans of the company and its products or services. They may leave positive reviews, agree to be references and recommend the company to others, or even become proactive brand ambassadors. Companies should strive to create a positive customer experience to encourage advocacy.

Finally, the loyalty stage is where companies strive to create long-term, loyal customers who continue to use and advocate for their product or service. This involves ongoing customer support, regular updates and improvements to the product, and building a strong community around the brand.

Customer life cycle marketing

Customer life cycle marketing is a strategy that involves the use of various marketing channels and tactics to attract, engage, and retain customers throughout their journey with a company. The customer life cycle refers to the different stages that a customer goes through during their relationship with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase loyalty. The objective of lifecycle marketing is to provide customers with a personalized and consistent experience that fosters loyalty and encourages repeat purchases.

The marketing life cycle stages typically include awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, and advocacy. At each stage, companies use different marketing tactics to engage with their audience. For example, in the awareness stage, companies may use social media, display advertising, and search engine optimization to attract potential customers. In the consideration stage, companies may use email marketing, webinars, and white papers to educate potential customers about their products or services. In the conversion stage, companies may use landing pages, lead magnets, and sales promotions to persuade potential customers to make a purchase.

In B2B life cycle marketing, the focus may be on building relationships with key decision-makers in an organization. This can involve targeted account-based marketing campaigns and personalized outreach efforts to nurture leads through the buying process.

Examples of customer lifecycle marketing include personalized email campaigns, loyalty programs, and post-purchase surveys. By utilizing a customer lifecycle marketing model, companies can ensure that they are meeting the needs of their customers at every stage of their journey, building stronger relationships and driving long-term success.

Example of customer life cycle

Let’s take a hypothetical manufacturing company and go through the different stages of the customer life cycle as an example.

The first stage of the customer life cycle is awareness. At this stage, the manufacturing company would use various digital marketing channels such as social media, search engine optimization, and advertising to reach potential customers and increase brand awareness. They may also attend industry trade shows and conferences to meet potential customers face-to-face.

Once a potential customer becomes aware of the manufacturing company, they move to the consideration stage. In this stage, the company would focus on providing helpful information about their products, such as through white papers or case studies, to educate the customer and encourage them to consider purchasing from the company. They may also offer a free consultation to discuss the customer’s needs and how the company’s products can meet those needs.

The next stage is conversion, where the potential customer becomes an actual customer by placing an order. The manufacturing company may use strategies such as offering a discount for first-time customers or providing a product demonstration to persuade the customer to make a purchase.

After the purchase is made, the focus shifts to the retention stage. Here, the manufacturing company may use email marketing campaigns to keep the customer engaged and informed about new products or promotions. They may also provide ongoing support and training to ensure the customer is satisfied with their purchase.

Finally, in the advocacy stage, the customer becomes a promoter of the manufacturing company, sharing their positive experiences with others and referring new business. The company may encourage this by offering incentives for referrals or providing exceptional customer service.

This example of the customer life cycle in digital marketing for a manufacturing company shows how businesses can use various strategies to attract and retain customers throughout their journey with a brand. By understanding and implementing the customer life cycle model, businesses can create a more personalized and effective marketing strategy to build lasting relationships with their customers.

Want to build out and optimize your customer life cycle?

Start with Insightly for free! Get started with a free trial of Insightly CRM today, watch a demo-on-demand, or request a personalized demo to see how our solution can help your company achieve its business goals. Once your free trial ends, you can choose to stay with a free account for up to 2 users, or explore the features of Plus, Professional and Enterprise accounts.

Additional helpful links

More information on this topic is available on the following pages:

But how are B2B marketers taking advantage of automation tools today to improve their bottom line?

To help you answer this question, Ascend2 and Insightly fielded The 2023 State of Marketing Automation Survey in February, 2023. A full report, titled The 2023 State of Marketing Automation from the B2B Perspective, represents the opinions of the 198 marketing professionals responding to the survey who operate exclusively in the business-to-business (B2B) space.

Gauging Success with Marketing Automation

Is the automation that B2B marketers are using helping them to achieve strategic goals? An overwhelming majority (94%) say yes, to some extent. But only 29% report that their marketing automation is very successful, or best-in-class, compared to the competition, suggesting that there is room for improvement in the automation tools marketers are using and also in the ways that it is used.

Primary Goals for Marketing Automation

How are B2B marketers trying to improve their use of automation in the coming year? According to half (50%) of those surveyed, optimization of their overall automation strategy will be a primary goal in the year ahead. Improving data quality and identifying ideal customers and prospects will also be top objectives for improving automation in the year ahead, according to 42% and 37% of those surveyed, respectively.

Extent of Automation

While very few (13%) B2B marketers report having no automation throughout their overall customer journey, nearly half (48%) of those surveyed say they have some, or partial automation throughout their customer journeys. 39% of B2B marketers have customer journeys that are mostly or fully automated according to our research.

Current Use of Marketing Automation (2023 vs 2022)

There have been significant changes in how B2B marketers are using automation in the last year. The use of automation has increased significantly since last year in areas that include email marketing (53% to 62%), content management (30% to 40%), paid ads (23% to 39%) and lead scoring (13% to 20%). The only area that saw a decrease in the use of automation in the last year is SEO efforts which 19% of B2B marketers are still currently executing automation in. (View The State of Marketing Automation 2022 Survey Summary Report.)

Planned Use of Marketing Automation

Where among their efforts are B2B marketers planning to implement the use of marketing automation in the coming year? 31% of B2B marketing professionals surveyed are planning to add automation to their social media management and email marketing initiatives in the year ahead. Other areas that top this list are paid ads (28%), landing pages (26%), and SMS marketing (26%).

Building Effective Customer Journeys with Marketing Automation

Marketing automation platforms should facilitate the development of engaging customer journeys, but only about one-quarter (27%) of B2B marketers surveyed strongly agree that their automation tool does this. Just over half (53%) of those surveyed somewhat agree leaving one-in-five (20%) B2B marketers who have marketing automation platforms that do not make it easy to build effective customer journeys.

2023 Budget Trends for Marketing Automation

Overall, budgets for marketing automation are trending upward according to 70% of B2B marketing professionals surveyed. Another 21% say that their marketing automation budget for the coming year will be staying the same leaving just one out of every ten (9%) B2B marketers reporting a decline in their budgets dedicated to automation in the year ahead.

Get started with Marketing Automation

Ready to put marketing automation to work in your business? The data above tells us that you don’t have to be perfect or fully automated to drive leads with marketing automation – you just need to get started.

If you’d like to see a marketing automation platform in action, watch this recorded demo of Insightly Marketing. You’ll see several of the top 10 marketing automation tools in action. If you’d like a more personalized walkthrough of the platform, sign up for a one-on-one demo with a member of the Insightly team. You can also see Insightly CRM, Insightly Service (a customer service ticketing platform) and AppConnect (an integration tool) on your demo. When you put all of the Insightly products to work for your business, you’ll align your teams and create lasting customer relationships. 

About the Survey

Survey Respondent Demographics

Company Size

• More than 500 33%
• 50 to 500 41%
• Fewer than 50 26%

Primary Role in Company

• Owner / Partner/C-Level 33%
• Vice President / Director Manager 51%
• Non-Management Professional 16%

Methodology

Ascend2 benchmarks the performance of marketing strategies, tactics and the technology that drives them with a standardized online questionnaire and a proprietary 3-Minute Survey format. This survey was fielded to a panel of marketing professionals and marketing research subscribers.

Research partner: Ascend2

Companies partner with Ascend2 to create original research, from survey conceptualization through report and content creation to media outreach. Ascend2 helps companies fuel marketing content, generate leads, and engage prospects to drive demand through the middle of the funnel. Learn more about Ascend2.