Experience
Experience is the work of delivering well on what was promised, and capturing that delivery as marketing fuel for the next cycle of the chain. It is the link that closes the loop, turning satisfied clients into testimonials, referrals, expansion revenue, and case studies – and turning quietly-disengaging clients into early-warning signals before they leave.
“Of your last ten clients, how many have produced something marketable for your business — a testimonial, a case study, a referral, an expansion conversation — and how many have you lost without understanding why?”
Best Practice for the Experience link:
- Quality of outcome You have ensured that the client gets what was promised, has a great experience, in a timeframe that has been agreed. (The marketing-and-relationship aspects, not the operational delivery itself)
- Onboarding and the first-30-days experience — Have you operationalised and standardised the disproportionately important early period when the client decides whether they made the right choice.
- Marketing-fuel capture — Have you implemented systematic mechanisms for turning successful delivery into reusable marketing assets: case studies, testimonials, references, social proof, named-client logos, anonymised win stories.
- Referral generation — Do you have deliberate mechanisms for generating warm referrals from satisfied clients, including timing, asking framework, and sector-network considerations.
- Expansion conversation design — Are there designed in (as in planned) moments when scope expansion, additional services, or phase-2 engagements become natural conversations rather than awkward upsells.
- Disengagement detection — Do you have early-warning systems for clients who are quietly disengaging, especially in sectors where attrition is silent.
- The relationship-to-marketing flywheel — Have you deliberately designed delivery so that it produces inputs for Customer (refreshed avatar work), Visibility and Mindshare (case studies, content), Clarity (sharpened positioning), and Conversion (proof and references).
What it isn’t
- Operational delivery itself — onboarding processes, project management methodology, quality assurance systems, capacity planning. These are operations work, not marketing.
- Customer success as an internal function (in the SaaS sense — team structure, churn metrics).
- HR, training, team development.
- Client-facing conflict, dispute, or termination.
The boundary between Experience and operations is the most contested in the framework. Many things that feel like Experience — onboarding workflows, project management quality, team consistency — are operations work that affects Experience but is not part of Experience as a marketing link.
Where can you learn about the Experience link?
You find find out how to use your delivery as fuel for the rest of your marketing in Delivery as Marketing Fuel:
How can we help you?
Our Experience Recipes are coming soon!