💡Your Support Team Can Generate Leads (Here's How)

Hey there,

Welcome back to another edition of Bootstrapped Growth. 👋

Progressive businesses turn their support teams into lead generation machines. We cover how to change support conversions into conversion opportunities.

Table of Contents

• 🚀 Strategy

• ⭐️ Extra Tips

• 🛠️ Resources

Thanks for reading. Let’s jump in!

🚀 3 Support-To-Revenue Examples

1)  Recognize ‘Upgrade’ Signals

Intercom (customer service platform) turned support conversations into $2.3m additional ARR. They trained agents to identify ‘upgrade signals’ from customer queries around API rate limit questions or team collaboration requests. During problem resolution with clients agents would introduce relevant plan upgrades.

Takeaway ➡️ Train support agents to recognize buying signals in customer questions. They can then link customers with account managers for more strategic conversations versus simply closing tickets.

2) Identify Growth Customers Through Support Conversations

Shopify (ecommerce solution) uses support interactions to identify high-potential stores ready for advanced tools. Merchants who ask specific operational questions around inventory management or shipping optimization are in growth phases. Support agents then introduce relevant app partners and premium features.

Shopify uses automated sequences introducing advanced tools and services based on support ticket content. This generates over $15m in partner referral revenue.

Takeaway ➡️ Use support conversations to identify customer lifecycle stage. Specific query types indicate readiness for upsells, cross-sells, or partner solutions.

3) Offer Free Migration Support To Prospects

Zendesk (customer service platform) turns frustrated prospects of competing platforms, into customers during support conversations. When customers research competitors, Zendesk proactively offers implementation help through their switch assistance program. This supportive approach converts 28% of prospects who originally considered competitors.

Takeaway ➡️ Make switch assistance programs with helpful support. Competitive evaluations can become conversion opportunities.

⭐️ Other Ways that Support Teams Can Grow Revenue

Shift support from a purely reactive, ticket-resolution approach to a proactive, growth-focused mindset:

1. Professional services and consulting. Support teams’ knowledge can be packaged into paid consulting services, training programs, or premium support tiers.

2. Product intelligence and feedback loops. Support teams gather insights about customer pain points, feature requests, and usage patterns. This intelligence cam indirectly increase revenue by helping product and sales teams build better products and go-to-market strategies.

3. Net Promoter Score (NPS) and advocacy programs. Excellent support experiences create customer advocates who drive referrals and positive reviews. This reduces customer acquisition costs and improves conversion rates.

🛠 Useful Resources

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