Hey everyone, welcome back to The HiveMind Signal. I’m Madison Wade, here with Shane Hermans. Shane, how’s it going?Hey Madison, good to be back. I’m, uh, caffeinated and ready to talk about why sales teams are, well, kinda losing their minds in 2025. Or at least, why it feels that way.Yeah, and I think this is one of those topics where everyone’s got an opinion, right? Like, “Oh, reps just aren’t hustling hard enough.” But honestly, the data’s saying something totally different. It’s not about lazy reps—it’s about broken systems.Exactly. I mean, we see it all the time—over-engineered workflows, handoffs that make no sense, and data that’s, well, let’s just say it’s more fiction than fact. SDR to AE to CS to AM, and somewhere in there, the buyer just gets lost in the shuffle.Totally. I remember this fintech startup I worked with in Singapore—super sharp team, but their sales dashboard was like, I don’t know, a cockpit from a 747. No one knew what to look at. We did one redesign, just simplified the dashboard, and meeting bookings literally doubled in a month. It wasn’t about working harder, it was about making the system usable.That’s such a good example. And it’s not just dashboards, right? It’s the whole GTM engine. You’ve got marketing running campaigns with zero feedback from sales, enablement content that nobody actually uses, and then everyone’s surprised when the pipeline dries up. It’s like, “Well, what did you expect?”And then leadership’s first move is always, “Let’s do more coaching.” Which, I mean, coaching’s great, but if the system’s broken, you’re just teaching people to run faster on a treadmill that’s not even plugged in.Yeah, or worse, you’re blaming the reps for not hitting numbers when the real problem is the handoffs, the data, the tools. It’s like, we keep treating the symptoms, not the disease.So let’s talk about the pipeline itself, because I think this is where a lot of the myths start. I saw a stat recently—41% of B2B pipelines are misqualified or just straight-up inflated. That’s wild.Yeah, and only 29% of reps actually trust their CRM data. Which, honestly, I’m surprised it’s even that high. Most of the time, you look at a pipeline report and it’s just, like, vanity metrics and junk leads. It looks good on paper, but none of it’s real.Right, and then you’ve got reps chasing MQLs that have zero buying intent, or dashboards that are all about “pipeline volume” instead of actual deal quality. It’s like, we’re measuring the wrong things and then wondering why nothing’s moving.I had a project with a fintech client—big team, lots of moving parts. Their CRM was a mess. We did a full clean-up, got rid of all the junk data, and suddenly their no-show rate for meetings dropped by 42%. Just by making the data reflect reality, not wishful thinking.That’s huge. And it’s not just about cleaning up the data, it’s about actually mapping the buyer journey. Because if you’ve got fragmented touchpoints—like, marketing’s doing one thing, sales another, CS another—nobody’s seeing the full picture. The buyer’s just bouncing around in the dark.Yeah, and then you get these “pipeline reviews” where everyone’s just defending their numbers instead of actually figuring out where the friction is. It’s like, we’re all playing the same game, but nobody’s using the same scoreboard.And that’s where the system breaks down. If you can’t trust the data, you can’t trust the pipeline, and then you’re just guessing. It’s not a strategy, it’s just hope.So, what actually works? I mean, we’ve seen it—pipeline reality audits, unified dashboards, RevOps-led friction analysis. It’s not sexy, but it’s what moves the needle. You gotta map real buyer behavior, not just what you wish was happening.Yeah, and when you get that alignment—when marketing, sales, and CS are actually working off the same playbook—organizations grow 19% faster. Sales velocity can jump by up to 38%. That’s not a rounding error, that’s real money.I mean, we had a retail SaaS client who totally pivoted their GTM structure. They brought in RevOps, unified their dashboards, started doing regular pipeline audits. Within a quarter, they saw measurable revenue increases. Not because the reps suddenly got better, but because the system finally worked for them, not against them.And that’s the thing—sales slumps aren’t about grit, they’re about systems. The smartest GTM leaders aren’t doubling down on coaching, they’re redesigning the infrastructure. Clean data, rationalized tools, unified metrics. That’s what lets reps actually sell, not just survive.Yeah, and if there’s one thing to take away, it’s that pipeline isn’t a report—it’s a mirror. If what’s in there doesn’t reflect reality, everything else falls apart. So, start with the system, not the symptoms.Alright, I think that’s a good place to wrap. Shane, always a pleasure. And thanks to everyone for tuning in—if you’re struggling with sales, maybe it’s time to look at your systems, not your skills. We’ll be back soon with more on decoding the future of systems, strategy, and sustainable innovation. See you next time!Thanks Madison, and thanks everyone for listening. Take care, and keep questioning the system. Catch you on the next HiveMind Signal.

Episodes

Systems Over Skills