The Customer Lifecycle
In the world of B2B SaaS, understanding the customer journey is essential. From discovery to adoption and beyond, each step is crucial for creating personalized experiences, enhancing user satisfaction, fostering long-term customer success, and maximizing company revenue.
The Customer Lifecycle
The SaaS customer lifecycle steps
Attract
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Awareness - user exploration
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Conversion - demos, blogs, evaluation and negotiation
Convert
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Purchase - including plan and subscription selection
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Activation - Onboarding, including agreement signature and information collection, Adoption
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Usage - periodic charging, support, enabling expansion, upsell, cross-sell, upgrade or downgrade
Delight
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Retention - Renewal (including expansion, upsell, cross-sell, upgrade or downgrade) or churn
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Referral - the user becomes a brand advocate, leaves positive testimonials and reviews, and recommends to his followers
The goal of this section is to present Core8’s capabilities and our recommended methodologies, leveraging the customer lifecycle stages as our guiding framework. We’ll illustrate these concepts using HubSpot as the CRM software, QuickBooks as the ERP software and Core8 to support all other featured functionalities.
It’s important to remember that there are many ways to support your customers along their journey. Core8 as an open platform can adapt to whichever way you choose to work. So, whatever your unique business needs are, we’ve got you covered.
Integration with Marketing Automation and Sales Intelligence tools is planned for future releases.
When a company and/or contact is added in any of your business software, we’ll make sure those details get synced across all the other relevant software you’re using. Typically, when a salesperson adds a company in the CRM, all the company’s information, including contact persons, will be automatically transferred to your ERP.
To keep your ERP software from getting bogged down with unnecessary data, you can set up Core8 to sync information at specific times. For instance, you might decide to only create a company in the ERP when a deal reaches the “Closed Won” stage or just before the first invoice needs to be generated. This way, you’re only transferring the data you really need, exactly when you need it.
You can create and update deals from multiple sources, such as your CRM, CPQ, self-service pricing pages (using our API), and even through unstructured human text inputs.
To create a deal in HubSpot, navigate to the deal creation page (accessible, for instance, from the company’s page) and enter the items included in the deal.
After the deal is agreed with the customer, update the deal stage to “Closed Won”.
If the deal properties differ from the default settings, you can adjust them in HubSpot or in the Core8 console. Additionally, you can use free text on Core8’s deal page to specify any extra deal terms. For example, you can enter, “First 2 months 20% discount, next 3 months 10% discount” (after updating deal properties in Core8, please remember to click on ‘Save’).
When it’s time to onboard the customer and generate the first invoice, it will be created and sent using your preferred software. Core8 supports two modes for invoice generation:
Fully Automatic: The first invoice is generated automatically when the deal is approved, typically when the deal stage is set to “Closed Won.” Subsequent invoices are automatically generated based on your configured billing settings.
Semi-Automatic: Both the first and subsequent invoices are generated after they are approved in the Core8 console.
Once an invoice is approved, it will be created in your invoicing system. Core8 also synchronizes the invoice status across other relevant business software. For instance, your sales team can track the invoice status in the CRM. In HubSpot, we add an invoice status card to the company’s page, making it easy to monitor payment progress.
When it’s time to generate the next invoice, Core8 will manage the invoice creation and track the payment progress. You will be notified about unpaid invoices and failed charges based on your preferences.
Before generating an invoice, you can manually review and modify it if needed. For instance, you can update fields such as ‘Updated Units’ and ‘Discount’ before finalizing the invoice.
For usage-based billing, Core8 will retrieve the necessary information from your application, to generate the invoice. This invoice will include detailed usage information, enhancing transparency, trust, and loyalty with your customers.
If the deal details are modified (either in your CRM or in the Core8 console), such as when a customer requests an upgrade or downgrade, the values of the next invoices will be automatically adjusted.
For non-automatically renewed deals, Core8 will notify you if a deal hasn’t been renewed in a timely manner, indicating a potential churn risk. This allows you to address the situation with the sales team.
Different organizations prefer various methods for creating deals, and Core8 supports your preferred working methodology. For example: To differentiate between ‘Renewal ARR’ and ‘Expansion ARR’ during an upgrade, companies can create two separate deals in their CRM. For instance, if a previous deal was for 40,000 per year deal at renewal, two deals will be created: a ‘13,000 per year expansion deal’.
Integration with tools to support the referral process is planned for future releases.