January 10, 2026 | Read online
Why more sales tools aren’t fixing your revenue problem
by Kevin 'KD' Dorsey
Alright y’all — let’s talk about the uncomfortable truth most revenue leaders don’t want to say out loud.
We don’t have a “sales effort” problem. We don’t have a “work ethic” problem. We don’t even have a “talent” problem.
We have a stack problem.
And more specifically… we have a decision problem disguised as a tech stack.
Because right now, most sales orgs look like this:
A CRM nobody trusts.
A dialer everyone complains about.
An SEP with 12 sequences that all sound the same.
Conversation intelligence that flags things no one coaches on.
Dashboards on dashboards on dashboards.
And somehow, despite all that spend, reps are still doing the most expensive work manually.
Still researching accounts one by one.
Still blasting generic messaging.
Still running the same demo, the same way, for the 47th time this month.
Still wondering why conversion rates aren’t moving.
That’s not a tooling issue.
That’s a constraint misdiagnosis.
The Buyer Changed. Most Stacks Didn’t.
Here’s the part that matters most, and where leaders get tripped up.
The modern buyer is not waiting around for your rep to educate them.
They’re researching before you ever get the meeting.
They’re watching videos.
They’re reading reviews.
They’re building shortlists without you.
They want to move on their timeline, not yours. They want data, not fluff. They want clarity, not pressure.
And yet… we keep forcing them into a rep-led process that assumes they want a live demo at step one.
That mismatch?
That’s where deals slow down.
That’s where cycles stretch.
That’s where close rates quietly die.
If your tech stack isn’t built to support how buyers actually buy, all you’re doing is making your reps work harder inside a broken system.
More Tools ≠ Better Results
Let me be very clear here.
I’m not anti-tech. I’m anti-random tech.
Buying tools because they’re “cool,” trendy, or because your competitor has them is how you end up with 47 logins and the same results.
The right question is never:
“What tool should we buy next?”
The right question is always:
“What constraint is killing us right now?”
Because constraints compound.
Bad data doesn’t just hurt connect rates — it wastes rep energy.
Slow demos don’t just delay deals — they kill momentum.
Manual workflows don’t just eat time — they steal focus from selling.
Constraint first.
Tool second.
Always.
The Categories That Actually Move the Needle
These aren’t theoretical. These are the areas I’m actively focused on with teams because they directly impact revenue efficiency.
1. Data & Enrichment (The Foundation)
Bad data = wasted activity. Period.
If reps are calling wrong numbers and emailing dead inboxes, no amount of “more dials” fixes that.
This is table stakes.
Clean inputs = cleaner outputs.
If your data is trash, your forecasts are fiction.
2. Workflows & Automation (Protecting Rep Time)
Every minute a rep spends babysitting follow-ups, researching basic triggers, or manually managing sequences is a minute not spent selling.
The goal isn’t automation for automation’s sake.
The goal is removing low-leverage human work.
Humans should sell.
Systems should handle the rest.
3. Account Discovery (Speed to Signal)
We used to spend hours answering questions like:
“Who should we even be talking to right now?”
Now that should take seconds.
The faster you can identify why now accounts, the faster pipeline becomes real.
Speed matters more than volume.
4. Content Creation (Leverage at Scale)
Your reps and leaders should be building trust before the first meeting.
But most don’t because content feels like “extra work.”
The reality?
The right systems turn content into leverage, not overhead.
And Then There’s the One Category Most Orgs Get Wrong
This is the hill I’ll die on.
Demo automation is the most underutilized growth lever in SaaS.
And it’s wild when you think about it.
Your AEs are running the same demo over and over again.
Most of those demos are qualification calls in disguise.
And buyers are being forced into live meetings before they’re ready.
That’s backwards.
This is why Consensus stands out.
Not because it’s flashy.
Not because it’s “nice to have.”
But because it fundamentally changes how buyers experience your product.
With Consensus, prospects can:
- Experience the product on their own time
- See demos tailored to their role and use case
- Share internally without playing phone tag with sales
- Self-qualify before ever getting on a call
That changes everything.
AEs stop wasting cycles on unqualified demos.
Buyers show up more informed.
Sales cycles shrink.
Conversion rates go up.
This isn’t theory, it’s how you scale best practices without scaling headcount.
You’re not replacing sellers.
You’re amplifying them.
And in a world where buyers want control, Consensus meets them exactly where they are.
If you’re serious about shortening cycles and improving demo-to-close, this is where I’d start:
The Bigger Lesson Most Leaders Miss
Tools don’t fix problems.
Clarity fixes problems.
If connect rate is killing you, fix the data.
If cycle time is too long, fix the demo experience.
If reps are drowning in admin, fix the workflows.
Stop asking your reps to push harder inside broken systems.
The orgs that win in 2026 won’t be the ones with the most tools.
They’ll be the ones who:
- Identify constraints faster
- Use AI to make better decisions
- Design processes around how buyers actually buy
Most teams still buy the tool first and hunt for a problem later.
That’s how you end up bloated, tired, and flat.
Be intentional with your stack, y’all.
Your reps - and your buyers - will thank you.
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