High-Touch vs Low-Touch SaaS Marketing Funnels

A marketing funnel describes the customer's journey from awareness to purchase. In SaaS, funnels are typically categorized by the amount of human interaction required to make a sale. Choosing the right funnel is critical and depends on your price point and market, not your personal preference.

High-Touch Funnel

• Definition: A sales process that involves significant, direct human interaction.
• Typical Stages: Lead -> Opportunity -> Demo -> Customer -> Onboarding with a success rep.
• Best For:
  • High-priced products (e.g., >$500/month).
  • Complex products that require a consultative sale.
  • Markets where customers expect to talk to a salesperson.
• Marketing Tactics: Outbound-heavy, such as cold calling, cold emailing, LinkedIn outreach, and trade shows.
• Characteristics: Higher cost to acquire a customer (CAC), but also higher contract values (ACV) and lower churn.

Low-Touch (or No-Touch) Funnel

• Definition: An automated, self-service sales process with minimal to no human interaction.
• Typical Stages: Website Visitor -> Free Trial Sign-up -> Automated Onboarding Emails -> Customer.
• Best For:
  • Low-priced products (e.g., <$100/month).
  • Simple, intuitive products that users can understand on their own.
  • Wide markets where a volume-based approach is viable.
• Marketing Tactics: Inbound-heavy, such as SEO, content marketing, and PPC ads.
• Characteristics: Low CAC, but typically lower ACV and higher churn. It's a volume game.

The Founder's Trap

Many founders, especially those with technical backgrounds, prefer a low-touch experience as a customer and incorrectly assume their market does too. They build a low-touch funnel for a product that, due to its price or complexity, actually requires a high-touch sales process.

As one founder noted, "How you sell is as important as what you sell." Switching from a preferred but ineffective low-touch model to a necessary high-touch model can be the key to unlocking Product-market fit.

Tags: #SaaS #marketing #sales #funnel #high-touch #low-touch #inbound #outbound