What if the biggest problem in marketing isn't your message, your targeting, or your budget? What if it's the map you're using?

For more than a century, marketers have relied on funnels, customer journeys, and pipeline stages to explain how people buy.

The problem?

People don't move in straight lines.

In this Sharp Cut, Marc and Vassilis unpack why buying behaviour looks far more like a messy search pattern than a carefully planned journey. Drawing on research from Ehrenberg-Bass, Google, WPP, Oxford, James Hankins, Gartner, Bain, and the LinkedIn B2B Institute, they explore why most consumer decisions are made before shopping begins and why so many B2B deals stall after the buying process has already started.

Along the way, they tackle the real purpose of the funnel, the limits of customer journey mapping, the hidden role of buying committees, and why the pipeline may be better at reporting decisions than helping people make them.

In this episode:

Why the traditional funnel continues to survive
What the Consumer Decision Journey got right—and wrong
The surprising finding that 84% of purchases favor brands consumers already lean toward
Why "good enough" beats "best" more often than marketers realize
The difference between consumer and B2B buying behavior
How buying committees create friction inside organizations
Why 40-60% of qualified B2B deals end in no decision
The pipeline's real purpose
Why probability may be a better model than journeys

The funnel is a useful reporting tool. It just isn't a very good theory of human behaviour.

Takeaways:

Success in marketing is often misrepresented as a straight line.
The consumer decision journey is more complex than traditional models suggest.
Buyers often choose brands they are already leaning towards before shopping.
The funnel oversimplifies the buying process, leading to ineffective strategies.
Fear of making the wrong decision can paralyze B2B buyers.
Satisficing is a common behavior where buyers settle for 'good enough'.
Mental and physical availability are crucial for influencing buyer decisions.
The traditional funnel model is outdated and needs to be rethought.
Understanding buyer behavior requires acknowledging the chaos of the decision-making process.
Marketers should focus on building frameworks based on real consumer behavior rather than idealized models.

Chapters:

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

02:48 - The Complexity of the Consumer Decision Journey

06:06 - The Limitations of Traditional Marketing Models

08:49 - Understanding Buyer Behavior and Decision-Making

11:59 - Rethinking the Marketing Funnel

14:57 - The Role of Fear in B2B Buying Decisions

17:53 - Building a Better Marketing Framework