---
title: The Bowtie Funnel · Pre-Sale and Post-Sale as One System | RGM®
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/frameworks/bowtie-funnel-post-sale/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/frameworks/bowtie-funnel-post-sale/
---

**Attribution.** The bowtie model was articulated by Winning by Design and Jacco van der Kooij in the late 2010s as an evolution of the traditional funnel. Earlier post-sale-focused work by John Warrillow, Lincoln Murphy, and the customer success community informed it. This article reviews the model.

## Why the traditional funnel under-counts post-sale

The traditional marketing funnel — awareness through purchase — captures only half the revenue motion. For subscription businesses, the post-sale journey (onboarding, adoption, expansion, advocacy) often drives more lifetime revenue than the pre-sale journey did to land the customer.

The bowtie model addresses this by drawing the funnel as two cones joined at the close — pre-sale on the left, post-sale on the right. Closed-won is not the finish line; it's the pivot point.

## The two halves of the bowtie

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**Left side (pre-sale)** follows the familiar shape:

- Awareness
- Education / Engagement
- Evaluation / Selection
- Purchase / Close

**Right side (post-sale)** is the addition:

- Onboarding / Impact (time to first value)
- Adoption (regular use, integration into workflow)
- Expansion (upsell, cross-sell, seat growth, tier upgrade)
- Advocacy (referrals, case studies, community contribution)

## Why it matters for marketing teams

If marketing measures itself by closed-won and stops there, it under-invests in the post-sale levers that drive Net Revenue Retention (NRR). For SaaS companies, NRR above 110% means existing customers fund growth even without new acquisition. NRR below 100% means you're running uphill.

The bowtie reframing pushes marketing to think about customer marketing, expansion campaigns, advocacy programs, and lifecycle journeys as part of the same system as acquisition. These functions live in different departments at most companies, which is why the funnel-only view persists.

**The expansion math is often more attractive than acquisition math.** Selling an additional product to an existing customer typically costs 5–25% of acquiring a new one (variable by category). The bowtie model makes expansion visible as a stage to invest in deliberately.

## Operating implications

1. **Onboarding is a marketing channel.** Time to first value drives retention. The team that owns onboarding has more impact on LTV than most paid acquisition campaigns.
2. **Customer success is a growth function.** Health scores, NPS, and expansion conversations all live here.
3. **Advocacy programs deserve real investment.** Referrals and case studies are the cheapest top-of-funnel input you can generate.
4. **Marketing-CS alignment matters as much as marketing-sales alignment.** Most companies have figured out the latter; few have figured out the former.

### Related on RGM

- [AARRR · Pirate Metrics](/learn/frameworks/pirate-metrics-aarrr/) — Retention and Referral stages.
- [Growth loops](/learn/frameworks/compounding-growth-systems/) — post-sale advocacy is a content/viral loop.
- [North Star Metric](/learn/frameworks/north-star-metric/) — NRR is often the best North Star for SaaS.

Sources & further reading

1. Winning by Design — Bowtie funnel publications and SaaS sales handbook.
2. Van der Kooij, J. *Blueprints for a SaaS Sales Organization*. Winning by Design.
3. Murphy, L. Customer Success Manifesto and Sixteen Ventures publications.
4. Pacific Crest / KeyBanc SaaS Survey — NRR benchmarks.
5. RGM operator notes — SaaS revenue architecture engagements 2023–2026.