Your Sales Process Is a Relic:Why Modern Buyers Hate Your Funnel

Hey ,

This week, we ran a 30-person executive AI + GTM session in Utah. No panels or big production, just a room of operators comparing notes.

The thread that ran through every conversation was friction, where it shows up in buyer journeys. How AI magnifies it. And why most teams still design for their own process instead of the way decisions actually get made.

The consensus was clear:

AI is a massive accelerator, it sharpens what’s already working and exposes what’s not. Without a clear charter and end game, teams are just experimenting. And the old GTM problems? They haven’t disappeared. They just move faster now because the constraints are gone.

As I was flying home, I watched a first meeting recording from a team convinced their process was tight. The buyer completed 17 fields across two forms, waited for routing, then sat through a discovery that repeated the intake.

Guess what?

The rep was prepared, and the buyer was patient, yet engagement faded before the halfway point. The friction was not loud, but it was constant.

The hard truth is… the sequence served internal control, not how buyers evaluate now.

This week, we are unpacking why legacy funnels push serious buyers away and what progressive teams are doing instead.

Estimated reading time is 3.8 minutes. Hit reply and share what you are seeing on your side.

On Deck:

• Why legacy funnels repel modern buyers

• Marketing Tip of the Week - Powered by Decoded Strategies

• Episode #111: Why AI Is NOT a Go-To-Market Strategy (And What To Do Instead)| Adam & Dale

Why Legacy Funnels Repel Modern Buyers

Most buyers do not want a tour. They want proof that speaks to their situation, delivered on their timeline, with as little friction as possible. The old steps were built for internal control, not buyer momentum. When teams defend that sequence, intent decays fast and quietly.

We see the same patterns again and again:

Gate stacking
Multiple forms, calendar walls, and qualification hoops create massive delay before value appears. The average time from the first visit to the first useful asset in our audits is 19.6 hours. Every extra gate increases drop off and sends serious evaluators to a competitor that shows value sooner.

Redundant discovery
Buyers answer intake questions, then answer them again on the first call. The conversation feels like the Spanish Inquisition instead of progress. Momentum fades when the second meeting opens with the same three questions that the Discovery already covered.

Demo by script, not by job
Feature tours dominate, while the buyer’s job to be done gets ten minutes at the end. When the sequence is product first and problem second, the next steps become vague, and internal alignment stalls.

Late-stage surprises
Security, data handling, and implementation surface after a verbal yes. The stall looks like budget. It’s not. It’s a risk that could have been addressed with a short packet and a single technical contact on day one.

What Progressive Teams Are Doing Instead

Modern teams design around how buyers actually evaluate. They remove delays, give context before the meeting, and make it easy to work together. The process still protects quality and forecast accuracy, but it does so by aligning to buyer motion.

Here is what that looks like in practice:

1. Two clear paths from the homepage
A fast track for in-market evaluators and a library path for early research. The fast track leads to a scheduler with four focused options and a promised agenda. The library path offers ungated walkthroughs that map to common jobs, each under 5 minutes.

2. Discovery that starts with context
Use intake answers to open with a short recap and a draft success plan. Confirm what you heard, then go deeper. Record the call and share the recap with roles and dates the same day. You are not repeating; you are advancing.

3. Micro demos mapped to outcomes
Replace twenty-minute tours with two or three tight clips that show the exact workflow the buyer asked about. Each clip is under 3-4 minutes and ends with an agreement about how the buyer will validate it with their team.

4. Mutual action plans from the first serious call
Co-create a simple plan with steps, owners, and dates. Keep it in a shared space. Treat it as the single source of truth. When dates slip, you can talk about real constraints instead of feelings.

5. Pricing that sets expectations
If you cannot be fully public, publish ranges with the variables that move the price. Add one example configuration tied to a real outcome. Hidden pricing breeds delay. Clarity moves deals forward.

The Results When You Remove Friction

When teams run the plays above…buyer momentum shows up in the numbers. Not guesses, not anecdotes. Measured lift you can inspect and coach. Here is what we see within two cycles across like segments.

• Time to first value falls from 19.6 hours to 6.8 hours, and first meeting show rates rise by 12.9%.
  

• Forecast accuracy two weeks out improves from 61.2% to 83.7% with the same team and the same toolset.
  

• On a $2.67M weighted pipeline, a 9.7% win rate lift typically converts into about $258,400 in additional closed revenue within two cycles.

Your 30 Day Plan To Modernize The Funnel

You do not need a full rebuild. You need to remove the friction you can measure and give buyers tools that make internal alignment easier.

• Week 1: Inspect reality
  Pull five recent wins and five losses. Measure time to first value, time between first meeting and second, and time spent in the stage where most stalls occur. Write what changed in the two deals that moved fastest.
  

• Week 2: Remove early friction
  Cut one gate and one form field. Offer one ungated outcome-based walkthrough. Add a scheduler path with four agenda options that map to common jobs. Track show rates and time to second meeting.
  

• Week 3: Redesign the middle
  Publish entry and exit criteria for the two stages with the most time in stage. Replace the demo script with three micro demos tied to outcomes. Introduce a one-page security and data brief on every serious call.
  

• Week 4: Make it coachable
  Add four inspection questions managers use on every review. Certify managers to coach discovery and the new demo flow. Share a weekly green, yellow, red note on the two metrics you picked in Week 1 so everyone can see progress.

The Bottom Line

Buyers are not rejecting your value. They are rejecting the steps that delay proof. Design around their steps, show measured outcomes early, and track time to next step.

Define entry and exit criteria, use outcome clips, publish a short security brief, and keep a mutual action plan in one place. Coach managers to inspect buyer actions and reduce variance weekly.

Shoutout to Sendoso for Keeping This Newsletter Free!

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Check Them Out.

Marketing Tip of the Week - Powered by Decoded Strategies

That strip at the top of your website? It’s prime real estate. And yet, most companies waste it with vague taglines or clever puns that don’t say anything. 

You’ve got 3 seconds max to tell your audience what you do and why it matters.

Turn it into action: Rewrite your homepage header to answer these 3 questions:

1) What do you do?
2) How does it help your customer?
3) What’s the next step (CTA)?

Clear beats clever every time.

Episode #111:Why AI Is NOT a Go-To-Market Strategy (And What To Do Instead)| Adam & Dale

Everyone is talking about AI in go-to-market, but most of it is noise. In this raw and unfiltered episode of Bridge the Gap, Adam Jay and Dale Zwizinski cut through the hype to break down:

 • The real AI use cases that move revenue (and the ones that are pure vaporware)

 • Why AI is not a strategy; but must be part of your GTM strategy

 • The biggest mistakes CROs, founders, and RevOps leaders make when adopting AI

 • How to evaluate which tools are worth investing in and which will sink your pipeline

 • Why “AI SDRs” could destroy your brand before they help it

If you’re a founder, CRO, RevOps leader, or seller trying to figure out how to integrate AI without automating yourself into irrelevance, this episode is for you.

Agree? Disagree? Have Questions?

Want help fixing funnel friction that slows real buyers? Reply and we’ll work it with you.

Talk soon,

Adam, Dale, & Jake
Helping companies bridge the GTM Gap™.