Why Your Sales Funnel Should Look Less Like a Slide and More Like a Jungle Gym

By Susie Taylor | Contributor WBN News | 4 July 2025

Traditional sales funnels paint a lovely picture: a customer enters at the top, gets “nurtured” in the middle, and slides neatly out the bottom with credit card in hand. But if you’ve actually tried to sell anything online in the last five years, you know that’s not how it goes.

In real life, your potential customer may:

• Sign up for your lead magnet… and then disappear for weeks.
• Follow you on Instagram silently for months.
• Click every sales email but never buy.
• Ghost you after a discovery call, only to come back and hire you a year later.

Their journey isn’t a straight path. It’s a meandering hike, full of stops, starts, side trails, distractions, and surprising returns.

And that’s not a failure of your funnel. That’s just people being people.

So what do you do? You flip the funnel on its head. You stop trying to control their journey and start focusing on the one thing that keeps them coming back: trust.

Here’s how:

Lead with empathy, not urgency.
You’re not just solving a problem. You’re showing them you understand the messy emotions behind it. That creates safety.

Make your content binge-worthy.
Think beyond "just enough to get the opt-in." Give them so much value in your emails, videos, and posts that they start to see you as indispensable.

Be present at every stage.
Whether they’re at the top (just discovering you), in the middle (thinking about a solution), or at the bottom (ready to buy), show up with clarity. Keep your messaging consistent and your calls-to-action simple.

Don’t ghost them back.
If they pause or wander, stay visible. Stay helpful. Stay human. The more they see you as reliable, the more likely they are to return — when they’re ready.

Because here’s the truth: funnels don’t close deals. Relationships do. And relationships are built on trust, not tactics.

If you’re solving a real problem, and showing up like someone who cares more about service than sales, you’ll win.

And when you show up for real, customers come back. They tell their friends. They stay.

And when you don’t?

They bounce to someone who does.

Ever had a customer ghost you, then come back months later?
I’d love to hear your wildest funnel story. Comment below or email me at susie.taylor.writer@outlook.com. Let’s normalize the zigzag customer journey. You’re not alone.

Contact: Susie Taylor - susie.taylor.writer@outlook.com

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