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If you’re still following the traditional sales funnel framework in 2026, your firm’s growth is sure to stall.

Because the “inverted triangle” view of a funnel is oversimplified, and it’s starting to feel like the fundraising version of that tired investment process slide that makes everyone want to poke their eyes out.

It flops because not everyone in your funnel needs the same thing, and “just checking in” isn’t a follow-up strategy that actually moves people forward.

That’s why in this episode, Stacy’s breaking down what actually works to keep your funnel healthy.

Listen in to learn:

• Why the funnel isn’t a simple inverted triangle (and what it really looks like in practice)
• What people at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel actually need from you
• The real job of the middle of the funnel (and why most teams ignore it)
• Why filling the top of the funnel is harder than closing deals
• Creative ways to get in front of new prospects (without spammy outreach)
• Why LinkedIn works so well for this when you share the right kind of content

This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

TRANSCRIPT

Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.

[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: Craving more knowledge, but don't always have time to sit down for a five course meal. Take a quick snack break with story snacks, bite-size content to feed your funnel. Each short episode features Stacey, digging into one question. This series has her talking stories, sales, and so much more. Oh yeah, it's time for story snacks.

[00:00:26] Wouldn't it be cool if you could diversify your investor base and add some non-US investors? Europe could be fun, or Latin America, maybe Antarctica. Hey, icebergs aren't really my jam, but you never know. You've only got one problem. How the heck do you do that? Fair question, but maybe this is a who not how thing.

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[00:01:57] So I've been thinking a lot about the sales [00:02:00] funnel. The sales funnel runs the risk of being very much like the investment process slide that makes everybody wanna poke our eyes out. Okay. The investment process slide that makes everybody wanna poke our eyes out is the one where you say the universe is thousands big and.

[00:02:24] Here's my slide of an inverted funnel and here's how I screen and here's how I go, and this is what I do. And it's just like everybody does that slide and it's so tired. Okay? The sales funnel runs the risk of falling into this category of like inverted triangle names come in and hopefully deals come out.

[00:02:48] It's very similar. Concept. I think that as salespeople, there's so much nuance in that funnel that if we just draw the inverted triangle, like [00:03:00] we're missing it entirely. So there's the funnel, okay? And then divide it into thirds, top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel, and hopefully at the bottom of the funnel, that's where the deals materialize.

[00:03:16] Not all people in the funnel need the same thing. A right. What somebody needs at the top of the funnel is very different than what somebody needs at the bottom of the funnel. I think intellectually, we all know that. I'm not sure we are really putting a lot of intention around that. We know that when somebody moves through due diligence, they're gonna want different information.

[00:03:39] Maybe a DDQ or more meetings or meet with our team one-on-one. And we know that, but we kind of ignore the top of the funnel really in the middle of the funnel. It's kind of like on them to move themselves through. Like, you let me know. That's why people do the check-in. They're basically, what they're really checking in on is, are [00:04:00] you ready for me to onslaught you with all the later stage due diligence information I have at the ready?

[00:04:05] No. Yes, no. Yes. No. Okay. Sounds like, no. So then you don't. But that's really kind of it. Typically, it feels to me like there's a lot of focus on bottom of the funnel, rightly so. We all wanna close deals, but we're not really doing a super great job of the middle of the funnel, moving them from where they are to the bottom of the funnel or the top of the funnel, moving them to the middle, or by the way, moving them off.

[00:04:33] Salespeople really are uncomfortable with the idea of taking somebody off their funnel. This is a mistake and it's like probably another question for another day. So let's go back. Now we've got the sort of standard funnel, but we've divided in three and we've got the top of the funnel in the middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel.

[00:04:54] And so my question that I've been thinking a lot about is how are you filling the top [00:05:00] of the funnel? I know you know how to deal with the bottom of the funnel. I'm kind of not sure. We have a great strategy typically for the middle of the funnel and moving people once they're on the funnel. But even more than that, how are you filling the funnel?

[00:05:16] How are you getting people from the audience into the fan club at all? And so what are the ways you could do that? Well, the old way would be. I'm gonna tell you how I fill the funnel. I buy a list and I hammer said list until I get somebody to agree that they want more information. And then, aha, I've got you, and now you're on the funnel.

[00:05:40] Boom. Funnel is filling from a list. Okay? You can't see me, but I'm going, what is that? I'm smirking. It's eh, I'm making an eh. I'm not sure. That's great face because it's not great. So that got me thinking about, okay, well what are we doing for our [00:06:00] clients and even for ourselves to fill the top of the funnel?

[00:06:03] What are the new playbook ways that you could do that? And of course, no one's gonna be shocked when I say LinkedIn. That's one of my favorite ways to fill the funnel. I'll come back to it. And if you're eye rolling, then just stop the podcast because. I'm going there and I'm taking you with me. There are other ways you could do it.

[00:06:19] The problem is it's really difficult, like I know it's difficult to close deals, but actually it's not as difficult as filling the funnel. It's not because the prospect's already interested. So now you're just sort of figuring out like the nuts and bolts of the whole thing and answering questions.

[00:06:39] That's actually not that difficult. What's really difficult is to get people who are just bopping around in their day-to-day lives to raise their hand and say, oh, that's interesting. I'd like more information. That's difficult. So if you just snooze on LinkedIn, let's just say there's some LinkedIn haters out there.

[00:06:55] Or even if you're not a hater, like you're, you're not a lover of LinkedIn, that's fine. [00:07:00] Then let's talk about the other ways that you could fill the funnel. We already said list is just come on. Okay, so no one's doing that. So how else could you do it? Well, I guess you could like go on a podcast circuit and that's fine.

[00:07:14] And also I like that strategy. But if that's your only strategy to fill the top of the funnel, here's some problems I have with that. How do you know who listens? You really don't. I mean, you have a little bit of that on LinkedIn too, but like this is really opaque. It's a great strategy. As an additive strategy, but I'm not sure.

[00:07:33] It can be the only way you're gonna fill the top of your funnel. You might say, oh, I'm gonna go on a speaking circuit, which I hope you have a lot of money 'cause those are expensive. But let's just say you do. And so you wanna go on a speaking circuit. It's kind of the same thing, like you're speaking to an audience and okay, like then they have to call you or you have to get a list of the people who are in the audience, and I guess you have to call every single one of them.

[00:07:56] Or you could say, well my, I have a salesperson and it's their job to fill [00:08:00] the top of the funnel. And they can do that. But you know what, that's gonna take a really long time. 'cause they basically are gonna have to, you know, bottom up one by one, have conversations and fill the funnel also. Great. But if that's your primary way that you're gonna fill your funnel, it's gonna take a really long time.

[00:08:17] So we could do a lead magnet. This is great idea. Uh, except how, how are they gonna find, where are we putting it? LinkedIn. So all roads lead back to LinkedIn. I'm so sorry to tell you that this is where all roads lead because that's where your prospects are hanging out. I know you don't wanna believe me.

[00:08:38] I don't know why you don't wanna believe me actually, but it is where they are. So I need you to start believing me just a little bit because you need to fill the top of your funnel. You also need to understand that there is a top of funnel and a middle of funnel and a bottom of funnel, and you need to be checking the health of those three parts of that funnel and determining [00:09:00] where is this is what we do with our clients.

[00:09:02] Where are we having a problem? We always wanna be filling the top of the funnel, but funnels don't actually look like triangles for all my quant friends. If you actually created a graph of a sales funnel, it's not gonna look like that. Typically what it looks like is a skinny tail on either end and a big fat middle.

[00:09:22] It's a parabola of some kind. Is that really the shape? I don't know. I think it might be sounded like a good idea. Okay. Like it's a bell curve. How about that? It is not actually an upside down triangle. And so the problem is if we're not thinking about our funnel this way, if we're not thinking about our funnel less as a two dimensional, inverted triangle.

[00:09:44] If we're thinking about it like that, I would challenge us to think about it like a flywheel. It spins, and in order to get it to spin, you need to actually be putting movement in the parts of the funnel to make it spin and to continue [00:10:00] to get it to spin, which means you really need to understand which part of your funnel needs attention at what time.

[00:10:06] If you have a lot of names on your funnel and they're not closing, we're gonna need to do some work on the bottom of the funnel. That's actually a great problem. 'cause again, I think it's, it's actually easier to close deals than it is to find new prospects. Sorry to tell you this, but it's true. So I just feel like there's some sort of funnel school that needs to happen because people think it's just like this really super simple screening.

[00:10:32] I get a list, who cares? I don't know. I'm actually not even thinking about that. I'm just waiting for people to raise their hand, that they're ready to be closed. And when they do that, then I'm engaged. If that's how your sales team is treating their funnel, that's a super big mess. Let's be real. No one wakes up and says, I can't wait to build some operational infrastructure today.

[00:10:54] You are here to manage money to build something that lights you up, not chase down reports across five [00:11:00] systems and 15 service providers. That's where Ultimas Fund Solutions comes in. They're your ops dream team, consolidating all your middle and back office chaos into one clean, scalable setup, registered funds.

[00:11:16] Private funds, SMAs, all integrated. One team, one tech platform, one rock solid source of data. But here's the real differentiator service. I know that Fund in a box sounds convenient. It's also a box. Know what? You can't put in a box? A human who picks up the phone when you call and need help. Real life people who know your name and your fund and they care about getting it right.

[00:11:46] Ultimas was built on people doing business with people. You get institutional strength combined with boutique level service without getting stuck in a phone tree of doom. If you're ready to simplify [00:12:00] scale and start working with a team that feels like an extension of yours, check out billion dollar backstory.com/ultimas.

[00:12:09] That's ul. T-I-M-U-S. You've got the investment strategy, the vision, the track record. Now it's time to upgrade the engine behind it all with ultimas. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy.

[00:12:38] Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance. All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Haven or Haven or Capital Partners.

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