The GTM Reset · 2026-04-09 · 60 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
49 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
This episode dismantles the persistent myth that enterprise buyers behave like consumers, arguing that MarTech developers and B2B marketers have built strategies, tools, and organizational structures around a false premise. The host, drawing on 40 years of experience as a CEO and sales leader, maps the actual enterprise buying journey: a six-month cycle starting with a prolonged problem-awareness phase, followed by discovery, intellectual curiosity about the underlying thesis, internal comparison against their own organization, silent shortlisting (where buyers evaluate vendors without contacting them), an internal trigger (board pressure, budget scrutiny, leadership change), and finally first contact. The disconnect stems from MarTech companies selling to CMOs and marketing leaders rather than CEOs and sales teams, enabling marketers to justify spending while sales languish without budget, reverting to cold calling. The episode critiques the ABM summit circuit, MQL obsession, and friction-heavy lead-capture models that demand contact details upfront - mechanisms that actually obstruct rather than enable buying. Enterprise revenue stalls when GTM architecture assumes impulse behavior instead of addressing the real buying sequence. The framework (Module Anchoring, sX Reach, Open Access, sX Live, sX Connect) positions thought leadership and unrestricted access as the mechanisms for converging information, timing, and engagement.
Six months on average, though it can extend longer depending on problem urgency and internal obstacles. The cycle includes a prolonged problem-awareness phase, then discovery (month 1), intellectual curiosity (month 2), internal comparison (month 3), silent shortlisting (month 4), an internal trigger (month 5), and first contact (month 6).
Senior buyers evaluate the thinking and thesis first, not the vendor; they assess credibility and fit internally before risking a premature conversation that could derail their decision-making autonomy or signal neediness to competitors.
Enterprises buy through observation, thesis validation, and internal triggers; MarTech platforms assume impulse behavior and demand early contact capture, driving friction-heavy experiences that don't match how senior decision-makers actually evaluate solutions.
MarTech vendors maintain relationships with CMOs (their customers), not CEOs or salespeople, so marketing can justify budget spend through attribution metrics while sales lack resources and are forced into ineffective cold calling with 300-400:1 contact ratios.
Multiple document downloads, repeated website visits, longer livestream viewing, following on LinkedIn, and - most critically - applying the vendor's thinking or framework to their own company's specific problems.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains a genuinely useful structural framework about B2B buying stages (discovery, curiosity, internal comparison, silent shortlisting, internal trigger, first contact) that challenges common GTM assumptions and provides a useful mental model. However, significant portions are repetitive recapitulation of the same framework, with many claims stated without supporting data, and considerable filler around product positioning that dilutes the core insights.
Enterprise buying is committee-driven and risk-managed. Yet there are a growing number of people who say this is wrong
the CEO has agreed to incur these ongoing costs and gradually over this time marketing has cornered more and more budget. In many cases sales have no budget at all.
The core thesis - that B2B buyers follow a 6-month silent, abstract evaluation process rather than the funnel model - is a useful counterpoint to MQL/ABM orthodoxy and represents a genuine pushback against conventional wisdom. However, the buyer journey phases themselves are fairly standard elements repackaged, and the host doesn't deeply explore the *why* behind this behavior or contrast it rigorously with alternative frameworks.
Consumer behaviour has actually distorted B2B GTM strategies, tactics and architecture.
The GTM problem is architectural, not operational.
This is a solo monologue with no guest interview. While the host claims 40 years of CEO and sales experience, there is no opportunity to probe, challenge, or validate claims through dialogue. The lack of a guest severely limits the episode's capacity to stress-test ideas or provide cross-perspective validation on the core thesis.
I've been doing this for 40 years
I'll run through what I say happens
The episode provides one concrete metric (250 PDF downloads in early discovery) and uses 'typical behaviors' and hypothetical buyer questions, but lacks named company examples, revenue impact data, conversion rate comparisons, or hard metrics about the cost of current GTM approaches. The framework is illustrative but not empirically grounded with published data or case studies.
In a couple of weeks we had over 250 PDF document downloads that shows early discovery behaviour.
They might now watch full livestreams, read the entire document series
As a monologue without a guest, there is no genuine conversation, follow-up questioning, or opportunity for productive disagreement. The host makes sweeping claims ("We have not moved forward in 50 years!", marketing has 'cornered' budget) without anyone to challenge them. The delivery is more lecture/sales pitch than dialogue, which limits its ability to surface nuance or counterarguments.
We have not moved forward in 50 years!
the CEO has agreed to incur these ongoing costs
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
The weekly GTM Operating System broadcast for B2B CEOs. Rethinking how enterprise companies generate revenue. For more than a decade, many B2B go-to-market strategies have quietly adopted thinking from the consumer marketing world. Funnels, lead capture, attribution dashboards and Martech stacks were designed around consumer behaviour. The problem is simple. Enterprise buyers do not behave like consumers. In this session we examine why this assumption is distorting revenue performance across the B2B sector. In this episode we explore: Why consumer marketing logic entered B2B strategy How enterprise buyers actually discover and evaluate vendors Why friction-heavy lead capture often repels senior decision makers What a modern B2B revenue architecture needs to look like This broadcast is part of the ongoing exploration of the salesXchange New Business Operating System for B2B , designed to replace fragmented Martech stacks with a structured revenue architecture. Watch video episode #03 by clicking here . ============================== If this episode resonates, start with the three papers below.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
EPISODE 03 - Script B2B GTM Live #03: B2B Enterprise Buyers Do Not Behave Like Consumers Core Thesis: Consumer behaviour has actually distorted B2B GTM strategies, tactics and architecture. You probably have an idea about marketing too, but I think there are hundreds of thousands of marketers out there. I mean, everyone's a marketer these days:). But they do actually all fall into one of two camps.
They're either B2C or they're B2B I can say as an expert consumer - if I see something // and I like it, I'll buy it or I'll desire it. But / and it's a big but / as a business owner, I absolutely do not have the same feelings about tech, SaaS, or services, or anything that is connected to my business as I do / my consumer.../ desires. Yes - I like the latest technology, but that’s personal.
My business uses a variety of products that make it / and help it function in the direction I want it to go. And so I wouldn't think that a SaaS platform would make my business look attractive or 'cool'. So when it comes to the strategies and tactics of B2B marketers / do you know / where they're pulling their strategies from? Is it from the CONSUMER pool of ideas / or is it the B2B ideas?
Keep that / in the back of your mind for now. Now that's out of the way. Where I want to start, is to ask the question, why is there such a constant disconnect with understanding of how businesses buy? Personally, I think it's because MarTech developers who listen to marketing people in the B2B space, keep saying the same thing over and over / and that is / they believe business owners buy in the same way and for the same reasons as consumers do.
However, with just a small amount of research / you know... the kind that actually asks business owners and directors the question "how / and why do you buy?" You will very quickly find out we've all been getting the woefully wrong. I've been doing this for 40 years and it seems the R&D people are frightened to ask / So much for Product Marketing teams.
I mean, it seems they're constantly trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Or perhaps it’s because / the people who have developed the software or the product marketers don't want to be proven wrong / or is it because they've had it so good for so long why change. By that I mean, they're simply selling the same platforms to both B2Bs and B2Cs. And let's face it, the B2B marketers have done nothing to change it and put this right - they're still holding ABM summits and trying to justify the previous ten years or so.
The disconnect is very clear. The Martech SaaS companies have a relationship with the CMOs and senior marketing people in B2B, they are THEIR customers and are most definitely / their advocates. It's Not the CEO and / and it's not the salespeople. But the way this rolls / the CEO has agreed to incur these ongoing costs / and gradually / over this time / marketing / has cornered more and more budget.
In many cases sales have no budget at all. Yet marketing provides attribution reporting and states they are achieving all their so-called targets. Meanwhile, sales are floundering, targets are not being achieved, the pressure is on and as a result, sales have no option but to revert to telesales and cold calling and a 3-400-1 shot to try and get appointments. [TIMELINE SLIDE] We have not moved forward in 50 years!
We have all been told that Enterprise buying is / committee-driven / and risk-managed. Yet there are a growing number of people who say this is wrong / I'm one of them. Buying is not complicated; it's the people who put all these obstacles in the way of helping people buy, and in my opinion, they do it as a mechanism to attain / attribution - 'cos it ain't helping the buyers! If you been doing this for decades like me, and by that, I mean as a CEO and involved in sales - you'll recognise the CEO buyers' timeline - and it’s about six months.
It starts off with them discovering you. We've still got the business strategy, tactics and ops, look at this graphic. So we all have this 'silent' period here... [SALES STAGE SLIDE] I'll run through what I say happens and what this looks like because anyone and I mean anyone trying to communicate how businesses buy, they either get this or they don't / and if anyone is recommending a new way of working, it better make sense or they haven't got a hope in hell's chance of getting anyone on side.
This is not just about me selling our platform, this is about how your prospects buy from you too. This is how we've defined this: Firstly, there's a prolonged period of time when a business grapples with a certain issue or problem / and sooner or later the solution reveals itself to the business / it takes as long as it takes / if could be a financial issue holding them back or a practical or operational thing holding them back. Nevertheless, they or should I say we arrive at a point where we're acutely aware of the problem and we decide how we're going to deal with it.
MONTH 1 - Discovery [SHOW SLIDE] After this indeterminate period of time, we get to / say MONTH 1 / when we discover a potential vendor. You could say this where we are now. So to keep the party's right, I'll refer to prospects as 'them' and those people out there, we'll call them our prospects :). Our market begins to notice something different appearing in their online feeds / on say LinkedIn.
They see the documents, the LinkedIn assets, the livestream invitations, and the repeated messaging around the new product, or old product and in our case a new business architecture. They don’t act yet. They simply observe . Typical behaviours: opening PDFs, scanning sections, reading executive summaries, visiting the website once or twice.
Our numbers reflect this behaviour perfectly. In a couple of weeks we had over 250 PDF document downloads that shows early discovery behaviour . Not conversion. Not evaluation.
Just recognition. MONTH 2 - Intellectual Curiosity [change slide] This is where a portion of the market becomes more attentive. Some people start thinking: “This is different from the usual [marketing] advice.” They begin consuming more content.
Typical behaviours now include reading multiple PDFs, watching part of a livestream, revisiting the website, checking our LinkedIn profile At this stage buyers are not evaluating us yet. They are evaluating the idea . Do they believe our thesis? [INFLECTION POINT SLIDE] And our thesis is / I think very clear: The GTM problem is architectural, not operational.
And that idea alone is causing different leaders to stop and think / which is great. But what is your thesis, what is you purpose or reason for them letting you in? MONTH 3 - Internal Comparison [change slide] Now things get more interesting. Some people begin comparing what you're saying / with their own organisation.
They ask themselves questions like why is this happening, or why that / and in our case / the questions are: Why is our ARR-per-FTE declining? Why do we keep adding Martech? and why are BDRs/SDRs struggling to generate meetings? We have this The Audit document speaks directly to this stage because it reframes the problem: so we say "Most GTM engines fail due to architectural misalignment rather than execution failure ."
[REVENUE RESET SLIDE] While we're here, we've got these three PDF downloads, The Revenue Reset, The GTM Landscape and the GTM Audit - so now over 250 people have these documents. That's exactly what we want / because the documents explain everything, have all our contact details on them so if someone relates to / or acknowledges a situation they've read / they will eventually get back to us / you because it resonates / and now / they know who and where you are, and how to get hold of you.
When buyers start applying your thinking to their own company, the engagement deepens. Typical signals now include multiple document downloads, repeated website visits, longer livestream viewing time, and possibly following you on LinkedIn. Here's the thing, they are still anonymous. They're still quiet.
But mentally engaged. MONTH 4 - Silent Shortlisting [change slide] I say month 4 / it could be month 10, they could park it, something more urgent came up! This is the most misunderstood stage in B2B buying. / Buyers have already decided the direction of THINKING they agree with.
Now they begin evaluating who represents that thinking. / At this stage they start asking: Is this person or company credible? Do they actually understand the field, and in our case it’s about new business development, GTM transformation, and revenue operating systems? and most importantly, they're thinking "could this approach, or your product, work in their company?
[MARTECH CONFUSION SLIDE] 15,000 Marketing SaaS offerings! If you think about this / They might now watch full livestreams, read the entire document series if you have one, which you probably would by this time. They'll want to explore your product SOME HOW and, in our case, / B2Bs want to explore our new business operating system platform, which is all available on our website / and you'd have the same too in terms of video and product explanations and so on. And they'll review your background.
The most interesting thing here is that THEY STILL DON’T CONTACT YOU . Senior buyers and definitely CEOs avoid premature / vendor conversations. MONTH 5 - The Internal Trigger [change slide] Now something happens inside their company. Typical triggers include board pressure on growth.
A department or again in our case / marketing spend / is under scrutiny / poor pipeline forecasting / declining conversion rates / leadership restructuring When that trigger occurs, your material becomes suddenly relevant . Because the thinking has already been absorbed. At this moment your content moves from being interesting → useful MONTH 6 - First Contact [change slide] This is when the first real conversations appear. Usually through: LinkedIn messages / email replies / possibly introductions / strategy call requests / and then ultimately by them booking a meeting online / and we have sX Connect which structures and schedules the meetings and everything.
But typically the message often looks like this: “We’ve been following your content for a while…”. That sentence, // that sentence, is the hallmark of a thought-leadership driven process / and system . They didn’t discover you yesterday. They’ve been observing you for months.
What I've just said is not out of the ordinary. It certainly does not assume that some 'target company' needs to be sold to / so let’s get our salespeople on it. My experience says the salespeople are not driving the close rate, the buyers are / and always have. We're not selling double glazing or conservatories!
But what is happening here is / success happens / when information + timing + open access engagement all converge. And that's why I say / because of the structural failure of GTM, it has contributed to the way in which all businesses communicate their messages / which has led to this / lead capture obsession / and the MQL illusion and I would also say the imposition of / friction-heavy journeys that start with demanding someone’s contact details / which we, as CEOs won't give out as a matter of course!
Well, I won't and I'm sure you won't either. So [IF] that's the sequence of the events / that we as CEOs or / business owners / or founders agree with / because it's how we've always behaved // it stands to reason that it's going to be the same for any of the prospects we're trying to sell to, not matter where they are in their sales stage. This is where it gets very clear as to what we have to do. Because we have started businesses already, and whilst hindsight is a wonderful thing, we have to work with what we've got.
[BIG SLIDE 10,000] Imagine this is your big, enormous, massive total addressable market (TAM). Then these are the people who might be in the market now. And this is how many you can currently connect with - one at a time through BRDs and SDRs. The music industry analogy - From playing in pubs, to being support, to stadiums Money Shot: If your GTM assumes impulse behaviour, enterprise revenue will stall.
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