The funnel is a linear process whose goal is to turn a prospect into a customer. It is a very static process with fixed procedures. The potential customer slides further and further down the funnel and is "processed" by various departments. Initially, at the top of the funnel (TOF), all of marketing's energy is used to attract as many potential customers as possible and make them aware of the company. If the potential customers are interested and engage with the website, they are qualified by marketing and classified as leads. They then slide further into the middle of the funnel (MOFU). There, marketing passes them on to the sales team and, finally, at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), they become customers.
This process has historically been a good fit for the customer buying process. Prospective estonia phone number data customers became aware of the product or service through marketing materials or at trade fairs, sought further information, and became customers through contact with marketing and sales. This process has proven successful over time. However, the customer experience, or user experience, is not well represented, or even not reflected at all, in this process. However, this is particularly worth considering for the dynamics that develop between product and customer. The flywheel addresses precisely this point.
The flywheel
With the flywheel, the customer isn't a product at the end of a work process, but is entirely at its center. This is actually exactly the idea behind inbound marketing. Now, you could say that with the funnel, everything revolves around the customer. Of course, that's true! But the difference is that with the static funnel, the buying process ends when the lead becomes a customer and completes a purchase. You start the process anew with each customer. With the flywheel, the interested party doesn't have to enter the funnel on their own; instead, everything revolves around them.