If you’re in sales, you’ve felt it. The days of hitting “send” on 1,200 emails and calling it a day are gone. Prospects aren’t just ignoring us—they’re shutting us out completely. This isn’t a phase. It’s not a bad quarter or a dip in performance. This is The Great Ignore, and it’s here to stay.
I’m Amy Kohl, founder and CEO of AK Operations. I’ve seen this shift coming for years. I lived it. I watched inboxes tighten up, deliverability plummet, and buyers take full control of the buying process. We did this to ourselves. But here’s the good news: It’s not all bad. If anything, it’s a much-needed wake-up call.
How Did We Get Here?
For years, we ran sales on volume. More calls. More emails. More sequences. Leaders called it “activity.” I call it lazy. We built pipeline strategies on spreadsheets that crunched numbers, not relationships. “If one SDR sends 1,000 emails, 2% respond, we hit goal.” Sound familiar?
Here’s the problem — that 2% is now 0.2%. Why? Because buyers are fed up. Spam filters, ad blockers, and Apple’s privacy updates shut us out. But honestly, it wasn’t just the tech. People are tired of being treated like data points. Buyers want to control their buying journey. They don’t want to be interrupted.
And I get it. As a buyer myself, I’m over the “Just checking in” emails and the “Would an extra 20 meetings a month help?” pitches. No, it wouldn’t. What I need is for someone to care about my problem before they pitch me a solution. Buyers feel the same way.
The “Easy Button” Got Us Here
Automation promised us efficiency. We bought tools that could send 1,000 emails with one click. But instead of using that power responsibly, we abused it. I’ve seen it firsthand. People blowing through domains and burner senders after getting blocked or flagged. Now, we’re flooding LinkedIn with the same templated messages. Telling SDRs to “just hit send” because “it’s a numbers game.”
It worked for a while — until it didn’t. Open rates tanked. Spam filters got smarter. Deliverability scores cratered. And suddenly, the same tactics we used to brag about in quarterly reviews became the reason deals were drying up.
It’s ironic, really. The very automation we thought would save us is what burned us.
What Changed?
Buyers changed. The entire sales process flipped. People don’t wait for us to “educate” them anymore. They do their own research. They read reviews. They join Slack groups. They come to the table already 70% through their buying journey.
This shift put the power in the buyer’s hands. And when they’re ready to talk, they want thoughtful, relevant conversations—not volume-based noise.
At AK Ops, we made a choice. We stopped blasting out 10,000 emails a month and started caring about the people we were reaching out to. That shift alone changed everything. I’m not saying it was easy. It wasn’t. But the results speak for themselves:
- Old Way: 10,000 monthly cold emails → .2% monthly response rate = 20 sales exchanges → 50% are positive and move forward. At a depletion rate of 5% every 90 days, we're losing 500 marketable contacts per quarter.
- New Way: 10,000 nurtured prospects first (over months, not days) → 1,000 monthly consultative led emails → 2% monthly response rate = 20 sales exchanges → 75% are positive and move forward. At a depletion rate of 5% every 90 days, we're now only losing 50 marketable contacts per quarter.
Volume went down. Conversations went up. Do the math. And, don’t even get me started on the qualified conversion improvement.
The biggest change — time. You cannot nurture overnight. I had to find clients with runway who understood and respected the nurture phase of GTM.
Why We Deserve This Reset?
Look, I’ll be honest. We deserve The Great Ignore. We spent years treating sales like a math problem instead of a people problem. We reduced relationships to “activities” and success to “conversion percentages.”
I’ve sat in board meetings where leaders built sales goals by calculating how many “sends” we’d need. It was always about how many people we could hit, not how many people we could help. We thought that was the smart approach, but it wasn’t. It was lazy.
The Great Ignore is the reset button we needed. It’s forcing us to slow down and think. It’s bringing care and creativity back to sales.
What’s Next?
So, what do we do now? How do we survive in this new world? It’s simple.
We start caring again. We start learning about our customers again. We slow down. Those who can build relationships AND operate technology will be 2025 top earners.
We pay attention. We get back to thoughtful prospecting. Instead of asking, “How many emails can I send today?”, ask, “How many meaningful conversations can I start this week? Who in my network knows people in roles that likely struggle with this?” That’s the person you start with – and watch it multiply.
Here’s how we’re doing it at AK Operations:
- Intentional Targeting: Instead of starting with “who can we hit?” we ask “who can we help?” We identify companies with real problems we can solve, not just accounts that match a generic profile.
- Meaningful Messaging: Our outreach isn’t “Hey, saw you posted on LinkedIn, want to chat?” It’s “I see you’re dealing with X. Here’s a free resource to help with that.” We offer value first — no strings attached. Happy to help, just to help.
- Longer Nurtures, Bigger Returns: We nurture our prospects before we sell to them. That might mean sending useful content and consistent “activation” of the marketable database – this will go on always and forever without asking for a meeting. Then once a threshold or conversion occurs, we ask for time together. And they are ready to say yes.
This isn’t about going back to trade shows or hiring 50 new SDRs to “flood the funnel.”
It’s about hiring people who care about people, can collaborate with marketing ops and trust they will only nurture until it’s time to engage again.
It’s about leaders at the board level realizing that fewer sends, smarter targeting, and more thoughtful outreach will always win.
The Final Word
If you’re still telling your team to “just send more,” stop. It’s not 2012. Buyers are smarter. Filters are stronger. And The Great Ignore is the result of our own bad habits.
But here’s the opportunity: If you lean into care, creativity, and thoughtful connection, you’ll stand out.
Buyers aren’t ignoring everyone. They’re ignoring people who treat them like a number.
Don’t be that person. Don’t be that leader. Don’t be that board member. Be better in 2025.
I’ll leave you with this — The Great Ignore isn’t just a chapter, it’s an ending that requires a reset. And I, for one, am grateful for it.
- Amy