Trailhead Thoughts
“The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered.”
- Michael Brenner
Trail Map - Learn. Think. Act. ™
How to Design for Customer Experience
📚Learn
Creating a great customer experience is like planning a roadtrip. Your customers start at Point A and want to reach Point Z. But instead of one giant leap, they need clear waypoints (B,C,D…) to help them progress smoothly.
Most teams make the mistake from starting at point A and building toward the end result. I’m going to challenge you to start with Z, and work backward.
Key Steps in Designing For Customer Experience
Identify where customers want to go (their definition of success.)
Work backward to pinpoint key steps needed to reach that goal.
Break those steps into smaller, actionable pieces.
Test, assess, and refine based on real data.
🤔Think
Ask yourself:
Where are my customers getting stuck?
Am I making it easy for my customers to move forward?
Where can I add friction or reduce friction to improve the experience?
Reflection Prompt: How can you provide guidance, inspiration, or a catalyst to help them take the next step?
💪 Act
Map out your customer’s journey. Identify critical waypoints.
Look for gaps - where do customers get stuck? How can i create smaller steps to inspire progress?
Implement small improvements and track how they impact progress.
Keep assessing: Are customers moving toward success efficiently?
When you design with the customers journey in mind, they’ll not only succeed, they’ll stay, engage, and refer others!
Beyond the Trailhead
Design the Journey. Close the Gap.
Working with revenue teams over the years, we have found that the trap most revenue teams get into is saying they care about customer success, but designing the experience based on the needs of their organization, not the customers.
Here’s the deal - your customers have a vote. They have a say. And, if you think they can read your mind…
Spoiler alert - they can’t
The buyer journey isn’t your funnel. Funnels are designed to support your forecasting needs (see last week’s newsletter). Journeys are their lived experience.
Customers don’t move forward because your CRM stages change. They move forward because something becomes true for them:
“I’m confident this will work.”
“I can defend this internally.”
“I have the necessary buy-in.”
“Yes, this aligns with our business objectives.”
To name just a few.
Instead of asking, “how do we get them to the next stage?”
Ask, “what must be true for them to naturally take the next step?” Your customers convert. NOT you.
That question can change everything.
A simple way to design the journey (without overthinking it)
Think road trip, not funnel.
A = where they are now
Z = what success looks like in their world
B/C/D = the “must-be-true” gates we must pass through to get to what’s next.
Progress isn’t activity. Progress is truth becoming obvious.
Try this with your team this week (30 minutes, max)
Grab Sales + CS. Whiteboard only. No slides.
Define Z (what winning looks like in their world) in one sentence for:
The executive or decision-maker
The person / role / team that will use this solution day-to-day.
Work backward from Z - layout each of the steps between Z and A.
Then Pick 3 gates between A and D. For each gate answer:
What must be true for them to move forward?
What’s one thing we can do to make that easier?
Eliminate one activity you’re doing that doesn’t help a gate become true. (Warning, this may be the hardest step.)
That’s it. You don’t need a new funnel. You need fewer assumptions and clearer gates.
Want help mapping this with your team?
Mike runs focused Strategic Whiteboard Sessions to turn buyer journeys into clear, actionable paths forward.
Reply to this email or head to coachsimmons.com to schedule a session.
Clarity first. Progress follows.
Oh and if this sparked something, forward it to a teammate who lives in pipeline reviews or onboarding chaos. We’re pretty sure they’ll thank you later.
Voices from the Trail
Meet Mike – founder of Find My Catalyst
ADHD Boss?
Constantly chasing shiny things? Or worse, asking your team to do it?
Check out this episode - let’s solve the problem today.
Listen to this episode on Spotify
Hitting the Trail
How to Find Mike Live Every Week Day
Are you struggling with the basics around AI and the application in work, specifically the human element? If you’re into emerging and enablement tech, check out Brent and Mike’s live session on all social channels (YouTube, LinkedIn, X) M-TH mornings at 5AM Pacific / 8AM Eastern.
Announcements
Did you know that we have a section dedicated to videos on Find My Catalyst?
You can view our video library here. You can also sign in to your Find My Catalyst account to read past editions of the Find My Catalyst newsletter.
That’s it for this week.
Clarity creates confidence, and confidence creates movement. Design the journey well and the next step becomes obvious.
We’d love if you would share this with someone who is ready to build their sprints for the new year.
The Find My Catalyst Team