For decades, the sales funnel has been the dominant metaphor for how businesses acquire customers. The concept is simple: pour leads into the top, guide them through a structured series of steps, and—if all goes well—some will emerge as customers at the bottom. It’s a neat, orderly way of thinking about sales and marketing. But in practice, it doesn’t work.
The first and most obvious issue with funnels is that they leak. The majority of what enters at the top never makes it to the bottom. This is not a surprise; it’s an accepted reality of how sales funnels function. Marketers generate as many leads as possible, knowing full well that most will drop out before converting. The thinking goes: if we can’t improve conversion, we can at least increase volume.
But this approach is deeply inefficient. Businesses end up working harder and spending more just to compensate for the fact that the funnel is not particularly effective at guiding leads towards a decision. And worse still, the way leads are qualified within this system is often arbitrary.
A prospect might be deemed a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) simply because they downloaded a whitepaper or attended a webinar. But does that really mean they’re ready to buy? Or even ready to engage in a sales conversation? Not necessarily. The traditional sales funnel assumes a linear buyer journey—where prospects steadily move from awareness to consideration to decision—but real buying behaviour doesn’t work that way.
Why the Traditional Sales Funnel No Longer Works
The fundamental problem with the sales funnel is that it is based on an inside-out perspective. It reflects how the business would like prospects to behave rather than how they actually behave.
In reality, buyers do not follow a neat, step-by-step journey. They move back and forth. They pause, restart, and explore different options simultaneously. Someone might engage deeply with product-related content early on but then disappear for months before re-engaging at a later date. Others might spend weeks consuming top-of-funnel educational content before making a sudden leap to a purchase decision.
The traditional sales funnel doesn’t account for this unpredictability. It forces leads into predefined stages, assuming that movement through the funnel represents real progress towards a sale. But often, this movement is superficial. A prospect might download an eBook or watch a product demo not because they’re ready to buy but simply because they’re curious. And yet, in the eyes of the funnel, they’ve moved closer to conversion.
This flawed logic leads to a disconnect between marketing and sales. Marketers pass leads to sales prematurely, thinking they are ‘qualified,’ only for sales teams to find that these leads are not actually ready for a conversation. As a result, conversion rates suffer, frustration grows, and businesses find themselves pouring ever more leads into the top to compensate.
The Alternative: A Buyer Journey Approach
If the traditional funnel is broken, what should replace it? The answer lies in reframing the process around the buyer journey.
Instead of trying to force leads through a rigid sales funnel, businesses should focus on tracking and understanding how buyers naturally engage over time. Rather than relying on arbitrary MQL definitions, they should analyse actual engagement patterns to determine when a prospect is ready for a sales conversation.
This requires three key shifts:
1. Aligning Content with Buyer Journey Steps
Rather than pushing prospects through predefined funnel stages, businesses should map their content to the different steps of the buyer journey. This allows them to track actual progress rather than assumed progress.
For example:
- A prospect consuming multiple pieces of problem-awareness content is likely still in the research phase.
- A prospect engaging with solution-comparison content may be moving towards evaluation.
- A prospect looking at case studies and pricing pages is showing signs of serious interest.
By aligning content in this way, businesses can gauge where a buyer actually is rather than making assumptions based on isolated actions (like a single content download).
2. Recognising that Buyers Move Backwards and Forwards
One of the biggest flaws of the sales funnel is its assumption of linear progression. A buyer moves from awareness to consideration to decision in a neat, step-by-step manner. But this rarely happens in real life.
In reality, buyers loop back to earlier stages. They might begin researching solutions, then realise they need to better define their problem before continuing. They might shortlist a few options, then go dark for weeks before returning.
A buyer journey approach embraces this reality. Instead of discarding leads that “drop out” of the funnel, businesses track their ongoing engagement and allow them to re-enter the journey at any point.
This means:
- If a prospect pauses their research, they aren’t lost—they’re simply on hold.
- If they revisit earlier-stage content, they are refining their understanding—not regressing.
- If they disappear for a while, they can be nudged back into engagement rather than being considered ‘lost.’
3. Using Predictive Analytics to Determine Readiness
Perhaps the most significant advantage of a buyer journey approach is the ability to use data-driven signals to determine when a prospect is truly ready to engage with sales.
Predictive analytics enables businesses to analyse patterns in engagement and identify sequences of behaviour that indicate readiness. Instead of relying on arbitrary lead-scoring models, companies can use real-world engagement data to pinpoint the optimal moment for outreach.
For example, a prospect who:
1. Reads a blog about their problem
2. Watches a webinar about solutions
3. Revisits the website multiple times within a short period
4. Engages with product-related content
…is exhibiting behaviour that suggests they are moving towards a decision. This is far more meaningful than simply qualifying a lead based on a single content download.
The Role of Nudging in a Buyer Journey Model
A key advantage of a buyer journey approach is the ability to nudge buyers forward at the right time and in the right way.
Since buyers don’t always move in a straight line, they sometimes need reminders or prompts to re-engage. But these nudges should feel relevant and contextual—not like generic marketing spam.
For example:
- If a prospect has stalled at the research stage, they might receive a content recommendation nudging them towards the next step.
- If a prospect has revisited pricing pages multiple times but hasn’t contacted sales, they might receive an email offering a consultation.
- If a prospect has engaged deeply in the past but hasn’t returned in months, a gentle reminder email might be enough to bring them back.
The key is that these nudges align with where the prospect actually is—not where the business assumes they should be.
Conclusion: Stop Fixing Funnels, Start Fixing Buyer Journeys
The traditional sales funnel is outdated because it forces a linear structure onto a process that is inherently non-linear. It assumes that leads should progress in a predefined way, rather than adapting to how real buyers behave.
- By shifting from a funnel mindset to a buyer journey mindset, businesses can:
- Improve conversion rates by engaging buyers when they are actually ready
- Reduce wasted effort on premature outreach
- Align marketing and sales around real buyer behaviour rather than arbitrary MQL definitions
- Create a more seamless and effective experience for prospects
In short, instead of trying to fix a leaking funnel, businesses should focus on fixing how they track and engage with buyers. The result? Less waste, better conversion, and a far more effective way to build lasting customer relationships.