What funnels exist in your flywheel?

[Champion]

The flywheel represents your company as a whole, but you’ll still have funnel-shaped charts and graphs representing the effectiveness of different processes within your company, and it’s important to make sure those funnels are fueling your flywheel. What possible funnels exist within your flywheel?

*To learn more about this, check out the Growing Your Business With a Flywheel Model lesson via HubSpot Academy. 

[PJSinsures]

There are several funnels through the process and as I get more into this...there will probably be a few more to add or adjust to put in place.

Contact: how the customer reached out to us and what direction it took.

Quote: this is for personal lines insurance so just about every contact gets a quote unless they don't respond.

Deal won: set the stage for follow up preferences

Deal lost: couldn't help this time but set up a follow up expectation

Review/Ref. request: whether won or lost see if service was enough to earn a nod or help someone else they know.

[burrows_r]

In our flywheel we have the several funnels which are all the obvious ones but are essential to understand the health of the businesss

Contact funnel: this is where we can measure our audience growth and how they are interacting with us overall. 
Lead funnel - used to measure how our leads move through the various stages to become a sales opp 
Sales funnel- effectiveness of our sales process
Onboarding funnel- part of the sales process and a more long term customer success measurement.

In the future we will also add in a customer retention funnel.

As I am working in a start-up all of these things will take time to develop and refine.

[DAudano]

We’re still in the early startup phase, so our flywheel is pretty simple right now with most of our activity happening on LinkedIn. Our marketing funnel is all about starting conversations there: posting content, engaging with people directly, and moving from connection to a real discussion about their needs. From there, our sales funnel kicks in with discovery calls to proposals. Once we’re working with a client, our customer success funnel is focused on delivering a great experience and keeping communication open so they want to work with us again or refer someone (or some two or some three) new.

Even though our setup is lean, each of those funnels still fuels our flywheel. When someone has a great experience and shares it publicly or recommends us on LinkedIn, that “delight” energy comes right back around to attract the next client. Sending out positive energy that our first deal closes soon. 🤞🏻

[Mkhadija]

hi champion

In my flywheel, I use three main types of funnels,  the lead generation funnel,the customer acquisition funnel,and the customer retention funnel.

[Jaycee_Lewis]

Hi, @Mkhadija Welcome to the community! We put together these Learning Paths to help you get started https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Success-Guides/ct-p/successguides 

I also sent a quick message in case you need any personal help.

Please feel free to explore, say hello to other members, and share your goals with us. We're happy to have you learning here! — Jaycee

[xshoua]

Within a flywheel, which represents the continuous momentum of your business, several funnels can exist to track and optimize the effectiveness of specific processes. Common examples include:

1. Lead Generation Funnel – Tracks potential customers from awareness to initial contact.

2. Sales Funnel – Follows prospects from interest to consideration to purchase.

3. Marketing Funnel – Measures how content and campaigns attract, engage, and convert audiences.

4. Customer Onboarding Funnel – Monitors how new customers are successfully activated and trained to use your product or service.

5. Retention or Renewal Funnel – Tracks how existing customers continue to engage, renew, or upgrade.

6. Support Funnel – Ensures customer issues are addressed efficiently, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty.

Each funnel feeds the flywheel by creating momentum through customer acquisition, engagement, and retention, keeping the business growing sustainably.

[StackToSale]

Hi Champion,

Thanks for sharing! At StackToSale, we think of the flywheel as the overarching engine of growth, but we definitely rely on multiple internal funnels that feed it. For example:

• Lead Acquisition Funnel: From ad campaigns → landing page conversions → new leads in CRM.

• Activation Funnel: Onboarding sequence → product engagement → first value milestone.

• Retention/Expansion Funnel: Ongoing engagement → upsells/cross-sells → advocacy and referrals.

Each of these funnels is monitored for efficiency and continuously optimized to keep the flywheel spinning faster. Essentially, the better each funnel performs, the more momentum the overall flywheel gains.

Would love to hear how others map their funnels to the flywheel!

— Andrew | StackToSale

[Zac1]

Marketing, sales and service funnels all exist within my company's flywheel, however this module has helped me to identify what funnels could be better developed/improved in order to improve the efficiency of the flywheel and the efficacy of outcomes.

[MThomas21]

The flywheel model for San Juan College is a student-centered approach that focuses on continuous growth. In higher education this often replaces the outdated funnel model by emphasizing satisfaction and word-of-mouth as drivers of growth. 

[ASkevas]

If i had a flywheel, the funnels I would want are acquisition through content or ads, activation through engaged onboarding, and retention through daily rewards.

[vrtheresa]

A funnel that exists within my flywheel right now is a social media funnel:

bringing awareness to my brand with daily posts, active engagement which fosters relationships with users, eventually leading to conversion and advocacy.  

[MuzammilRawjani]

Within our flywheel, several funnels work together to keep the momentum going and ensure we’re continuously attracting, engaging, and delighting customers. Some key funnels include:

Lead Generation Funnel – from awareness (content, SEO, social) to capturing qualified leads through forms, gated content, and campaigns.

Sales Funnel – nurturing MQLs into SQLs, demos, proposals, and conversions.

Onboarding Funnel – guiding new customers through setup, training, and adoption to reduce friction and build early success.

Customer Success Funnel – tracking engagement, upsell/cross-sell opportunities, and renewal paths.

Feedback & Advocacy Funnel – collecting reviews, referrals, and testimonials to feed back into the attract stage of the flywheel.

Each funnel has its own metrics and conversion points, but together they fuel the larger flywheel by turning happy customers into promoters who create more momentum.

[jsingh93]

In the flywheel approach, the main funnels are marketing, sales and services. The marketing funnel draws in prospects through content, SEO, and promotions. The sales funnel then nurtures and converts them into clients. The service funnel supports and delights customers, fostering loyalty and encouraging advocacy. These connected funnels keep the flywheel turning, where happy customers drive referrals and repeat purchases, generating ongoing growth and sustaining momentum for the business.

[CWilliams56]

As a Business Innovation student with an emphasis in Marketing, this major is all about finding solutions, creative problem solving, and understanding how a business matches its mission and message to its target market. The flywheel within this specific degree could be data analysis, out-of-the-box thinking, and marketing strategies. It would be difficult to have a company doing a good job of attracting, delighting, and engaging customers if one of these parts of the flywheel was mismatched. The marketing strategy, including where the message is being told, to whom, and how, is just as important to attract, delight, and engage as it is to be accurate with how the data itself is translated. Solutions on creating a successful flywheel should also match the brand itself, otherwise it would feel off to loyal customers. 

An recent example of when the marketing strategy has been unsuccessful is the controversy of Cracker Barrel changing their logo. The new logo was mismatched with the brands long-standing itentity and didn't match the needs, wants, and expectations of their target market. Ensuring alignment between the brand identity, how data is interpretated for that specific brand, and innovative solutions are vital to keep the flywheel turning. If alignment is mismatched, something feels off and customers will push back, as seen with Cracker Barrel changing the logo back to its original.

[MMuflih]

What funnels exist in your flywheel?

At my company, where I work, it's a B2B health technology industry. Use communication between team management and AI in our workspace, the product itself is such a website for scanning assurance and EMR. So, after potential customers (Directories of the clinics/hospitals) know our product by presentation and live demonstrating it, 85% of them might be interested. Because these days, every clinic/hospital needs technology to integrate its administration, especially patient data. We give the information of product & price + discount in order that they bring other hospitals to be our customers too (That's how we make word-of-mouth). We also make the community to know what their pain is and consider what can be improved in our product. On the other hand, we provide an advanced service for repairing their website/which we call "customer implementations" (That's how we make our customers happy).

[Bbeswick]

My flywheel is marketing, and my funnels are social media and AI. It is important to be able to connect new technology back to where we want to have the most success. Marketing gives us the opportunity to generate new sales through new media and the use of artificial intelligence to back up and strengthen company systems.

[Tanya_o]

In my flywheel, the funnel is built around AI Clarity Sessions. Clients usually enter with one immediate problem they want solved. During the session, the problem is addressed directly, but there is also an educational layer: clients see not only the solution to their current challenge but also gain awareness of other efficient tools and approaches that could optimize their business. This turns a single engagement into an ongoing cycle of value, solving today’s issue while opening the path to future improvements and deeper collaboration.

[VMP]

The possible funnels exist in my flywheel are understanding the need of customers,innovation, customer satisfaction & pricing, this will make the customers to become the promoters of the product, The need of the customers will help to fuel what innovation required make the customers happy. pricing also have huge role in customer satisfaction, whether the customer is getting ROI from the product.

[sophia11]

Possible funnels that exist in my flywheel are marketing, product development, sales, and customer sucess. I think these four are very dependent on eachother. The marketing side of things allows you to gain potential customers by social media, event, campaigns etc. Product development will continuously improve products which will satisfy your target market. Sales will lead potential memebers into paying customers and customer sucess will lead to loyal customers leading to more revenue.

[chighsmith]

Hi @sophiacruz11,
 

Welcome to the Community!

Thats a great breakdown! Each funnel you mentioned really drives momentum in the flywheel, and it’s awesome to see how you’ve highlighted their interdependence, when these areas work together, they create a seamless experience that powers lasting growth.

Looking forward to seeing more of your contributions!

Cassie, Community Manager