If we think about the term “funnel” for a moment (in the business sense), it implies a slow but steady descent of a customer from one place to another. It defines success based on taking what exists outside of it and pulling it through, so the customer “falls” out the bottom, so to speak.
Unfortunately, this is an oversimplification that is destroying your business.
The idea of a ‘funnel’ is actually a conflation of three related, but not dependant, systems. Marketing, which is not sales and not fulfillment, sales, which is not marketing and not fulfillment, and fulfillment, which is…well, you get the picture.
By holding all three of these systems to the same standards and the same metrics, you will deprive potential clients and customers of the care and attention they deserve, by making it all about one thing: did they give you money, or not?
What then, is the ideal outcome for each of these systems? Find out on this week’s episode of Incremental Progress.