About My Love Hate Relationship With Sales Funnels... [FREE Cheat Sheet!]
Every business needs sales, I am not disputing that fact. What I am disputing is the path many take to get those sales.
Every business needs sales, I am not disputing that fact. What I am disputing is the path many take to get those sales.
Dear Marketing Gurus (clears throat awkwardly)
I see you sharing your knowledge in Facebook groups and Clubhouse rooms… I am quietly watching you give the next generation of marketers bad info and watching as they lap it up like thirsty cats. I've written over 100,000 ads and helped generate more than $300 billion in revenue for clients across 40+ years in this business, so when I tell you your funnel advice is broken, it's not a hot take -- it's a pattern I've watched wreck accounts since before most of you had a Facebook group to post in.
What's Wrong With How Most Marketers Use Funnels
What's Wrong With Kitty Cat Kool-Aid?
A little sip from the crazy straw will tell you that most marketers don't treat funnels, well… like funnels. Instead of using their sales funnel to attract an audience, and get them to know/like/trust them, they go hardcore — like a junkie needing a quick fix. They try to mainline sales from cold to closed in a single step. I see it constantly: a cold Facebook audience gets hit with a hard "Buy Now" ad on day one, no headline built to earn trust first, no nurture sequence, nothing. Just a straight ask to a stranger.
That's not a funnel, that's a fail. Oh, and it's stupid AF.
Did I Just Insult Your Intelligence? Sorry, Not Sorry!
It's not that I don't LOVE the idea of finding a cold audience and converting them like a missionary with a quota, it's just that this method is what broke the internet of marketing goodness. It's why a great company like Apple turned on you and pissed in your marketing cornflakes and made data an opt-in. You guys f*cked it all up and will continue to do so if I don't hold this intervention. So… here we go.
How Funnels Actually Work (A Remedial Course)
The First Step In Recovery
"We admit we are powerless over marketing and that our campaigns have become unmanageable."
Doesn't that feel better already? Once the problem is acknowledged, we can do the work in recovery.
This is a funnel.
Why did I share this picture? While many of you know its shape, many fail to understand how it works and applies to sales, so…. class is now in sesh!
Used properly, a funnel helps move a large volume of something from the top, through the middle, eventually depositing that something exactly where you want it at the bottom.
Now, let's apply this to your sales pipeline.
At the top of your funnel is nothing but potential — Potential customers, potential fans, potential followers — but they don't know you yet. They are unfiltered, and there are lots of them.
So they all wind up falling into the funnel and swirling around.
As they move down the funnel some will fall out, some will filter themselves out, and some will continue the journey through the middle of the funnel because they now know you.
They spend a little bit of time swirling around the middle of the funnel, getting to like you and trust you. This is exactly the stage where most agencies lose the account, because they're too busy chasing the next cold lead to actually build trust with the ones already in motion.
Again some will fall out and some will filter themselves out.
Finally… a select few make it to the bottom of the funnel. This is where they buy from you. They have narrowed themselves down to those that want to do business with you — those that will transact with you.
The Three Stages You Need to Remember
Remember
Top of the funnel: Get to know you (Prospecting/Awareness)
Middle of the funnel: Like and Trust you (Re-Engagement)
Bottom of the funnel: Buy from you (Re-Marketing/Conversion)
Every stage lives or dies on the headline and the hook that gets someone to keep reading -- you can have the perfect funnel structure and still watch it collapse if the copy at each stage doesn't earn the next step. Check out our quick a dirty explanation of funnels in our video below, and download + save our FREE Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet for reference later!
Frequently Asked Questions
Ken's ripping on marketers who try to go "hardcore" and force sales from cold audiences to closed deals in a single step, like junkies needing a quick fix. That's not how funnels work—they're supposed to move people through stages of knowing, liking, and trusting you, not shove them straight to a sale.
Top of funnel is about prospecting/awareness (getting people to know you). Middle of funnel is re-engagement (getting them to like and trust you). Bottom of funnel is remarketing/conversion (where they actually buy from you).
Ken says aggressive marketers treating cold audiences like conversion targets "broke the internet of marketing goodness," which is why Apple started requiring opt-in for data tracking—basically marketers f*cked it up so badly that companies had to step in and piss in everyone's marketing cornflakes.
They skip the know/like/trust stages and try to convert cold audiences immediately. Ken's point is that funnels need volume at the top and time in the middle—people naturally filter themselves out at each stage, and only the qualified few make it to the bottom to buy.
