Handraisers and Learners

The case for building two marketing funnels

A while back, I wrote about how your most important job as a marketer is to build a big pile of "maybes." Maybes are people who know you exist, like what you're about, and might even buy from you someday. The more maybes you create, the more potential buyers you have to draw on, and the easier growth starts to feel.

I'm biased, but I think that's a pretty good framework. But then my friend Aimee Schuster posted something today that made me realize I'd been thinking about this "let's make a maybe" concept in an incomplete way. Here's a link to what she shared.

Bandwidth Strategy - Handraisers and Learners

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A very short guide for how to actually track demand gen in the world of B2B

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Here's what I'm taking from her post: It's one thing to create maybes. It's another thing to treat those maybes differently from the people who are thinking seriously about buying right now. Basically, you need two funnels. One for your maybes, and one for people who are ready to buy now.

I like how Aimee drove home that point in her post. But I really liked the language she used: Handraisers and Learners.

Handraisers vs. Learners

Handraisers are the people that are probably pretty close to buying something. They want to see the product. They're consenting to a sales conversation. They're serious. Your job here as CMO (or someone who wants to be one someday) is to treat your handraisers with a mix of extreme urgency and care. Respond quickly. Make the experience enjoyable. Do not lose track of them. Basically, handraisers are like 911 calls to marketing. You should be picking up on the first ring and giving them what they need, like, now.

Learners are another word for your maybes. These people probably aren't ready to talk to sales yet. But they're starting to get interested in what you do. They're browsing. They're doing their research. They're learning about what's out there and whether they might need it. They're at least curious enough to wander into your shop.

I'm using that metaphor on purpose. Because the key with those learners/maybes is to treat their foot traffic just like you would if you owned a business with a physical storefront. If you were the owner of that store, you wouldn't follow that customer around the floor suggesting things to buy. That would be intrusive and weird.

What would you do instead? Well, first you'd greet them. Then you'd say something like,

"Thanks for coming in. I'm here if you need me. And make sure you check out [X] in the back - people seem to be loving it."

You'd try to send a signal of helpfulness without being too aggressive. You'd make them feel welcome. And if they left without buying something (which a lot of people do), you'd try to stick the dismount too.

"Thanks again for stopping in," you'd say. "Hope to see you soon."

What Actually Happens

But here's what most marketing teams actually do: Someone downloads your whitepaper (i.e., walks into your store to browse) and immediately gets three follow-up emails asking if they want to schedule a demo (i.e., gets form-tackled by an overeager salesperson). Then when they don't respond to those emails, they get a few poorly-worded voicemails. Then they get added to a nurture sequence that keeps pushing for them to book a meeting.

It's the digital equivalent of following someone around a store going:

"So… what do you think? Are you ready to buy? How about now? What about now?"

When you do this to your learners, you don't convert them faster - you just annoy them. You turn them off. They unsubscribe from your emails. They stop engaging with your content. Or worse, they go find a competitor who's willing to let them browse in peace.

I've seen teams lose entire cohorts of potential customers this way. Someone who might have bought from you in six months gets scared off in week one because you couldn't tell the difference between someone who's ready to talk and someone who's just starting to browse.

The Solution (That Most Teams Won't Use)

Look, this isn't rocket science, but somehow we keep getting it wrong. The solution is two funnels.

The funnel for handraisers: This is your fast, more aggressive funnel. If they're ready to talk, you need to talk to them today. This means building a motion that includes quick response times, frictionless scheduling, and sales reps who pick up the phone the minute a lead gets routed to them. This is where you should be measuring your speed to lead - and as a quick disclaimer, you will be a little horrified about what you find here when you start. Every company that starts measuring this finds out they are way too slow in responding to their handraisers. That's good; it's fixable. Keep an eye on that. The faster you get back to people that are ready now, the more likely they are to buy from you. Remember: handraisers are your 911 calls. You need to pick up on the first ring.

The funnel for learners: This is the patient funnel. Your job here is to stay in front of them at reasonable intervals with your best stuff. Think less "when can we schedule a call" and more "here's something useful that might help you think through this problem." This means knowing your customers well enough to understand the questions they have about your category, and answering them in a way that's clear, fun, and satisfying. (I wrote about this here.)

Most marketing teams I know have all the tools they need to do this right, but they default to treating everyone like they're ready to buy today because (a) it's easier to build just one funnel and (b) the sales team and/or the board only asks about the stuff that's ready to close right now.

Whether the cause is sloth or short-termism, it’s still a shame. Because not everyone is ready to talk to a salesperson yet.

Some people are just browsing.

And you need to respect that.