As a marketer, I recently found myself in an interesting situation. I was in the market for a new car for my wife, and was involved in pitching a car account all at the same time. In every single interaction we had with the potential clients they made reference to the sales funnel, and I wanted to call bullshit. The sales funnel that you are most likely familiar with (awareness, consideration, lead, conversion etc.) is not entirely wrong, but it drives the wrong type of thinking. I bet some business school professor who never spent much time with real prospects and real customers designed this funnel. This stuff resonates with the “I run the marketing department on a spreadsheet” types, but does not work well for those of us who understand that understanding consumer behavior is a prerequisite for manipulating their behaviors.

Buying a car is 80% emotional, 20% practical. I’m much more likely to buy a car that fulfils most of my emotional needs, and a few of my practical needs. I am far less likely to pull the trigger on one that fits most of my practical needs and few of my emotional ones. Love is blind.

 If you fall in love with a car, not unlike a girl you will stop seeing the flaws. In fact you will start to justify your choice with flawed logic.  “If I buy a two seater I will save gas since I will drive it less” – In today’s economic environment we can’t pull any punches. We need to create emotional demand.

Here is my new funnel (well it’s much more of a loop) 

Buzz, intrigue, explore, experience, crave, cave, flaunt. Which in turn creates Buzz.

Enjoy!