The access to information provided by the web steepens the sales funnel is your organization prepared for the accelerated sales cycle?While reading a book about web marketing, it occurred to me that the exponential growth of social media has a direct impact on the sales funnel and sales cycle of nearly every business.How? Consumers (B2B, B2C, C2C) are now able to ask the web community how they should attack a problem.  If I want to know how to sell more widgets to a certain target market, there is likely to be a blog, article or group discussing that same challenge.  As a marketer, it is now important to be part of that discussion so prospects will see you and your organization.Who? Buyers will also be scouring the web to determine who can best assist them with fullfast review their task.  They will explore LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs and forums.  As they engage in the discussion, will your company be present?  Who will be talking about your company?  Hopefully an advocate, or better yet you!Where? Where will these people be?  That depends on your target market.  As a general rule, every business selling B2B solutions should be present on LinkedIn and Twitter, and publish a blog and articles targeting their prospect audience.  B2C marketers must also build a significant following on Facebook.  These are just of few of the hundreds of social media venues.The ability for a consumer to learn how and who can solve a problem means that business must be present on the web and prepared to move buyers through the sales funnel at internet speed.