In his recent talk at Inbound 2018, Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot talked about how today’s sales tactics are changing from the traditional, “ funnel” to a more “flywheel” approach. How do these differ?

And what does that mean for the growth that we expect to see during the rest of 2018, 2019 and 2020?

First of all. What is a funnel? For many years a funnel has been the way that businesses promote sales and marketing to potential customers. According to Small Business Cron a Marketing Funnel:“controls consumer behavior from a broad to narrow sense. At the wide end of the funnel, consumers become aware of specific brands. Soon they get comfortable and familiar with the brand and begin to develop opinions. Consumers start to feel that the brand is suitable for their needs moving toward the narrow end of the funnel where they select a particular product. At the end of the funnel, consumers shop for the product and make a purchase.”

In his talk, Brian suggests that there may be another and an even more effective way to market. The Flywheel. But first, what IS a flywheel?  The flywheel is simply a wheel or disc on an axis that’s incredibly energy-efficient. It is what powers cars, power plants, and trains. The amount of energy that it gives is based on how large it is and how fast it spins.

As Brian points out, “we are in a day and age where we have gone from sales and marketing being the loudest voice in peoples heads to word of mouth being the strongest one”.

“Whether we like it or not, trust in sales and marketing is at an all-time low”.

This is where the flywheel comes in. If word of mouth is the loudest voice then let us use that. Let’s create the flywheel effect by allowing our clients to have a voice. To let THEM sell our products. Similar to the flywheel, it gains its own momentum. As we have more and more happy and satisfied clients, they spread the news of our products and services to others.

Brian then shows an example of the Flywheel that he has created. It is basically Engage>Delight>Attract. Once you start Engaging your customers and then sell a product that Delights them, that in turn Attracts more clients. It’s a cycle that feeds itself and is not only sustainable but self-sufficient.

Basically summing up what is going to increase your business in the upcoming few years it that this will be a new marketing style. It will be retiring the Funnel and introducing the Flywheel. It will be taking out the old, outdated sales tactic that relies on marketing to make sales, and instead relies on the satisfied consumer to give a satisfied report and spread news of your business. This can be done in any way, through reviews, feedback, articles, word of mouth, you name it.

The bottom line is that word of mouth is selling. It is creating its own marketing channel as seen in Brian’s Flywheel mentioned above:

Engage>Delight>Attract = Growth

This is new and exciting. Although many out there are going to be skeptical about giving up on the old and trusted Funnel approach, it seems that many more are hopping on board and planning on seeing where the Flywheel takes them.

We’ll have to wait and see.  Only time, or rather, sales, can tell the results.