Scott Leese told me something shocking: “Outbound sales, as we know it, is dead.”
As a sales consultant, he believes he only has 3-4 years left in the game.
Here’s why, and what the future looks like.
Table of Contents
Three Major Shifts
Plummeting Response Rates
I often hear people say, “You’re an idiot for claiming the Predictable Revenue model is dead – it never should have worked for your $25k ACV anyway.”
But here’s the reality:
Response rates have dropped 50% in just the last 18 months. Let’s do the math.
That pushes the minimum deal size to $50k. In another 18 months? Another 50% drop, pushing it to $100k. And 18 months after that? We’re looking at a $200k floor for outbound sales to make sense.
Think about it – how many sales reps today are selling products over $200k? Almost none.
Traditional Channels Are Dying
Scott and I never use our phones anymore – they’re permanently on silent.
We only read emails from people we know. But here’s the real kicker: Scott’s teenagers (14 and 16) don’t even use email or text.
They communicate exclusively through Snapchat and Instagram DMs. What we’re seeing now isn’t just cracks in the foundation – we’re heading for a complete collapse.
Buyers Are Avoiding Salespeople
Scott recently bought a $1.1m investment property in Chicago without talking to a single person.
Amazon is dominating because people can get anything they want with a few button clicks from their couch. The old guard on LinkedIn (and I’m 43) insists people want human interaction. I think they’re wrong.
Future of B2B Sales
The shift isn’t a question of if – it’s when.
Here’s what’s coming:
- Sales teams will function more like editorial teams
- They’ll focus on creating authentic content that meets buyers on their preferred platforms
- Teams will be smaller but have much broader reach
- They’ll scale human-to-human connection through content
New Sales Model
One “builder” will run the machine that:
- Listens to signals from the content engine
- Nudges prospects through the funnel
- Captures them when they’re ready to buy
Sales cycles will shrink dramatically because awareness, education, and nurturing will be almost completely automated.
New Sales Environment
These teams will be:
- Lean and hyper-efficient
- Fun to work for
- Staffed by “artist” reps who create content
- Focused on talking to ready-to-buy prospects only
Survival
Tomorrow’s sales leaders need one of two skills:
- Building organic social media audiences
- Engineering scalable signal-based selling machines
If you can’t do either, you’re out of the game.
Conclusion
The transformation of B2B sales isn’t coming – it’s already here.
The traditional outbound model is falling apart faster than most people realize, and the future belongs to those who can adapt to this new content-driven, signal-based approach.