The death of the funnel - interview with Brian Halligan

The fact is that customers today are increasingly reliant on word of mouth and, whether we like it or not, they are less and less trusting of marketers and salespeople.

The Internet has also contributed to this change in consumer purchase behaviour – searchers (your potential customers) now have everything they need to find out more about a business, product or service. Customers nowadays are much more likely to trust a search engine, a customer review, testimonial or case study when making a purchase.

As a result, the old ways of marketing are quickly losing their effectiveness – and simply putting stuff in at the top of the sales funnel and expecting customers to pop out at the bottom is increasingly unrealistic. The funnel just isn’t representative of business performance or growth anymore.

Businesses need to rethink their approach to marketing and sales activity. In reality, customers are not the output – but in fact the input and central to any business’ marketing or sales activity.

And every business works this way in the modern world – they haven’t sat down and thought about it. Customers are central to a business’ growth and success and help to move the business forward.

“It’s all about innovating the customer experience to achieve business success.”

Good customers service will generate referrals; referrals will generate more customers; more customers will increase sales; and more sales means more investment back into the business’ marketing and sales activity.

So say goodbye to the funnel and say hello to the flywheel!