July 4, 2026 | Read online
You're Optimizing for Selling
by Kevin 'KD' Dorsey
I think one of the biggest mistakes revenue teams are making right now is that we're still designing our sales process around what helps us sell.
Not around how people actually buy.
Those sound similar.
They're not.
For years, sales was built around live interactions. We controlled the demo. We controlled the agenda. We controlled when information was shared and how buyers experienced it. If they wanted to learn more, they scheduled another meeting. If they wanted to see the product again, they asked for another demo.
The seller was the gatekeeper.
Today?
The buyer has the keys.
Buying Changed. Most Sales Teams Didn't.
Think about your own behavior the last time you bought software.
Did you wake up hoping someone would cold call you?
Probably not.
Did you think, "I really hope I have to sit through three discovery calls before I can see how this thing actually works?"
Definitely not.
You researched.
You watched videos.
You compared options.
You read reviews.
You asked people in your network.
You tried to answer as many questions as possible before you ever wanted to talk to a salesperson.
Your buyers are doing exactly the same thing.
Yet most sales organizations still measure success by how quickly they can get someone onto a calendar.
That's solving for the wrong problem.
The Best Sales Experience Is Sometimes Less Sales
This is the part that makes people uncomfortable.
The best sales experience isn't always the one with the most conversations.
Sometimes it's the one with the fewest.
Because buyers don't wake up wanting another meeting.
They wake up wanting clarity.
They want to understand:
- Will this solve my problem?
- Will my team actually use it?
- Can I explain this to my boss?
- Is this worth the investment?
- What happens if we do nothing?
Notice something?
None of those questions require a salesperson to answer them live.
They require confidence.
That's a massive difference.
Most Deals Don't Die On The Demo
One of the biggest myths in B2B sales is that deals are won or lost during the presentation.
They're not.
They're won in the conversations you're never invited to.
The Slack message between two stakeholders.
The budget meeting.
The hallway conversation after the executive staff meeting.
The champion trying to explain your product to someone who wasn't on the demo.
Those are the moments that determine whether deals move forward.
And here's the uncomfortable truth:
Your champion usually isn't as prepared as you think.
They leave your call excited.
Then someone asks,
"So...why this vendor?"
Suddenly they're trying to recreate a one-hour demo from memory.
That's a hard job.
Stop Enabling Sellers.
Start Enabling Buyers.
This is where I think a lot of companies have the wrong focus.
We spend millions on sales enablement.
Playbooks. Battle cards. Objection handling. Coaching. AI.
All important.
But who's enabling the buyer?
Who's helping your champion build internal consensus?
Who's giving them something they can confidently share with finance, IT, operations, or procurement?
Who's making it easier for them to sell your solution when you're not in the room?
Because that's the job now.
Sales doesn't stop when the Zoom call ends.
That's when buying actually starts.
The Teams That Win Build Momentum Without Being Present
One of the trends I'm paying the closest attention to is asynchronous selling.
Not because it's replacing great salespeople.
Because it's extending them.
The best sellers today understand that every live conversation should create momentum that continues after the meeting ends.
The buyer shouldn't leave with a PDF they'll never open.
They should leave with something they can actually use.
Something interactive.
Something personalized.
Something they can share internally without needing to translate your message for you.
That's exactly why platforms like Consensus are becoming so interesting.
Instead of treating the demo as a one-time event, they let buyers continue exploring the product at their own pace, revisit the features that matter most, and share tailored experiences with the rest of the buying committee.
More importantly, sellers can see what buyers actually engage with after the meeting. Which features they revisit. Which stakeholders watched. Where interest increased. That's valuable context that makes every follow-up conversation more relevant.
The goal isn't fewer conversations.
The goal is making every conversation count because the buyer is already informed.
The Question Every Sales Leader Should Ask
If your top opportunities disappeared into internal meetings tomorrow...
Would your deal continue moving?
Or would everything stop until your next scheduled call?
That's a question worth thinking about.
Because buying has become increasingly asynchronous.
Stakeholders consume information on their own schedules.
Committees meet without you.
Executives weigh in after hours.
Your buyers are working when you're offline.
The teams that win aren't trying to control that process.
They're designing for it.
This Week's Challenge
Take one of your current opportunities and ask yourself:
If my champion had to explain our solution to their CFO tomorrow...
Would they have everything they need?
Could they confidently answer questions?
Could they demonstrate value?
Could they show the product?
Could they build internal alignment without me?
If the answer is "not really"...
That's probably the biggest bottleneck in your sales process.
Not your outreach.
Not your objection handling.
Not your pricing.
Your buyer doesn't need another follow-up email.
They need the confidence to buy without you sitting next to them.
Because the future of sales isn't convincing buyers.
It's enabling them.
And the companies that understand that shift are going to have a massive advantage over the next decade.
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