The GTM Reset: Why Intelligence, Not Automation, Is the Way Out

Published 2 months ago • 3 min read

July 19, 2025 | Read online

The GTM Reset: Why Intelligence Is The Way Out

by Kevin 'KD' Dorsey

Let’s start with a simple truth:

We built the sales machine too well.

Over the last decade, go-to-market (GTM) became an assembly line. Predictable. Repeatable. Scalable. And in many ways, completely disconnected from how buyers actually buy.

Every team had a cadence. Every rep had a script. Every leader had a dashboard.

And it worked. Until it didn’t.

Now that same machine is breaking deals instead of making them. Buyers are tuning out. Reps are burning out. Revenue teams are running the same plays, faster, with AI, but not actually getting better results.

According to ZoomInfo’s GTM Intelligence Report 2025, most companies are seeing less than 5% ROI on AI investments, and data quality issues are costing 15–25% of revenue. It’s not a tech problem. It’s a thinking problem.

We Over-Automated. And Now We’re Overwhelmed.

Sales leaders got what they wanted: visibility, process, scale. But we lost what we needed: agility.

We turned humans into systems. We optimized for efficiency over impact. And now, GTM is flooded with:

23+ vendors in every stack. Disconnected signals and stale CRM data. Quotas with no mathematical path to attainment. Reps with low productivity but high activity.

So here’s the question: What do high-performing teams do differently?

They ditch the playbook. They lead with intelligence. And they operate in real time.

Let me break it down.

Intelligence Over Activity

Here’s the core shift: Top-performing sales orgs don’t scale brute force. They scale smart force.

ZoomInfo’s report highlights that companies are investing millions into AI, but it’s mostly being used to do the wrong things faster: more sequences, more follow-ups, more noise.

The fix isn’t more automation. It’s better signals.

Great leaders are asking: What behaviors are behind the metrics? Where is the deal actually breaking down? Are we diagnosing or just reacting?

That’s where the BIPSY framework comes in - Behavior, Individual, Process, Skill, and You (the leader). Behind every weak metric is a broken behavior. Behind every missed number is a missed diagnosis.

“Revenue is low” isn’t a diagnosis. That’s the symptom. What’s causing it?

When you treat pipeline like a factory, you focus on output. When you treat it like a system, you start inspecting the inputs.

Quotas Shouldn’t Be Vibes-Based

Let’s talk math.

Too many leaders are setting quotas based on last year’s number +20%. Hope is not a strategy.

Here’s a simple formula from our trainings:

Quota = ACV x Close Rate x Opps Needed

Opps Needed = Quota / ACV / Close Rate

If you need 20 closed deals to hit quota, and your team’s close rate is 20%, that means you need 100 opps per rep. If you don’t have the pipeline or capacity to support that? The quota isn’t aggressive. It’s fantasy.

Great leaders stress test their numbers.

They ask: Can reps mathematically hit this number? Is it based on controllable inputs? Are we building quotas from the bottom-up, or just pushing top-down?

Pipeline over everything. Because if the math doesn’t work, neither will your team.

Real-Time GTM Is the Future

The best teams today don’t follow funnels. They improvise.

ZoomInfo’s report calls out that “real-time systems” are outperforming static GTM playbooks.

These teams are:

Responding to buyer signals as they happen
Prioritizing context over process
Using tools to improvise, not just execute

It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing what matters.

And that starts with visibility across the right metrics, not just more dashboards. It means reps owning their numbers. It means leaders shifting from micromanagement to micro-awareness.