Getting lost in the funnel

Marketing funnels look impressive in presentations. They give everyone something to align around. They make complex buying behaviour feel manageable.

But here’s the problem: customers don’t actually follow them.

The research tells us:

• B2B buyers complete 70% of their research before contacting sales – invisibly, outside your funnel
• People jump straight to purchase, circle back randomly, or disappear for months (or forever)

The funnel assumes we can predict and design the path from awareness to consideration to purchase. But customers respond to triggers, context, social proof, and cognitive biases that change daily. We humans are predictably unpredictable.

What about journey mapping?

Some try to fix the funnel with customer journey maps – acknowledging that paths aren’t linear, that there are multiple touchpoints, that the process is messier than a simple funnel suggests. But journey maps have the same fundamental flaw: they still assume we can predict and design the customer’s path. They just make the diagram more complicated.

What about the flywheel?

This is a common place to land when you’re over the funnel. The flywheel model (attract, engage, delight) is definitely better than the traditional funnel, which treats purchase as the end point. The flywheel is built on some genuinely useful principles: happy customers drive growth through referrals, customer experience compounds over time, and friction kills momentum.

But here’s where the flywheel stumbles: it packages these truths inside yet another prescriptive model. It still assumes customers move through your designed sequence in predictable stages. It still creates workshop theatre where teams align around a diagram rather than actual customer behaviour.

The real insight from the flywheel isn’t the circular diagram. It’s simpler: happy customers drive growth, and friction kills momentum. You don’t need attract-engage-delight stages to act on that.

So what’s the alternative?

Instead of funnels, journey maps, or flywheels, consider tracking moments:

Focus on high-intent signals rather than stages. What behaviours actually indicate someone’s ready to buy? Downloaded pricing? Third visit this week? Liking your content?These matter more than whether they’re in your ‘consideration’ or ‘engagement’ phase.

Make buying frictionless at any entry point. The flywheel gets this right. Loss aversion means every obstacle increases the chance they’ll never return. Someone ready to purchase shouldn’t need to navigate your complete journey.

Work backwards from actual purchases. Interview customers after they buy. Ask what actually influenced them. The touchpoints that mattered often aren’t the ones you predicted. This shows you where to focus resources.

Optimise for memory, not navigation. Build distinctive brand assets that stick. Most buying processes include long gaps where people forget you entirely. The mere exposure effect means repeated impressions matter more than perfect stage progression. Can they recall you when the moment matters?

The balanced view:

Funnels, journey maps, and flywheel models aren’t entirely useless. For some businesses with genuinely sequential processes or where post-purchase advocacy is critical, these frameworks provide value.

The problem is when they become theatre. When we spend more time perfecting the diagram than removing actual friction.

The question isn’t whether funnels or flywheels or journey maps are right or wrong. It’s whether the time and money you’re spending on these models delivers better results than simply being memorable, frictionless, and valuable.

Use flywheel thinking: reduce friction, delight customers, create advocacy. Just don’t waste weeks mapping the wheel or getting lost in the funnel.