Your Marketing QBR Deck Is Being Run by a 120-Year-Old Model

Every B2B marketer knows the funnel concept is broken. Yet that same model your team is being measured on right now was invented in 1898, and it's surviving because nobody at the top has been given permission to use anything else.Carolyn and Amber react to a recent article in Adweek from Professor Mark Ritson, where he calls the funnel the "cockroach of marketing concepts", a 128-year-old model that has outlived every attempt to replace it. They break down why every critique fails to land, and why the real problem isn't the funnel. It's the classrooms teaching it, the boards demanding it, and the marketers who can't challenge it without risking their careers.Topics covered in this episode:Why a model from 1898 still anchors how B2B companies measure marketing in 2026The gap between what the funnel was designed to do (a market snapshot) and what it's used for (SQL-to-opp conversion, MQL targets)Why every "funnel is dead" critique fails to kill it, and who actually keeps it aliveThe Amazon "full funnel campaigns" moment, and what it says when even the best companies are still using the languageWhy a snapshot in time tells you nothing about where to move budget, why CAC is up, or what to do when pipeline missesIf you've tried to kill the funnel inside your own org and watched it survive every conversation, this is the episode. The cockroach isn't the funnel. It's the system that keeps demanding it.-----------------------------------------------------Want answers now?🔎 The fastest way to understand what’s actually driving pipeline and revenue → All your data, connected, so you can see what’s working and what to do next.[Get your full pipeline & revenue breakdown in 2 weeks]-----------------------------------------------------Not ready for that yet?🎯 Understand why it’s been so hard to see what’s working → We’ll show you where your visibility breaks and why your current model can’t answer these questions.[Apply for a 1-hour working session]-----------------------------------------------------🎥⁠ JOIN our Weekly Recordings on Wednesday at 1pm ET / 10am PT: [RSVP for GTM Live]-----------------------------------------------------This episode is powered by ⁠Passetto⁠. If your marketing dashboards aren't giving you straight answers, you're in good company. Most Marketing teams simply don't have the visibility to understand how they are driving pipeline and revenue and where budget is being wasted.Passetto changes that, giving marketing leaders the comprehensive data they need to act with confidence.