is it if it’s a funnel? //

Buy something if you like it, or if you see something and want to buy it.

This is how people shop.

This is what marketers call “the sales funnel”. It may have different names, and there might be an extra element added to it, but the basic concept is the same. The first description of the concept dates back to the 19 ^th century.

The funnel has been distorted by the advent of AI, and the data avalanche. What is the funnel if it’s not round anymore? Different opinions are out there.

Consider a spider’s web

Ryan Brock, Chief Solution Officer at DemandJump’s marketing strategy platform, doesn’t see a funnel anymore.

Brock began to realize that the funnel concept did not make sense in 2012. He created separate marketing campaigns to target each persona and developed specific content that marked the customer’s interests at the top of the funnel, middle, and bottom. “I was trying people along the journey I assumed it was.”

Brock said that customers have been in the Internet era for quite some time. He said that people learn in many different ways. He noticed that people’s shopping patterns resembled more a web than a trip down a funnel.

Brock explained that “the spider web was built to allow the spider to travel from one place to another.” You will see that the same terms and topics are always mentioned when you look at a customer’s search history, the context of the search and the Google suggestions. This creates “inflections” between your solution, and the customer’s search. Brock said that the customer may start their search at any point on this web, but he knows where all of its strands meet.

The combination of AI and search will make your journey even faster. If you are looking for a quick answer, then the first response may suffice. Here, there is a problem of trust. Brock explained, “You save time but risk getting the wrong information.”

Brock said that the AI/search combination can’t understand cultures or contexts “too specific”, but it is able to be used for research and to discover complex topics, Brock added.

Dig deep: What are sales enablement platforms and how can they help bridge marketing to sales?

Everyone still calls it a funnel

Don Simpson, founder of the sales intelligence platform LiftAI, said that there are 77,000 paths to purchase. “We use the funnel, because it is what people are used to.”

Simpson is involved in B2B sales. This involves a long sales cycle, punctuated with lots of research on customers. He said that there are multiple customer journeys to be tracked “from the moment the customer appears all the way through the sales process”. “We track the customer journey to predict conversion rates.”

Lift AI performs this analysis at the level of web pages. The way people interact with online content may indicate what they are going to do next. Simpson explained that the client’s website is used as a tool to determine buyer intent. We track the customer’s journey from the initial visit until the final sale. We predict conversion in real time.”

Lifts AI can feed the data it gains from its modeling into a tool for tracking sales. Simpson explained that “you can play around with the data and create models on it with varying levels of success”. The website’s ability to track and develop this situational awareness has resulted in a massive increase in sales.

Simpson stated that marketers must include “whatever they deem important.” The accuracy of the model is an indication that the marketer has the right idea. Simpson said that if the rate is between 85-90% then it’s “accurate”. You keep tweaking, refining and improving until you reach accuracy.

A funnel? A funnel?

Latane Cannon, CMO of ABM platform 6,sense, says that the funnel is still present. It feels neat, tidy and organized. The dark funnel is a result of the shift from traditional to digital purchasing.

“[B]uyers conduct their research anonymously, rather than through a conversation between a buyer and a seller. Conant explained that they still show signals about where they are on the buying journey.

Conant said that only 3 percent of visitors would fill out a survey. Conant noted that the rest of visitors are not noticed unless they have been de-anonymized. Conant stated that only 26% B2B companies de-anonymize their traffic.

The truth is that the purchasing journey has never followed a linear path. Conant said that buyers don’t move smoothly from one phase to another. Buyers may spend one month in the initial awareness phase, then a week of consideration, followed by a single day in the final decision phase, before returning to the initial phase. Or they may jump straight from awareness to decision/purchase…It doesn’t follow a pre-set cadence, which is why it’s so important to have the intent data, and the AI to distill it into insights, so you can track buyer readiness at any given point.”

Data is still data, no matter if you use a funnel or not

Marketers are able to discern buyer intent if they ask the correct questions and get the right answers. The “shape’ of the customer journey matters less than the data that is being analyzed.

Brock says that marketers should begin by asking “the questions you care about most.” Search behavior is important. Research. Will AI replace your voice or find people looking for unique content? Create content that will appeal to the customer at these information junctions. He noted that a sales web contains inflection points and that an algorithm could provide the content for customers at these points.

Simpson took a more direct approach. He said that people come to the store for a specific reason, and so there is already a buyer’s intent. Identify behavior that indicates a likelihood of conversion. Talk to that group. He said to apply time and resources towards that audience who are in a buying mode and take advantage of the opportunity.

Conant outlined three steps for overcoming the challenge.

1. AI can help you be more human. Artificial Intelligence can gather customer data from multiple sources before engaging with them on their terms.
2. AI can help you be more productive. Predictive AI is capable of automating routine tasks like creating personalized messages for specific customers.
3. Use AI for workflows. Use AI in CRM to find accounts, add meaningful data and then get that information to sales and marketing teams.

Conant stated that the demands on marketers have never been higher. “Rather than see AI as another complicated factor, I view it as our lifeboat – the way we can meet these increasing demands without killing ourselves.”

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