What happened to the sales funnel?

The traditional concept of the sales funnel is gone. If you're still thinking about numbers as a factor in the sales equation, you're missing the conversion to buyers being in control of their buying process.

The old way went something like this: Pour #X leads into the top of the funnel if you want #X sales at the end of the quarter. Rinse and repeat. To me, this was always a curious process as it had nothing to do with the leads as human beings dealing with problems, but played percentages.

The new way is about being found when a buyer goes looking. Being considered valuable enough for a dialog and then building that initial interaction into engagement through consistent, relevant exchanges of information that help buyers make decisions.

Marketing in this new era requires some shifts in thinking.

Instead of choosing your leads, they choose you.

If you try to control the information flow, they'll go find what they need somewhere else.

Instead of products, buyers want ideas and strategic insights.

The sales cycle is now the buying journey.

Pull is more important than push.

Outside-in trumps Inside-out

Peers are more integral to decisions than companies.

So what does marketing do now?

Marketing must flip their focus from their companies and products to their customers. A lot of companies say they are, but according to customers, they're missing the boat.

When you think about your lead database, for example, do you think about "Jerry" or do you think about SMBs with $50M - $100M in revenue and 100+ employees in the financial services industry?

Do you think about what your customers need to confidently deal with that new industry regulation, or do you think: "product X is what they need"

Product X may very well be an option to solving their problem, but you have to start thinking about how buyers deal with problems. They need to learn how to think about solving them, factors to consider and options and alternatives. Before they even get to thinking about your product, they need to develop a level of competence about the issue that gives them the confidence to make a decision.

That's an entirely different informational need than the feeds and speeds about your product.

If you continue to think of the sales funnel as a volume and percentage play, making the shift to marketing in a buyers' world is going to be harder than it has to be. In this kind of an economic market, can you afford to hold on to old thinking?

I submit that the funnel is now a cylinder. It invites your prospects in at one end and then creates a consistent delivery and exchange of strategic ideas, information and insights to help them progress from priority shift through purchase decision.

What's your view of the new sales funnel?

Comments

[LEADSExplorer]

Agree completely that push marketing is out and pull marketing is it.
Buyers and decision makers want to decide themselves for finding solutions in stead of being pushed a solution into their hands.

The cylinder concept is a new take:
The new marketing needs to propose possible solutions from which the leads can choose from.
Sales is there for understanding the problems and consulting.

We believe the website will play a crucial role in this as it allows:
- identifying your leads early in their buying or decision process: identifying the website visitors by company names.
- see the increase or decrease or changes in interest in products or solutions as you can watch changes in behavior of leads and customers on your website (combined with the communications you both have had).

The funnel has changed as the probable buyer has changed (due to the Internet information), thus the marketing and sales methods need to change too.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi LEADSExplorer,

Thanks for your comment! I agree that marketing automation systems and analytics make websites a virtual treasure trove of information that can help companies get to know their leads and improve their abilities to deliver relevant, fresh content.

I also think marketers need to apply strategy in how they do so. Websites are only one content channel and need to be woven in with all the ways your content interacts with the world through the story it tells as a whole.

The better companies get at leveraging content interactively, the more engagement they can build.

[Engago Team]

Your (funnel)cylinder is all about engaging the buyer or customer.
Thus all communication channels to engage the customer should be used in order to have interaction and exchange of information.
The main problem is to have the potential buyer take the fist step to communicate with the vendor.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Engago Team,

Thanks for your comment. Good point about channel coordination.

Getting the buyer to take the first step is a challenge you answer by providing great content focused on them, their needs and opportunities to resolve those issues. If you use marketing content to initiate a dialog, you'll find they pull your content to them and reach out for more. Then, once you've established credibility, they will likely agree to a conversation.

You've also got to be found. So, in addition to using multiple channels, optimize your search results.

It's important to remember to take one step at a time. Relationships are not built with one touch. Nor is credibility.

[Tom Lindstrom]

When it comes to internet marketing, the less selling you do, the better you will do.Sounds funny, but you must to give away as much as possible.(Information, ebooks, audio...) When people trust you, you will start seeing cash.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Tom,

Great comment! I'd agree the key is building trust through credible content. "Knowledge" marketing can help you cut through the noise in your market.

Thanks,
Ardath

[Nick Trendov]

Brilliant post!

In my experience the funnel has beed dead a long time and I borrowed the concept of aligning buyers to sellers to determine when they might buy. After all the purpose of the funnel is to determine 'visibility'.

CRM was crafted by Anderson and Siebel, sold to CEOs so that visibility could be delivered to the market to maximize stock price. Buyers or customers are not constrained by those objectives and move along to serve their own interests.

I use the concept of a 'probabalistic' funnel based on how close the offer is to the prospect need. Incentives may help to close sooner, but then again maybe not.

The other tool that I use is the concept of a Persona to understand the alignment of a value offer to buyer demand and infer how long to the close.

I describe it at http://personati.wordpress.com

Cheers,
Nick
www.scenario2.com

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for commenting! I took a spin through your blog and like what I see. I, too, talk about (and use) buyer personas and scenarios and storytelling. Great tools for connecting with your prospects and customers. Especially since they're in control of their buying process!

I subscribed to your blog and look forward to reading your future posts - looks to be thought provoking stuff.

Ardath