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181 changes: 181 additions & 0 deletions src/handbook/sales/v2/customer-journey.md
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# Customer Journey

## Purpose

This page describes how the Commercial Organization supports customers across the full customer journey at FlowFuse.
It defines lifecycle stages, primary ownership, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure a consistent, coordinated experience from initial engagement through renewal and expansion.

The customer journey is not linear in practice, but clear stage ownership helps reduce friction, confusion, and risk as customers progress.

---

## Customer Lifecycle Overview

FlowFuse organizes the customer journey into the following high-level stages:

1. Awareness & Initial Engagement
2. Discovery & Qualification
3. Solution Evaluation
4. Proof of Concept (PoC)
5. Commercial Commitment
6. Implementation & Adoption
7. Ongoing Value & Expansion
8. Renewal & Advocacy

Each stage has a primary owner, with other functions contributing as needed.

---

## Lifecycle Stages and Ownership

### 1. Awareness & Initial Engagement

**Primary owner:** Sales
**Supporting functions:** Sales Partnerships

Focus:
- Initial customer engagement
- High-level qualification
- Identifying buying context and intent

Outcome:
- Decision to enter a formal discovery process

---

### 2. Discovery & Qualification

**Primary owner:** Sales
**Supporting functions:** Solution Engineering

Focus:
- Understanding customer problems and impact
- Validating intent, urgency, and fit
- Mapping stakeholders and decision process

Outcome:
- Qualified opportunity with clear next steps

---

### 3. Solution Evaluation

**Primary owner:** Sales
**Supporting functions:** Solution Engineering

Focus:
- Solution alignment and technical validation
- Targeted demos and technical deep dives
- Risk identification and mitigation

Outcome:
- Agreement to proceed to PoC or structured evaluation

---

### 4. Proof of Concept (PoC)

**Primary owner:** Solution Engineering
**Supporting functions:** Sales, Professional Services

Focus:
- Validating solution fit against agreed criteria
- Reducing technical and delivery risk
- Establishing confidence in the proposed approach

Outcome:
- PoC success or failure against defined criteria

---

### 5. Commercial Commitment

**Primary owner:** Sales
**Supporting functions:** Solution Engineering, Professional Services

Focus:
- Proposal development and pricing
- Contract and commercial alignment
- Executive and procurement approval

Outcome:
- Signed agreement and readiness to implement

---

### 6. Implementation & Adoption

**Primary owner:** Customer Success
**Supporting functions:** Professional Services, Solution Engineering

Focus:
- Onboarding and enablement
- Initial adoption and usage
- Delivery of contracted services (if applicable)

Outcome:
- Customer live and realizing initial value

---

### 7. Ongoing Value & Expansion

**Primary owner:** Customer Success
**Supporting functions:** Sales, Solution Engineering

Focus:
- Monitoring customer health and outcomes
- Identifying additional use cases or value opportunities
- Supporting expansion discussions when appropriate

Outcome:
- Sustained adoption and growth of customer value

---

### 8. Renewal & Advocacy

**Primary owner:** Sales
**Supporting functions:** Customer Success

Focus:
- Renewal planning and execution
- Commercial expansion (where applicable)
- Customer advocacy and references

Outcome:
- Renewed relationship and long-term partnership

---

## Guiding Principles

The Commercial Organization supports the customer journey according to the following principles:

- **Clear ownership at every stage**
One function is always accountable, even when multiple functions contribute.

- **Early collaboration reduces downstream risk**
Engaging the right expertise early improves outcomes later.

- **Customer outcomes over internal convenience**
Internal boundaries should not create customer friction.

- **Progression requires intent and validation**
Customers move forward based on readiness, not pressure.

---

## How This Page Is Used

This page provides shared context for:

- Onboarding new team members
- Aligning cross-functional engagement
- Clarifying ownership and handoffs
- Supporting consistent customer experiences

Detailed execution guidance is documented in:
- Function-specific pages
- Sales process documentation
- Playbooks and enablement materials