B2B Sales Funnels - a Grater idea?

I am by a long shot not the first to propose that an Upside-down sales funnel is a more effective approach than the regular leaking funnel that was the defacto model for so many years. Scour the web and you will find several great examples such as the “Terminus Flipped” funnel or the Sirius Demand Waterfall.

All of these proponents realized that the sales funnel in its standard traditional form is a productivity myth based on the assumption that if you shovel enough cow dung into the top alchemy will with the aid of gravity turn manure into gold. 

Unfortunately – even funnels with up to date thinking suffer visually from the same top to bottom gravity effect. Even in a simple form as proposed by MailChimp co-founder Ben Chestnut 

this top-down effect do generate enough appreciation for the amount of effort and energy required to move existing clients through the 1st step of introducing you to their friends, and then subsequently for the friends to start loving you as well

The simple act of turning the Funnel upside down visually creates the impression that gravity needs to be beaten to get new Customers. The net effect of this simple change in display is, in my opinion, a more accurate portrayal of the energy and effort required to find and convert more customers. Matt O'Neill has already caught on to this concept in the traditional Sales pipeline.

Matt understands that “in order to fill our sales pipeline with qualified referrals, we must work hard to develop a path that not only leads the consumer to a final sale but properly identifies, qualifies and eliminates prospects depending on their predisposition to purchase the final”  

But Matt’s accurately depicted right side up funnel depicts a typical Business to Client (B2C) situation and we are looking at the Business To Business (B2B) environment and even if not completely out of place; it does not do justice to the modern thinking that in B2B marketing the funnel starts with interaction with existing clients. 

While Matt's version may be an improvement in terms of visually displaying the effort required, it does stop somewhat open-ended as not all of the “friends’ who try you will end up forging a relationship with you and end up as your customers, so lets revert back to a visually "improved" version of the Ben Chestnut version.

While this may be an improvement in terms of visually displaying the effort required it does stop somewhat open-ended as not all of the “friends’ who try you will end up forging a relationship with you and end up as your customers. To convert those who test your product more energy is needed before they may select to adopt you as a supplier. The path towards obtaining new clients is unfortunately far longer and arduous than simply dropping abruptly out of the end of a funnel and more gravity defeating work needs to be done. 

By adding the existing funnel on top of the newly created version a holistic view a diamond shape is created which could be considered as the inverse to the hourglass shape that people like Jess Gartner mention. The Diamond shape is a far more accurate descriptor of the actual process of finding new clients while visually display the process from end to end.

The truth is finding new clients is hard and your funnel should not make it look easy.

In the B2B world doing the grunt requires loving your existing clients, taking care of them and connecting to their friends as well as hunting outside your existing territory and comfort zone. For many small businesses, this is a daunting task and it may be beneficial to engage with a person who has walked that road before, who understands that B2B marketing is more than a pretty website but a nerve that runs deep through the whole organization.

Do you believe the sales funnel in either configuration is "still" a valid representation of the marketings and sales leads and conversion processes? Maybe you have a different product that is more current and accurate to represent this. Perhaps a cheesegrater is a far better visual display of how the process really works? Let us know what you think.