iq!’s Learnings along the Subscription Funnel
Source: iq! Management Consulting

Gain reach fast (and don’t get lost in Features). Many companies spend most of their budget on content or feature development. This can involve products, services, websites or campaigns. The big drawback is that often only a small portion of the budget is left for generating reach or testing scalability.

iq!’s recommendation: A clear focus on reach generation and MVP testing instead of a sophisticated, short-range solution. Once the usage data of many different customers is available, the product or service can be easily optimized and enhanced with additional functions.

Personalize the Omni-Channel Customer Journey based on Customer Lifetime Value & preferences. The Digital Subscription Funnel makes a lot of things measurable. It becomes easier to build detailed customer profiles and assign value to the customer. This knowledge should be translated into customer-specific customer journeys based on customer value and preferences.

Establish Direct Sales (the Economy of Things cuts out middlemen). Digital products establish a direct connection to the customer. And thus make the middlemen of trade obsolete. This direct sales channel should also be taken seriously and built up by manufacturing companies. Because savings and sales potential are waiting in it.

Make User registration your priority and Usage the Top KPI. The most important currency in the Economy of Things is the registration of users. Once this direct channel to the customer is fixed, all subsequent efforts to satisfy him and generate sales with him are facilitated. Apple, for example, has made a company that sells computers and mobile phones the central hub of various ecosystems in which services are distributed. But this is only possible with a central customer ID and customer profile.

Become a service provider (because every company has to!). Products can be digitized and enriched with services. Customers prefer to pay for use rather than ownership (e.g. mobility-as-a-Service, heating-as-a-Service). Digital products enable a direct transfer into physical services. All these developments mean that manufacturers are increasingly becoming service providers. However, this requires enormous adaptations within the manufacturing industry.

Found Customer Success Teams in order to convert usage into more Business. In order to become a service provider in a digital world, teams must be created that take care exclusively of the new users. Salesforce has done this and named them Customer Success Teams. And the name says it all. Here, everything is done to provide the customer with a successful user experience of the companies’ products and services. This starts with the smooth installation of the necessary software and ends with the sale of value-adding upgrades and add-on products.

Subscription is the business model for the Economy of Things. When manufacturers become service providers, it is only a small step to adapt the business model to the new sales content. Usage-related billing models have many advantages: The customer remains connected to the company via the subscription. Although the company initially forgoes part of the product price, it can count on long-term and predictable revenues. Adobe was the first company to replace product sales with subscriptions and set a success story in motion. Zuora, a Subscription Economy service provider, publishes an annual index that underscores the success of companies that have changed their business model based on usage.