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You are here: Home / SMO / Sales Funnel is Broken – Havard Business Review

Sales Funnel is Broken – Havard Business Review

May 10, 2014 By Michael Stuart

The primary problem with the funnel is that the buying process is no longer linear.

Marketing Can No Longer Rely on the Funnel - Mark Bonchek , and Cara France - Harvard Business Review

Prospects don’t just enter at the top of the funnel; instead, they come in at any stage. Furthermore, they often jump stages, stay in a stage indefinitely, or move back and forth between them.

For example, consider items that come recommended on an e-commerce site. With a click you can add them to your cart, moving straight from awareness through consideration to purchase in only a few seconds.

  • The same holds true on items discovered in a Tweet, Facebook post or Pinterest board.
  • Businesses and customers are doing their own research both online and with their colleagues and friends.
  • Prospects are walking themselves through the funnel, then walking in the door ready to buy.

One popular alternative to the funnel is the Customer Decision Journey. A key advantage of this model is that it’s circular, rather than linear.

Prospects don’t come in the top and out the bottom, but move through an ongoing set of touchpoints before, during, and after a purchase.

  • The Customer Decision Journey is an improvement over the traditional funnel, but some marketers see it as incomplete.
  • The problem is in the name itself.
  • Brands may put the decision at the center of the journey, but customers don’t.

The Customer Decision Journey might be circular, but if the focus is still on the transaction, it is just a funnel eating its own tail.

via Marketing Can No Longer Rely on the Funnel – Mark Bonchek , and Cara France – Harvard Business Review.

Also see: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_consumer_decision_journey

Filed Under: SMO, Strategy Tagged With: brand, business, marketing

About Michael Stuart

Mike's experience in the technology industry is quite extensive, serving both as a designer of complex enterprise applications and as a corporate executive. In his previous life, Mike was founder and CEO of AssetWorks Inc. the industry leader in facility management solutions. Currently living on the Texas coast helping with digital strategies using Amplified Content Marketing.

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