Let’s get something straight: your buyers are not walking neatly down a funnel.
They’re bouncing between touchpoints. They’re Googling competitors while ignoring your nurture sequence. They’re circling back to ask new questions. Sometimes they disappear entirely, only to reemerge months later with a contract in hand.
The TOFU–MOFU–BOFU model isn’t just outdated. It’s misleading. It suggests that buying is a logical, linear, and controllable process. And that’s not how people, or businesses, make decisions.
It’s time to trade the false clarity of the funnel for a model that reflects the real complexity of how buyers behave. That means embracing the mess. Building content that’s flexible and accessible. And most of all, tightening the partnership between sales and marketing to meet prospects wherever they show up, whenever they show up, with what they actually need.
Why the TOFU–MOFU–BOFU Funnel No Longer Works
Originally built to bring structure to the content marketing process, the funnel gave us a way to think about customer progression: attract at the top, nurture in the middle, close at the bottom. TOFU. MOFU. BOFU.
But what happens when people don’t follow that sequence?
Because they don’t.
Today’s buyers:
- Research independently
- Enter at multiple points
- Loop backward to revisit concerns
- Ask different questions based on role
- And make decisions with other people you may never interact with directly
Trying to force buyers into a staged sequence is like expecting them to read your website cover to cover in order. It’s unrealistic. And worse, it can be limiting.
Content Isn’t a Pipeline. It’s a Web.
Your prospects are not consuming content in the order you planned it. They’re picking and choosing based on what they’re trying to figure out in the moment. That means we can’t rely on carefully timed “stage-based” content alone. Instead, we need to design content ecosystems—where each asset supports a specific job, solves a real problem, and can stand alone or work in tandem with others.
This doesn’t mean the journey stages don’t matter. They do. But they’re scaffolding, not a script. Your job isn’t to move people step by step. It’s to be ready when they’re ready—with the right piece of content, the right insight, or the right conversation.
Yes, the Customer Journey Still Matters
The customer journey is still a powerful tool, but not because it gives you control. It gives you context.
I use an infinity loop to visualize the journey, divided into two arcs:
Customer Acquisition
- Unaware: Doesn’t yet know there’s a problem.
- Aware: Starting to recognize something isn’t working.
- Consideration: Exploring possible solutions.
- Decision: Making the choice with a buying center.
Customer Continuum
- Onboarding: Learning how to use the solution.
- Adoption: Proving value and scaling use.
- Loyalty: Becoming a consistent customer.
- Advocacy: Recommending you to others.
But here’s the key: your buyer might drop into this loop at any point. Someone new might join the buying committee mid-evaluation. A champion might re-engage long after onboarding to explore expansion. You can’t predict the sequence. You can only be prepared.
Buying Centers: The Wild Card
If you’re still marketing to “the buyer,” you’re missing the point.
Modern B2B decisions are made by buying centers: a group of people, each with different priorities, timelines, and levels of influence. And they’re not all entering your world at the same time.
A few examples:
| Role | Likely Entry Point | What They’re Looking For |
| End User | Consideration or Adoption | “Will this make my job easier?” |
| Team Lead | Aware or Consideration | “Will this solve my team’s pain point?” |
| Executive | Decision | “Does this align with business goals?” |
| IT/Security | Late Consideration or Post-Sale | “Is this secure and scalable?” |
| Procurement | Decision and Onboarding | “Is this vendor contract-ready?” |
| Champion | Early Consideration through Advocacy | “Can I build the case for this internally?” |
So if your only BOFU asset is a demo video, and your executive buyer jumps in at that stage looking for ROI validation, you’re not just unprepared. You’re irrelevant.
How Sales and Marketing Can Align Around Reality
This is where things get better. Because when we let go of the funnel fantasy, we can build something more collaborative and more effective.
Here’s how sales and marketing can meet this messy reality together:
Audit the Full Content Ecosystem
Don’t just ask “Do we have TOFU content?” Ask:
- Do we have content for every stage?
- Can it be used by multiple personas?
- Is it easy to find and share?
Map your assets to both the journey stage and the buying center role. Look for gaps, especially in the messy middle and post-sale phases.
Create Content by Job, Not Just Stage
Instead of planning content for a “stage,” create it for a specific job to be done:
- “Help me make a business case for my CFO.”
- “Help me understand how this integrates with our tech stack.”
- “Help me get my team on board.”
- “Help me decide between you and a competitor.”
This shifts the focus from internal process to external usefulness.
Enable Sales With Modular Content
Don’t force sales to send content in sequence. Give them a toolkit.
Build:
- Case study banks filtered by industry or pain point
- ROI calculators tailored to verticals
- Short, punchy explainers for late-entry execs
- Follow-up content aligned to typical objections
Sales shouldn’t be digging through SharePoint folders. Make content findable, flexible, and field-ready.
Work the Loop Together
Marketing doesn’t stop at the deal. Sales doesn’t stop at the handoff.
Both teams can drive value across the entire loop:
- Adoption content (how-to guides, success playbooks)
- Loyalty campaigns (exclusive content, product previews)
- Advocacy programs (testimonial prompts, speaker invites)
This isn’t just customer success work—it’s pipeline protection and growth acceleration.
Final Thought: Embrace the Mess
Marketing isn’t about guiding buyers down a tidy path. It’s about being useful in a chaotic one.
That means:
- Letting go of rigid funnels
- Embracing the infinity of the journey
- Building for buying centers, not just personas
- And showing up with content that works whenever and wherever the buyer does
Structure is still useful. Stages still matter. But if you want to build a strategy that drives real engagement and real revenue, you have to respect the mess.
Because messy is honest. Messy is human. And messy is where the magic happens.
