The buyer journey no longer runs through your site or your funnel. Build for where decisions actually happen.

The front door is closed. The website, once the entry point to your funnel, no longer guarantees a visit.

For decades, B2B marketing worshipped the click. Drive traffic, capture attention, convert on your site. The entire playbook, from budgets to metrics to organizational structures, was built around that behavior.

But the click is disappearing.

Since AI Overviews launched, organic click-through rates have fallen nearly 30% (BrightEdge). Most searches now end without a click at all (SparkToro). Buyers extract answers straight from the results page. In B2B, that means fewer forms, fewer demo requests, and fewer signals, no matter how strong the intent.

Stop Investing in Outdated Infrastructure

I covered previously how discovery has moved off-site. The question now is, if the website is no longer at the center, what replaces it?

Most companies are still investing in click-era infrastructure: site redesigns, content refreshes, SEO overhauls. A B2B website redesign now averages $42,500, with ongoing maintenance adding thousands per month (Whittington Consulting). All for traffic that’s not coming back.

The buyer’s journey no longer starts or ends on your domain. They’re comparing, evaluating, and deciding off-site: on LinkedIn, review platforms, even inside ChatGPT.

Knock-ai research shows that 76% of people who reach out from the website arrive with specific, direct questions. They’ve already done their research. Now, they just want to talk to a human. If you’re still optimizing for the casual visitor who’s already made their shortlist, you’re too late.

The Off-Site Funnel Playbook

Here’s how to capture demand when you can no longer rely on traffic:

1. Stop forcing leads onto your website.

Shift from driving top-of-funnel visits to creating bottom-of-funnel content that triggers buying intent. Think competitive breakdowns, pricing clarity, and decision-stage messaging, not SEO fluff.

2. Add chat links everywhere buyers already are.

Meet intent where it shows up. Add chat links to your G2 profile, LinkedIn bios, pricing pages, and partner marketplaces so buyers can DM your team directly without ever visiting your site.

3. Build an employee-led brand that converts.

Buyers trust people more than logos. Empower your team to share content and add personal chat links. With Knock-ai, you can reply on their behalf.

4. Monitor and measure off-site intent signals.

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Use AI tools to track off-site buyer behavior from social and review platforms, so you know where to engage before the form fill happens.

Knock-ai clients who stopped funneling traffic back to their site and let buyers message an SDR directly didn’t just improve pipeline quality. They unlocked pipeline that didn’t exist before.

By adding chat links to G2, LinkedIn, and marketplaces, they turned high-intent surfaces into conversion points. Channels that once pushed traffic to a website started generating qualified pipeline on their own. With friction removed, buyers could start a conversation the same day, with the right person, inside the same thread.

Build for Choice, Not Speed

This isn’t just a tech shift. It’s behavioral change.

Buyers now expect the same autonomy they get from AI: personalized, instant, and on their terms. When funnels are rigid, they create friction and hesitation.

The research backs this up. Studies show that uncertainty and lack of control drive down buyer satisfaction and purchase intent (Springer, 2025). On the flip side, even limited choice increases satisfaction and confidence in the outcome (ScienceDirect, 2025).

Buyers don’t just want immediacy. They want flexibility. Funnels that offer choice nurture trust. Funnels that restrict kill it. That’s why experiences that signal options, like letting buyers choose when and how they book, outperform rigid, one-size-fits-all flows.

AI feels intuitive for the same reason. It adapts to the user, while traditional funnels dictate the path. Most funnels remove autonomy, pushing every visitor through the same generic flow. It’s no surprise so many drop off.

You win by becoming the source. That requires original research, clear points of view, and useful assets that others reference.

Automation Isn’t Connection

Many teams try to solve the engagement gap with chatbots. But most bots were built for a click-first world. They gate. They redirect. They trap. That’s not support. It’s containment.

Meanwhile, buyers are already operating in a choice-first world. That mismatch kills trust.

The data shows that when AI removes user choice, satisfaction and autonomy drop sharply (ResearchGate). Even intelligent automation can harm conversion if it undermines user control. Automation without agency destroys trust.

Buyers don’t need another script. They need someone who can help them decide.

Instead of waiting for the click, design for the conversation:

• Place chat links on high-intent surfaces like G2, LinkedIn bios, and pricing pages
• Remove form-first experiences
• Let buyers choose their own path to conversion

You’re not herding buyers down a funnel. You’re meeting them mid-thread.

Replace Traffic with Trust

The click-first model isn’t fixable. Instead, invest in new infrastructure designed for trust, not traffic:

• Attribution models that account for zero-click discovery
• Content built for authority, not just volume
• Messaging that prioritizes continuity over capture

The click isn’t coming back. Let it go. Build for the world your buyers actually live in, where choices happen off-site, in real time, long before they reach your form.

The winners won’t be the ones who redesign their websites for the hundredth time. They’ll be the ones who meet buyers mid-conversation, wherever those conversations begin.

Clicks built the last era of B2B. Conversations will define the next.