New Thinking for a New Year

It's that time of year again. You know, when we get reflective. Think about what we achieved (and didn't) in the previous year. You'll see people shouting from the roof tops on what a great year they had, and how they're mapping out their recipe for success in 2026.

To avoid all that ('cos who cares - right?) here's what we're thinking (maybe also "who cares!") about B2B selling in these changing times of AI's threat and promise. Why does this matter? Well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn't but if you/as you contemplate the impact of AI in selling and maybe consider using some of the ideas and tools that are out there, the least you should do is go under the surface. See what these tools are based on (if anything.) See if there's a hint of new or original thinking that under pins these tools. Here's ours!

Modern B2B Sales Is Built on a Fiction - (And Shadow Exists Because We’ve All Been Playing Along)

Modern B2B sales rests on a comforting lie: that buying is rational, linear, and controllable if we just apply the right framework hard enough. Identify needs. Quantify value. Overcome objections. Close.

We repeat this like an incantation—while simultaneously admitting that humans make decisions emotionally, irrationally, and defensively. Somehow, both ideas are allowed to coexist without anyone calling time. It’s a bit like acknowledging gravity exists, then continuing to design airplanes as if it doesn’t.

Shadow exists because this contradiction finally became impossible to ignore.

TLDR? Go to the web page, move down a bit and watch the video!

Where this thinking came from (and why it no longer works)

Traditional sales thinking was forged in a very specific historical moment: when sellers controlled information and buyers depended on them for access to it. Complexity could be simplified into stages, checklists, and CRM math. Progress could be measured by movement. Authority belonged to the seller.

There was an implicit barter system at play. Sellers were able to say: “Prove you’re serious, and I’ll share information. Stop looking serious, and I’ll withdraw my effort.”

That world is gone.

Today, buyers have unlimited information and almost no clarity. They don’t lack data—they drown in it. They research obsessively, delay endlessly, and default to doing nothing. Not because they’re unconvinced, but because deciding feels personally risky, politically dangerous, and professionally irreversible.

Meanwhile, sellers cling harder than ever to systems that promise certainty and control—precisely because outcomes feel less controllable than they used to.

“No Decision” didn’t suddenly appear as a competitor. It was quietly promoted to the top of the leaderboard while everyone was busy optimizing dashboards.

* The best, most recent example of sales thinking that’s out of date and misapplied is the Sales Methodology called MEDDIC. MEDDIC is really a “deal inspection” and qualification model. Just like RevOps thinking it was built by and for the largest companies and only works for them. Just because Salesforce use it, doesn’t mean it will work for you, in fact that’s a good reason NOT to use it!

The baggage we’re still carrying (and pretending isn’t there)

Modern sales carry a lot of unchallenged assumptions that should have expired years ago:

• That buyers are logical actors who just need better information

• That confidence comes from certainty, not from managing uncertainty (there is a difference)

• That objections are problems to defeat rather than risks to acknowledge

• That progress is the same as movement through (arbitrary) stages

• That more activity, data, and tooling can compensate for human hesitation

We also quietly deny a few truths that make everyone uncomfortable:

• Buyers often don’t know what they want—but feel they’re not allowed to admit it, and showing any hesitation or lack of supreme confidence has become fatal in the corporate world

• Decisions often decay under scrutiny rather than improve

• “Consensus” is frequently avoidance dressed up as alignment

• Leadership has been replaced by “risk mitigation,” and doing nothing is often treated as the best form of risk mitigation.

We say we understand these things. Our behavior suggests otherwise.

What’s actually changed—and what hasn’t

What’s changed is obvious:

• Buyers don’t need sellers for information

• Decisions involve more people (spread the risk), more exposure (everything’s visible), and more perceived personal downside (ego challenging)

• Risk is more visible, reputational, and asymmetric

What hasn’t changed—but is constantly misunderstood:

• People still decide emotionally and heuristically, not analytically

• Loss and regret loom far larger than upside (roughly 7x, if you believe Daniel Kahneman—and you should)

• Trust is built through safety, credibility, and intent—not persuasion

• Insight comes from pattern recognition, not individual brilliance

• Progress happens in small, low-risk steps—not bold commitments (but we lack the patience being constantly pressurized by the investors)

In short: the human parts of buying never changed. We just kept trying to engineer them out of the equation!

The real problem sales has been avoiding

Unsuccessful sellers become the victims of structured failure - because we’ve designed selling around deal mechanics, not decision dynamics.

We’ve optimized pipelines while ignoring confidence. We’ve automated activity while misunderstanding momentum. We’ve treated hesitation as resistance instead of self-protection.

And when outcomes disappoint, we do the most predictable thing possible: add more process, more tools, more numbers, more pressure.

That usually works about as well as shouting instructions at someone who’s already nervous (you know, like your Dad used to!)

The thinking Shadow is built on

Shadow isn’t another sales “method,” and it definitely isn’t AI pretending to be a motivational speaker. It’s built on different premises:

Selling is not about moving buyers forward. It’s about helping them feel safe starting.

That sounds softer than it is. In practice, it’s far more demanding.

Shadow is designed around how decisions form, stall, wobble, and survive—not how we wish they did. That means focusing on:

• Decision dynamics, not deal stages

• Reducing perceived risk before increasing conviction (recognizing trade offs and risks, for instance)

• Creating movement without pressure (recognition of the power of loss aversion)

• Helping buyers think, not persuading them to agree

• Supporting confidence before, during, and after decisions

Instead of teaching sellers to sound smarter, Shadow reminds them how to be (and sound) more human. Instead of optimizing activity, it focuses on meaningful progress. Instead of pretending buying is logical, it designs for the fact that it isn’t.

Why this matters now

AI didn’t create these problems—it exposed them. When AI is layered on top of flawed assumptions, all you get is faster nonsense (that might sound cleverer, but is still nonsense) . Shadow exists because using AI responsibly in sales requires confronting the uncomfortable realities we’ve been ignoring for decades.

We stop shaming hesitation. We stop confusing motion with momentum. We stop pretending confidence can be forced. We recognize the meaning and importance of trust.

We design selling around humans—because humans are the hard part and always have been.

Everything else is just software.