“Strategy isn’t broken because of AI. It’s broken because sales is still forced to reach upstream—and chase buyers who aren’t ready. I am so sad how misaligned we still are.”
— Amy Kohl, CEO of AK Operations
Let’s talk about the misalignment no one in GTM leadership wants to own: Marketing isn’t aligned with their role in the buyer’s journey or meeting them where they are. So sales is forced to chase them.
Here’s what that looks like on the ground:
- Reps are pushed to prospect prematurely.
- Buyers get bombarded before they’re ready.
- Pipeline suffers— we’ve bloated it with low-commit, not sales-ready conversations.
And all the while, we keep spinning “strategy” as more automation, more sequences, more fake personalization.
Let’s call it what it is: broken. And we broke it.
Sales Is Not the Problem – Premature Prospecting Is
The buyer’s journey is no longer a funnel. It’s a squiggling loop, a network, a nonlinear exploration of trust, relevance, and timing.
But when marketing stops nurturing, sales is forced to pick up the slack.
When industry education and executive influence is neglected, sales has to become the voice of the company. To most of my sales leader friends, this is a scary thing – and no knock to the reps themselves.
When no air cover exists? Sales has to start cold.
And you know what that creates?
A GTM model where SDRs are held accountable for creating urgency that doesn’t exist.
“We built sales targets on how many people we had to hit send. And then wondered why conversions fell apart. We didn’t realize how broken it was—but now we do. Who are we to decide we have the right to speed up the natural buying cycles of these sophisticated buyers?”
This isn’t a volume problem. It’s a vision problem. And no tool, template, or AI plug-in will fix that until we address the core issue: we stopped caring where the buyer actually is.
We have to Actually Respect the Buyer’s Journey
We label this “the buyer’s journey” – because they represent how people naturally process decisions.
When you try to shortcut or skip these stages, you create friction and distrust. And friction slows down everything.
People flow when they operate inside familiar processes. When you disrupt that flow, you create resistance, not readiness.
Here’s the Buyer’s Journey Mark Kosoglow used in his recent post about this—with real math behind it:
That means 93–97% of your total market IS NOT ready to hear a pitch. And yet, most GTM motions are designed as if every buyer is in the 1–3% stage.
“If you’re the one trying to disrupt a journey that’s already in motion for them in every other part of their life—you’re paddling upstream.”
Your job as a sales professional isn’t to create urgency. Your job is to meet the buyer where they are—and help them decide if and how they should move forward.
If you reject that as your role, you’re not just working against the buyer…you’re working against yourself.
Desperation Dressed Up As MarTech
The word “strategy” is getting abused right now.
We throw it around to justify buying intent signals that everyone else is also buying. To validate another domain purchase because the last one got burned. To defend email spam disguised as nurture.
That’s not a strategy. That’s desperation dressed up in MarTech.
“You can’t fake caring. Buyers know when someone shows up in their natural path rather than someone who inserts themselves abruptly. It’s disingenuous. And they’re done giving their time to anyone who isn’t actually going to care about them.”
We’ve taken one of the most human parts of go-to-market—timing—and ignored it completely.
That’s why inboxes are getting tighter.
That’s why the old open rates are gone.
That’s why even your best reps are burning out.
Because we keep feeding a system that’s misaligned from the start.
You Can’t Sell to People Who Aren’t Ready
And yet, we keep trying.
We chase calendar slots instead of conversations.
We beg for 15 minutes instead of building 15 days of value.
We measure success in meetings booked instead of trust earned (or committed pipeline).
“Buyers don’t buy until they’re ready. And pushing for early meetings isn’t helping anyone–not your rep, not your buyer, not your company.”
Here’s what actually works:
- Waiting.
Nurture until signals are organic, not manufactured.
- Creating.
Produce resources that build problem awareness before you ever ask for a meeting.
- Owning.
Stop outsourcing “intent” into your databases. Own the engagement signals that you’ve created.
- Serving.
Show up with insights that help—even if you never close the deal.
That’s not fluff. It’s the new math.
I used to prospect 1,200 people a month from a single inbox. That got me 3 meetings and 1 opportunity. Win rates were about 25% all last year.
Now, we nurture everyone in smarter, customized tracks with stronger collaboration with marketing plays. Then prospect ~100 people from that same inbox with the same number of meetings. The kick? They’re nearly all qualifying (75%-85%) and winning at 40% or higher.
Better deals. Better customers. Less burn on our prospects. Less burn on our team.
Measurable change from simply respecting the buyer’s journey.
The Only Strategy That Works Now? Alignment + Care
If your GTM playbook still requires buying more intent data, adding more inboxes and push for earlier discovery calls.
You’re in survival mode.
And here’s the kicker—it’s not working.
“This isn’t a chapter. It’s a reset. The Great Ignore broke everything. But it also gave us permission to start over—and actually do it right.”
The companies that thrive in 2025 won’t be the ones that move faster. They’ll be the ones who move with intention.
The ones who finally let marketing and sales operate together, not as siloed, reactive functions.
So when will we start caring again?
Because until we do, sales will keep reaching into a funnel they were never meant to own.
Marketing will keep pumping leads that don’t convert.
And leadership will keep wondering why the math doesn’t work.
You can’t cheat readiness.
You can’t AI your way into trust.
You can’t force your way into pipeline that’s misaligned from the start.
It’s time to stop pretending this system works—and start building one that actually respects the buyer, their timing, and the journey they’re already on.