A sales funnel is a linear path to closing a deal, while a customer journey maps every touchpoint that builds trust and gets someone to buy. The difference matters because focusing on the customer's experience, not just moving them through stages, increases your chances of a sale.
Sales funnel is a metaphor for the stages that you help a customer move through, from the time they raise their hand as a lead to the time they close a deal. Although I talk about the sales funnel in a linear way, I do it to simplify the concept to folks who are new to sales, but each funnel will look different for each prospect. Customer journey. Customer journey is basically all marketing and sales touchpoints that a person experiences to become one of your customers. It's all these touchpoints that they have with your brand. This term keeps the customer rather than you as the main character in the story. If you support, satisfy, and help them navigate the journey, they're more likely than not to value you, trust you, and buy from you.
