Janice Lind, Certified Oracle•Intuitive Mentor

The Sales Funnel Debunked

To small sales- or service-oriented businesses, the sales funnel is a common concept. It illustrates the idea that finding your customer is basically a numbers game – the more effort and money thrown into the top of the funnel yields more customers at the bottom of the funnel.  The funnel is plated alongside a scoop of “targeted marketing,” which is the same concept, but juicier because the effort poured into the top converts to more customers at the bottom.

Although the concept is simple and logical enough to easily accept, a statistician would argue that buying more or more targeted lottery tickets will not increase the odds of winning the big jackpot. In the end, the business is largely at the mercy of luck.

The Sales Funnel does work. It works for people in sales that are passionate about sales and their passion for their vocation ignites the interest of those they come in contact with. It’s one reason that salespersons in general are avoided. The passion can be contagious even when the service or product is unneeded or unwanted. People are inclined to reward passion and then beat themselves up later for having responded emotionally rather than cool-headedly.

The passionate salesperson plays the numbers game, and although he may leave behind a trail of customers with buyer’s remorse or who were not served by their purchase, there are seemingly limitless people to shove into the top of the funnel, and “what happened next” may not interest him at all.

Most small business owners that offer a service other than sales choose that service because that is where their passion lies. Many entrepreneurs lose their passion for their business because it turns into a numbers game, and they end up feeding the funnel instead of providing the service for which they have a passion. The concept of the Sales Funnel doesn’t often work for The Rest of Us.

For The Rest of Us

I offer a water-drop as an alternative illustration to the funnel. One drop of water landing on a smooth liquid surface causes a ripple effect across the surface of the water and down through its depths. Instead of cramming as much as can be into a large hole and forcing what fits through to the bottom like a cookie-press, add a drop of well-timed value and let it spread concentrically.

The value is important: no need to pollute the water. The timing is important: this isn’t Chinese water torture. The surface is important: the water of emotion is what moves people to act. The drop is important: the water of your emotion is what moves people to act for or with you.
Passion for one’s work is a value that is recognized by everyone. When the value of passion is offered to the world, it is recognized and rewarded.

Let’s use a hypothetical photography business as an example. Our photographer is passionate about photography. She loves the way the light bounces through her camera. She loves the way the color and texture of life are exposed and refined by her effort and vision. She loves the way people can see their own beauty in her portrait even when they can’t see it in their mirror. She loves documenting the joy and beauty that exists, and providing works of light and texture and joy and beauty to with which to warm people’s homes and lives.

Her expressed passion inspires a businessman who was shopping for photography services to choose her. He gets the service that he wanted. He gets the joy of fueling a passion. He will be a repeat customer, and will refer others.

Her expressed passion sparks a modest person who was not thinking about photography to purchase a portrait. In the Funnel scenario, the collector might have suffered buyer’s remorse and avoided future high-pressure contact. But in this Water-drop scenario, his purchase does not induce regret, because his received value was supporting this passionate photographer. He may buy again in the future and will refer others.

A retired man on a fixed income is touched by this photographer’s expressed passion. He does not have the means to make a direct purchase immediately, but he shows an interest, offers assistance, makes a small contribution, or refers others.

All of the people exposed to the passion behind the photography business came away enriched by: receiving her passionate service as a photographer, being of service to the photographer’s passion, following the photographer’s example of expressing passion, or all of the above.
    
By offering the value of expressed passion in a well-timed and consistent manner; by being vulnerable in exposing your life’s passion often; by generously sharing your passion and your success with your customers; you ensure a secure and loyal business base. The service you provide is valuable and worth the money it costs. The service your customers provide to you is invaluable – it allows you to focus on your life’s passion.