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A robust sales funnel places a data science startup for success. There are several industry giants whose sales funnel models can be ideal for inspiration for your startup.

Some proven sales funnel models for data science startups are Palantir Technologies’ problem solving funnel and Alteryx’s free-trial model. When it comes to Databricks, they employ an education based funnel model. And last, but not the least Oracle has a data-driven funnel model in place.

A sales funnel that yields results should be based on the core value of the data science startup. What is it that you want to give to your customers? Since your startup deals with technology that is constantly evolving, educating the customers, communicating your solutions, and helping them along the way to evolve should form the basis of the sales funnel.

Proven Sales Funnel Models for Data Science Startups

1. The Problem-Solving Sales Funnel Model of Palantir

Palantir Technologies is a software company that specializes in software platforms for big data analytics. It was founded in 2003. Some of its clients are the United States Intelligence Community and the United States Department of Defense.

The funnel model it employed that slowly scaled the business to its existing heights is the problem-solving funnel. This funnel lays the foundation for sales by giving the solution to the problem. The solution is the hero.

Awareness stage: They create a lot of content, like whitepapers and case studies give a fair understanding of their services. These let the company explain the scope of its data analysis and other services.

Interest Stage: Palantir Technologies organizes workshops and webinars that add to the information given during the awareness stage. They also have a very informative website to showcase its core values and the problems they can solve.

Consideration/Decision Stage: Palantir Technologies offers a demo request to give a first-hand feel of their products and services. They have a smooth onboarding process for customers, a detailed summary of which is available on their website.

Takeaway message: This model is ideal for a data science startup that puts their problem-solving solutions in the forefront. Whitepapers, webinars, workshops, and a demo, if a customer desires one, are ways to project your services in a positive light and ease the customer journey.

2. The Free-Trial Sales Funnel Model of Alteryx

Alteryx is a company that automates analytics. With over 8000 customers, it came into action in 1997. It offers several products as part of its analytics platform.

The sales funnel model it employs to scale its business is the free-trial sales funnel model.

Using a free-trial strategy to scale your business is beneficial as it enables the customer to get a first-hand experience of your product and, at the same time, can also reduce the customer journey from awareness to action, skipping a few steps in between.

Awareness stage: Alteryx uses social media to promote its products and services. They also publish blogs and whitepapers to talk in detail about their products.

“Alteryx’s free-trial funnel uses social media like a spotlight in a dark theater, just like how everyone’s looking at the actor on stage under a spotlight. It draws everyone’s attention – you just cannot help but look at it.” – Shailen Vandeyar (Funnel Teacher)

You can check out his super handy blog post on copywriting for social media to be the next success story like Alteryx.

Here’s the link to his article: https://funnelteacher.com/copywriting-ideas-for-social-media/

Interest Stage: To build the customer’s interest, Alteryx offers a free trial of their product for 30 days. This free-trial allows the customer to understand the full capabilities of the company products and whether they will be suited to their needs.

Decision Stage: The trial period is well supported with tutorials, success stories, and customer service.

Advocacy Stage: Their customer-first policy is a strong point of the company. It creates value for the customer and motivates them to recommend Alteryx to others.

Take away message: A free-trial sales funnel model is a decent way to let your potential customer’s experience the full capabilities of the products of your data science startup. Depending on the stage the startup is in, the number of days of the free-trial period can be increased or decreased.

3. An Educational Sales Funnel of Databricks

Databricks is a global data analytics and artificial intelligence company. It was founded in 2013. It is credited for pioneering a data lake house that allows companies and organizations to use structured and unstructured data for business analytics and other AI workloads.

Databricks uses the educational sales funnel model to create more leads that will eventually convert into customers.

Awareness Stage: This entails creating awareness about their services by launching webinars, workshops, and conferences. Their Data+AI Summit has been educating people about the scope of combining the two.

Interest Stage: When an interested customer reaches their website, they provide free access to an ebook, ‘The Data Intelligence Platform for Dummies’. This ebook discusses democratizing data and using AI across an organization. The ebook becomes available once you fill out a lead generation form.

Consideration Stage: Product demos, video tutorials, and product tours are available on the website. It allows customers to understand if the company’s solutions will be a good fit for them. A customer can also look at the custom solutions constructed by Databricks for their clients.

Decision Stage: Apart from providing a decent amount of information about their solutions, Databricks provides free training videos on their website. They also offer a 14-day free trial period to get started with their platform.

Advocacy Stage: They have a dedicated help center. There are separate sections to address different issues. It makes it easier for the customer to relate their problem and find an appropriate solution.

Takeaway message: Imparting education as a strategy can gain several leads. It informs and educates the customer about the solutions your startup can offer. The customers can understand the solutions before they invest in your services. It can result in a long-term relationship with the customer.

Just like Databricks, you can do an in-depth product review of whatever you’re offering. You can check out my article on creating high-quality video reviews of products for handy tips.

4. The Data-Driven Sales Funnel Model of Oracle

Oracle is a leading cloud technology and database solutions company. It was founded back in 1977. It is the 3rd largest software company.

Oracle uses a data-driven sales funnel model. It optimizes the customer journey through data analytics and advanced technologies. It aligns with the modern B2B sales practices.

You can do the same for your business by checking out my article on driving your business forward through advanced data analytics.

Awareness Stage: Oracle uses social media campaigns, industry events, and webinars to create awareness about its products. Along with its partner network, Oracle leverages the above data to understand challenges faced by a market, customer, or industry.

Interest Stage: They use email marketing to nurture leads. Leveraging insights from the awareness stage, Oracle creates contextual campaigns for their customers. They further this by providing valuable information that is tailor-made for their customers.

Consideration Stage: Oracle engages with its customers to understand their specific challenges and needs. This allows Oracle to create solutions specific to the customer needs. They create demos to give their customers a feel of the final solution.

Decision Stage: Oracle emphasizes value-based selling. They work closely with customers to understand any concerns they may have at this stage. They also show the customer the return on investment they can gain.

Takeaway message: From this software giant, one can understand the value of data-driven marketing. Focus on how you can leverage customer and market data to drive solutions for customer problems.