The Gap I’m Seeing Right Now (and why it matters)
I’ve been reflecting on a few of the conversations and sessions from the Endless Customers Conference last week.
Not because the core ideas were new—they weren’t. The framework is well-established at this point.
But what stood out to me is how quickly the application is evolving. Even compared to a year ago.
And it all comes back to the same thing: the buyer.
The buyer journey didn’t change. The behavior did.
We’ve known for a while that buyers do most of their research before ever booking a sales call.
What’s changing is how—and where—that research happens.
It’s no longer just search engines and websites.
It’s AI tools.
It’s YouTube.
It’s LinkedIn.
It’s summaries, comparisons, and quiet evaluation happening across multiple places at once.
By the time someone lands on a calendar link, they’ve already:
defined their problem
explored options
thought through cost and tradeoffs
narrowed their list
formed a strong opinion about who they trust
In many cases, the sales conversation isn’t where the decision is made. It’s where the decision gets confirmed.
The real shift: decisions are happening before your process begins
Most companies are still structured around the idea that marketing drives traffic and sales converts it.
But more and more, the “conversion” is happening before either team is directly involved.
Which raises better questions:
Where is the buyer forming their opinion?
What information are they using to decide?
Who is shaping that narrative before we ever enter the picture?
This is where most teams are behind—not in effort, but in orientation.
We’ve moved from search engines to answer engines
A big driver of this shift is generative AI.
We’re no longer just optimizing for search—we’re being evaluated for inclusion in answers.
SEO used to ask: Can you show up?
Now the question is: Would AI include you at all?
This is where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) comes in.
AI systems pull from sources they can:
understand quickly
verify as credible
and confidently present as trustworthy
If your positioning is vague or inconsistent, you’re much less likely to surface—regardless of how strong your business actually is.
Where most marketers are still focused
There’s still a heavy emphasis on:
campaigns
channels
content production
All important.Don’t get me wrong.
But increasingly… not sufficient. Because the leverage has moved upstream.
The real challenge is understanding how buyers make decisions now—and designing for that. That means thinking in terms of:
What questions buyers are asking at each stage
What information reduces uncertainty
Where trust is being built (or lost)
How marketing and sales align before a conversation ever happens
This is where the advisory gap is widening
This is the divide I’m noticing more clearly.
On one side: strong executors.
On the other: people who can step back and say,
“Here’s what’s actually happening—and here’s how we need to respond.”
Businesses feel the shift, even if they don’t have language for it.
They’re noticing:
prospects arriving more informed
conversations starting further along
more direct comparisons
increased pressure to differentiate
They don’t need more activity.
They need interpretation. Direction. Context.
The opportunity (if you want to step into it)
This is where strategic advisors become significantly more valuable.
Because now you’re not just doing marketing.
You’re helping a business:
understand how their buyers are deciding
identify where trust is being won or lost
adjust how they show up across the entire journey
If I had to simplify the shift:
It’s less about helping a company get found,
and more about helping them become the most trusted source before the conversation ever begins.
Where this leaves us
The fundamentals haven’t changed. But the environment has.
And the bar for being chosen—by both buyers and AI—is higher than it was even a year ago.
For those of us moving from execution into advisory work, this is the work. Not just doing more, but seeing more clearly—and helping others see it too.
