For many marketers, the concept of the ‘sales funnel’ is the go-to concept when it comes to understanding buyer behaviour. But, with the rise of AI and the avalanche of data, the shape of this ‘funnel’ is changing. Ryan Brock, Chief Solution Officer at marketing strategy platform DemandJump, no longer sees a funnel and instead suggests thinking about a spider web. This is because, as customers live in the Internet age, they learn in many different ways, and search behaviour is often indicative of what they will do next.
AI and search can be used to understand complex topics, but cannot understand a culture or context that is ‘too unique’. AI can also help bridge the marketing-sales divide through sales enablement, helping marketers to understand and track customer behaviour on a web page level. This can be used to build models and increase sales.
Don Simpson, founder of sales intelligence platform Lift AI, still uses the ‘funnel’ concept but calls it the ‘dark funnel’. This is because buyers do their research anonymously, and only 26% of B2B organisations actually de-anonymise this traffic. The buying journey is no longer linear, and marketers must use intent data and AI to track buyer readiness at any given point.
Latane Conant, CMO at ABM platform 6sense, also sees the funnel as still being present, but acknowledges the shift to digital buying. AI provides the lifeboat to meet rising demands and Conant suggests that marketers use AI to be more human, efficient and to streamline workflows.
Overall, while the concept of the sales funnel is still useful, marketers should be aware of the changing shape of the customer journey and use AI and data to understand their customers better. With this, they can engage on a personal level and capitalise on opportunity.
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/if-its-not-a-sales-funnel-what-is-it/
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