The funnel is for reporting. The journey is for engagement.
In B2B marketing, strategy is built around the buyer. But success is still measured around the funnel.
That mismatch explains a lot of the friction we see. Not just in results, but between teams. Marketing is trying to engage buyers. The business is trying to track leads. They’re not the same thing.
A good strategy starts with the buyer. What they’re trying to figure out. The pressure they’re under. The people they need to convince. The questions they come back to more than once. It’s messy. It moves around. And it sure as hell doesn’t follow a neat path.
The funnel isn’t that. It was never meant to be. It’s a way of keeping score. A way of making something hard to pin down feel a bit more structured. Useful, in its own way. But when you start using it to judge something designed with the buyer in mind, things begin to shift.
We don’t talk about TOFU, MOFU, BOFU much anymore. But the thinking hasn’t really gone anywhere. You still see it in how campaigns are shaped. Neat layers. Logical progression. A sense that if we “cover the journey”, the job is done. It looks convincing. Right up until it doesn’t.
Buyers don’t move like that. They dip in and out. They jump ahead, then circle back. They bring others into the process. They rethink things they thought were already decided. And when that happens, it doesn’t show up neatly in the funnel. So we optimise for something else.
Content gets built to fit stages. Budgets drift towards the top. Progress becomes about movement, not whether anything has actually moved forward.
That’s why models like the hexagon, something James Hankins has written about, are interesting. Not because they replace the funnel. But because they’re a bit more honest about what’s actually going on.
They don’t assume a linear path or sequence. Or even that every buyer is trying to do the same thing at the same time. They reflect the reality that buying is messy. Different moments. Different needs. No fixed order. Which shifts the focus slightly.
I’m all for a different perspective, one that’s less about pushing someone through a model. More about recognising where they are and helping when it matters.
Most B2B teams will say they’re buyer-centric, but their planning, measurement and reporting often tell a slightly different story. The funnel pretends order. The reality is a bit more chaotic than that.
And if your buyers are operating in one… while your marketing is being judged by the other… that’s probably worth a closer look.
Read more about James Hankins’ “Hexagon” here
