Ask HN: The Funnel start of Conversion Rate Optimizing?

First questions is: should every web start-up and SEO company always start by building the funnels first and then try to improve the rings in these funnel and the total visitors before doing anything else. And should therefor my web start-up have a funnel tool as part of the service?

Background: I got a web start-up Reedge.com that I build because I had a problem increasing conversion on my lead generation company I used to have. We now got a beta with nice multivariate testing, a/b testing, user segmentation, behavioral targeting options etc. So in general we got all the features I needed and it eventually turned into a business since... well Omniture at that time I could not afford and is to complex, so I thought others had the same problem.

Now we improved many parts of of our site and many clients. We realize thanks to some articles that we need a funnel to actually start putting all these tests in perspective. A winning test looks like WOW we got 40% more conversion on this landing-page, but what is the impact on the whole site?

So to prove that Reedge is making you money and show how much... I guess we need a funnel inside Reedge.com. Its a simple addition but it changes a lot of the focus. But I feel now everything starts making sense. The funnel is what its all about using Reedge.com. The tests are just tools to get increase in conversion (in the funnel).

But it implies I entering the area of KISSmetrics and Mixpannel

Second question is then: is the market large enough for more funnel en optimizing companies?

Love to hear your thoughts on this?

Dennis