If you work in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Customer Success or any role focused on attracting new customers, you’ll be familiar with the concept of the sales funnel. As the name suggests, it’s inspired by a physical funnel: wide at the top to capture as much as possible, narrowing down to a small spout where the outcome is concentrated. But unlike a perfect funnel, the sales version has plenty of holes along the way, meaning only a fraction of the leads that enter at the top make it through to become paying customers out the bottom.
With the traditional sales pipeline, prospects enter into the top of the funnel and move down through the different phases of the sales pipeline. Those who fail to progress to the next phase fall out of the funnel and only those that end in a closed sale fall out of the bottom.
The funnel is typically a well supported journey, with marketing collateral, playbooks, case studies, meetings and other touchpoints all brought in to help progress the prospect through the funnel. I like to think of inside the funnel as a bit of a helter-skelter slide. A circular slide where people can get off at every level or stay on to the bottom where they drop off the slide.
Now falling out of the bottom means a converted sale, a win, right? But where do they fall too?
Post-Sale
Traditionally, customers often disappeared into a bit of an abyss after the sale. They were left to their own devices, maybe with a support channel for break/fix issues and an account manager who’d check in occasionally, usually around renewal time. Unsurprisingly, this led to high churn. Customers struggled to achieve the outcomes they originally bought the product or service for and ultimately moved on to pastures new.
The rise of SaaS made this problem impossible to ignore and gave birth to Customer Success, a dedicated function focused on helping customers realise value and reducing the risk of churn. While this post isn’t specifically about Customer Success, it’s worth noting that the function often carries responsibility for account growth, especially in the absence of a dedicated Account Manager.
But instead of treating Sales and Customer Success as two separate worlds; one closing the deal, the other onboarding, retaining, and expanding, they should work as part of one continuous, unified process.
Enter the Bowtie Pipeline.
Modern Bowtie Pipeline
The Bowtie Pipeline looks to readdress the prospecting landscape by considering the prospect beyond the initial sale, and onto a retention and expansion trajectory from the outset.
It has a number of differences compared to the Traditional Sales Pipeline but the 5 at it’s core are:
- The Modern Bowtie Pipeline is a continuous process, unlike the the Traditional Sales Pipeline that is linear and ends at the sale.
- Customer Success begins onboarding pre-sale; shared ownership with set boundaries across Customer Success, Sales and Account Management.
- The pipeline and sales plan continues through onboarding, adoption, value realisation, retention and expansion.
- The customer is viewed as a long term partner with a focus on long-term value and outcomes.
- It emphasizes customer lifetime value – renewal, upsell, cross-sell and advocacy.
Why the Bowtie Pipeline?
While most businesses, particularly in the SaaS space, operate with a linear sales pipeline followed by a continuous customer success lifecycle focused on retention and expansion, the Bowtie Pipeline reimagines this model from the very beginning.
It’s designed to establish a sales approach that looks beyond the initial deal, even while the customer is still in the pre-win stage. Although the immediate goal remains securing that first close, the Bowtie Pipeline also seeks to uncover and plan for the long-term value a client can achieve through the partnership. Crucially, it brings Customer Success, typically a Customer Success Manager (CSM), into the process before the sale is completed, as initial requirements and desired outcomes are being defined.
This early collaboration ensures a seamless transition from Sales to Customer Success post-sale. Since the CSM is already involved in the late-stage discussions, much of the knowledge transfer happens organically.
By the time the contract is signed, the CSM already has the foundation of an ongoing success plan, aligned with the long-term sales vision and the customer’s goals. This enables them to begin delivering value immediately after the deal closes.
The reason I value the modern Bowtie Pipeline is that it prioritises the customer’s long-term success and the strength of the business relationship, not just the initial transaction. It establishes a framework that supports the customer early in their journey and continues to do so indefinitely.