Sales has always had a process problem, not because the process is bad, but because the process we relied on for decades was built for a world that no longer exists.

To understand where selling is headed, you have to understand where it came from and then be willing to drop a few assumptions that still shape how you run and enable your teams.

A brief history of the sales process

The obsession with a defined sales process took hold in the 1980s.

The logic was simple: identify your top performers, work out what they do, and build a process that helps everyone else replicate it. Move a C player to a B, a B to an A.

Companies invested heavily in training and methodology, all designed around a single process applied universally, on the belief that consistency produces results.

It was reasonable for its time but now the world has changed since but the process has not.

We're in a postmodern selling era

Postmodernism rejects the idea that one universal set of principles applies to every individual in every situation. Applied to sales, that means something specific: no single set of principles works for every customer engagement.

That is the world we operate in now, and it has real implications for how you build a revenue process. Three features of the traditional approach show its age.

It was built around the seller, not the buyer. Research consistently shows that roughly 80% of buyers are deep into a digital journey before they engage a salesperson. They research independently, form opinions, and often arrive having already made significant progress toward a decision. The process needs to reflect buyer activity, not seller activity.

It treated every situation the same way. One process for everyone made sense when acquisition was the main motion.

We now operate in a recurring revenue environment where around 80% of customer revenue comes from existing customers. Acquisition and expansion are different commercial scenarios, and running both through one process leaves money on the table.

So the math is stark: 80% of buying is digital and buyer-driven, 80% of revenue growth comes from existing customers, and 80% of the process was never properly coached. The traditional sales process was already more an idea than a reality.

What the postmodern revenue process looks like

Abandoning process thinking is the wrong response. The goal is a process that fits commercial reality. Three characteristics define it.

  • Partnered: marketing, sales, and customer success work together across the entire buying journey. Most organizations still run these functions in silos, each with its own objectives and definitions of success. A partnered process creates a consistent buying experience across every touchpoint and recognizes that customer success has a role in acquisition, not only retention.
  • Precise: the process is tailored to specific commercial moments. Acquisition differs from expansion, which differs from renewal. Each has its own psychology and its own required approach, so you build distinct processes rather than stretching one framework across all of them.
  • Prescriptive: loosely suggested activity gives way to automated, integrated workflows. The right messages, content, and skills get deployed at the right moments, with enough frequency to move things forward. Technology matters here, but it is only as good as the thinking behind it.

Acquisition and expansion are fundamentally different

This is the point worth holding onto, and it is grounded in behavioral science.

Status quo bias sits at the center of B2B decision-making. It is the human tendency to stick with the familiar and avoid the risk of change, even when a better option exists.

Acquiring a new customer means disrupting that bias. You make the case for change, give someone a compelling reason to move, and convince them to choose you and act now. That messaging is designed to make the cost of staying the same feel greater than the cost of changing.

Expansion works on opposite ground. With an existing customer, you are the status quo.

Your job is to build on it: reinforce the value already delivered, anchor the conversation in measurable outcomes, and use that foundation to open new opportunities. Different story, different skills.

Commercial choreography

Commercial choreography is how these elements come together.

Marketing campaigns, sales conversations, enablement content, and customer success activity get integrated into one coordinated sequence.

Moving a prospect from awareness to a qualified pipeline involves marketing generating hand raisers, sales development converting them to meetings, and account executives turning meetings into opportunities.

Choreography means those roles are defined and aligned so the buyer gets a coherent experience rather than disconnected interactions from departments with competing priorities.

Cadences make persistence the default

Cadences, also called sequences or plays, are structured touch patterns that create the persistence most sellers won't maintain on their own. Fatigue sets in, priorities shift, and reps stop after a few attempts. The research is clear that this happens too early.

Converting a hand raiser to a meeting takes roughly 15 steps across 21 days, using email, voicemail, and LinkedIn. Most SDRs give up well before that.

When the cadence is built into the workflow with the right messaging and content, persistence becomes the default rather than the exception.

That shift has a wider consequence: all selling is now inside selling. The old line between independent field sellers and structured inside sellers has largely collapsed.

Logging interactions, following prescribed touch patterns, and using integrated content is becoming standard for every seller, whatever the title.

Enablement sits at the center of making that work, ensuring sellers understand the why, have the skills, and carry content that serves the buyer at each stage.

Aligning content and skills to the moment

A cadence without the right content is noise. Skills training disconnected from real commercial scenarios doesn't improve performance.

Acquisition content differs from expansion content. The skills for a "why change" conversation with a prospect differ from the skills for a business review with an existing customer.

Training can no longer be a standalone event once or twice a year. It needs to live inside the choreography, available when sellers need it.

Impact of Enablement Report 2025 | SEC x Spekit
Download your copy of SEC’s 2025 Impact of Enablement Report - produced in partnership with Spekit.
Sales Enablement CollectiveAlex Walton

Expansion is where many organizations leave the most revenue behind. The incumbent advantage is real: delivered impact, built relationships, shared investment.

The expansion conversation starts by documenting the outcomes already achieved, then uses that record to introduce cross-selling, upselling, or expanded adoption. The risk is sounding like a competitor making the case for change, when your strength is building on what already works.

The shift to postmodern selling is already reshaping how revenue teams operate. The future is partnered, precise, and prescriptive, treating acquisition and expansion as distinct motions with their own psychology and capabilities. Automation is making persistence standard rather than exceptional.

Sales enablement sits at the intersection of all of it. Integrating messages, content, and skills into coordinated commercial choreography is exactly the work enablement teams are positioned to lead. The question is whether yours is ready.