Flip the Funnel

In Flip the Funnel, Joseph Jaffe suggests beginning with the customer’s purchase or action instead of ending with it. This restructuring of the traditional marketing model creates opportunities for establishing and growing customer relationships, transforming buyers into repeat customers and word-of-mouth advertisers, and capitalizing on the power of recommendations and referrals. When a company lands a customer, it should pay close attention to post-purchase opportunities for retaining them. Jaffe creates a new acronym for this flipped funnel model: A.I.D.A.—Acknowledgement, Dialogue, Incentivization, and Activation. While supportive customers offer praise naturally, companies can ensure their biggest enthusiasts will continue to offer vocal support by embedding a compensatory system for working with customers as partners.