Here’s the thing about funnels. They’re inherently inefficient. The whole point is to trade volumetric flow for accuracy in guiding liquids. For some reason, this concept was adopted by the sales and marketing disciplines not as a solution to the problem of converting leads, but as a representation of what is out there and how the customer journey works. It is what it is. We’ve made peace with the fact that not everyone is going to be interested in what we’re selling, and not everyone interested is going to do something about it. As far as any scientific endeavor works, analogizing the marketing process to fluid dynamics in certain conditions is a smart way to create an intuitive and tangible representation of a complex socio-psychological event.

There’s only one problem with that – the assumption. The definition of what is is flawed.

What is the marketing funnel and how is it used?

The role of the funnel, in physics and in marketing, is not a description of an immutable what is. It is a variable – one of many – in the system. Fluid only flows as though it’s in a funnel when pushed through one. In the same vein, people will react a certain way when subjected to certain conditions. If you put them through a funnel, most of them will fall off, while the rest slowly trickles down the stem until you have very few of what you started with. The funnel is not inherent in the system. It is something that we have introduced and erroneously perceived as an environmental constant.

In fact, the funnel is not even really an accurate representation of what happens in marketing. Provided that you can control the flow (and ensure that the funnel is made of frictionless material so that not even a drop sticks to it), you can reasonably expect that everything poured in makes it all the way through. The same can’t be said with the marketing funnel. This analogy breaks down when you understand that people fall off not because of the velocity of the marketing messages, but the materiality. An inanimate fluid will overflow as a result of the laws of physics: no two things can occupy the same space at the same time. A sentient audience will tap out of the funnel of their own volition. The fall off is not a matter of fact, but a conscious reaction to the conditions we have created.

The marketing funnel is human intervention masquerading as a scientific representation of natural reality. And if it’s an intervention, there’s something we can do about it – change it, reshape it, make it more efficient.

Reshaping the marketing funnel for more leads – better results

Now, this is not to say that a simple paradigm shift would automatically result in more sales. We are still bound by the same environmental conditions as every other commercial enterprise (economic outlook, market size, product utility, consumer attitudes, etc.). What it does is it allows us to approach the market differently. Effective management is all about cutting out inefficiencies, and it’s a wonder that we’ve been operating on the assumption that the funnel is a fact of marketing life for decades. We can manipulate it into any shape we want. Some people say cylinder, others say flywheel.

The shape itself is not relevant. It’s our ability to make it whatever suits our purposes that is.