Why the Sales Funnel is Outdated

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

•  
  1

  joe.kurtzke@...

  05/22/08 | Report as spam

  Yes it is outdated

  With years of experience in selling, sales management and sales training I can certainly agree with some of the points that Mark makes, however one important ingredient is missing.
  
  Would anyone, as a business owner or shareholder, want to see a salesperson generate $100,000 a month in revenue or $50,000 in revenue? The answer might seem obvious if the question is taken on the surface, but the correct answer depends upon the results. If I have a salesperson who brings in $100,000 a month in revenue, exceeds all of the traditional metrics of X calls to yield Y appointments with Z sales, then I may think I have a superstar on my hands. If, on the other hand, I have a salesperson who generates $50,000 a month in revenue with a third or double the traditional metrics would he/she be a better or worse salesperson? The answer lies in the profitability of the sale. I would much rather have a salesperson bringing in $50,000 a month in revenue at a 30% gross margin than a salesperson bringing in $100,000 a month in revenue at a 10% gross margin.
  
  I have coached salespeople to take ownership of the sale. This means they must be realistic, they must know when to walk away from business that is not profitable or that does not meet gross margin standards if all else is equal. The Miller-Heiman approach, both relative to Strategic Selling and Conceptual Selling, provides a very solid basis to evaluate the sale at varying points in the process. You also cannot ignore the value of a little less margin if there is a tradeoff in terms of longevity of a client, solid and verifiable referrals, high profile nature of the client and many other factors. This can be addressed by accounting for a variance from gross margin by attributing a value to the variance and then evaluating the total picture of revenue, metrics, productivity and gross margin as well as future business be it in terms of future repeat business from the current valued client or from a potentially equal future client that comes as a direct result of the referral.
  
  But Mark is absolutely on the right track that the traditional sales model needs to be tweaked at the very least.

•  
  2

  chris_blackman@...

  05/22/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Why the Sales Funnel is Outdated

  The sales funnel was always a dud concept. A far better analogy is the Leaky Funnel proposed by Hugh MacFarlane of www.mathmarketing.com, which aligns the buyer's and the seller's journey with an implementable process model.

•  
  3

  badstuff

  05/22/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Why the Sales Funnel is Outdated

  I think you have it wrong. The activities take place during the (consultative) sales process and the planning takes place with the so-called funnel or variants of it. The funnel is about ?ratios? ? the consultative process about doing the right stuff at the right time with the customer.

•  
  4

  Mike Maisel

  05/23/08 | Report as spam

  It's the chicken or the egg...

  I watched all 3 videos to see if I just wasn't getting this, or misunderstanding, but I don't think so. At every example of Buy Cycle Funnel stage, somthing prompts or causes the buyer to take that action, make that commitment, or speak those words. So, what could that be? It's the salesperson, asking questions, gaining intel, building his/her knowledge base about the account, among other things, then MUTUALLY closing for next logical step along the way.
  
  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, this is an immutable law of physics, and I believe it applies here, too. Deals don't close for no reason, they close because the salesperson led the buyer to the conclusion that it was his/her solution that provided the greatest value, as it met the needs. Waiting for the buyer to move themselves to the next logical step? I wouldn't want to forecast THAT!

•  
  5

  komiks

  07/15/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Why the Sales Funnel is Outdated

  I don't think so....

•  
  6

  bonniebrannigan

  11/03/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Why the Sales Funnel is Outdated

  mark's point is not that you WAIT until the customer moves to further commitment. Rather, he suggests you track and measure your bank of opportunities based on the commitments the customer has made in the buying process. Traditional funnels track salesperson activity - send samples, submit proposal - and value the bank of opportunities on these activities. Mark's model flips this dynamic and helps the salesperson take assertive action to accelerate the opportunities to the next commitments. It is an active, not reactive process.