Why Your Sales Framework is Killing Your Deals (And What Modern Buyers Actually Need)

Before the holiday break, at the Midnight to Millions event, I had the chance to step in as what Scott lovingly called the "Mitch Trubisky of sales speakers" when a presenter had to drop out at the last minute. What started as a pinch-hit session turned into one of the most engaging conversations I've had about what's actually broken in modern B2B sales.

So let’s set the scene.

Before I even introduced the PLAN Selling framework, I threw up three polls to understand who was in the room. The results painted a picture that every sales leader needs to see.

When asked how prepared buyers show up to discovery calls today….

Let’s put this in normal language.

For every 4 calls you have, only 1 our of every 4 calls will show up with minimal preparation.

What does that tell us? Let me answer that.

Our buyers are showing up more prepared than we are!

The reality is even starker than these numbers suggest. Gartner research shows over 90% of buyers arrive well-informed.

Five years ago, buyers only did about 50% of their research before talking to sales. They came to us for education.

Today, they come to us already knowing what they think they need. (The word think is important here.)

Think about what that means. The entire premise of traditional discovery has shifted.

Buyers don't need you to explain the market or educate them on solutions. They need you to help them navigate a complex decision with multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and real organizational constraints.

Which brings me to the second poll result that should terrify every sales leader.

When asked what causes deals to stall, 53% said buyers just ghost them with no decision.

Not competitive losses. Not budget cuts.

Ghosting. No decision. Status quo wins.

As I said in the session, status quo has become our biggest competitor. And here's the uncomfortable truth: when buyers ghost you, it's not because they're rude. It's because you failed to make the problem urgent enough or the decision process clear enough to justify continued engagement.

The third poll revealed that 52% of respondents deal with four to six stakeholders in their sales process. Another 22% deal with seven to ten. Why? Because younger generations of decision-makers require more collective decision-making. Because tools like Slack and modern work practices have democratized who gets a voice. Because one person's budget decision now touches Finance, IT, Security, Legal, and Revenue Operations.

Most sales methodologies were built for a world where you had one or two decision-makers and buyers needed you to educate them. That world is gone. Your framework is killing your deals because it was built for buyers who no longer exist.

I'll be blunt, most frameworks were designed to help sales reps qualify deals, not help buyers make decisions.

When you walk into a discovery call thinking about Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline, you're thinking about what YOU need to close the deal. You're not thinking about what the buyer needs to make a good decision.

That's the fundamental flaw.

Modern buyers don't care about your sales stages. They don't care that you need to get three calls done before you can demo. They don't care that your CRM requires you to identify the economic buyer in stage two.

They care about solving a problem that's costing them money, time, or competitive advantage. They care about navigating their approval process without looking stupid. They care about getting to value by a specific date that matters to their business, not your quarter-end.

As I explained in the session, and you can see this play out in real-time around the 15-minute mark of the video, traditional frameworks create this bizarre theater where sales reps are performing qualification while buyers are trying to figure out if you can actually help them.

Here's what that looks like in practice.

A rep asks, "What's your budget for this?"

The buyer says, "We don't have one yet."

The rep hears, "Not qualified," and either deprioritizes the deal or keeps pushing for a budget number.

Meanwhile, the buyer is thinking, "I don't know what budget I need because I don't know if this is actually the right solution or if it's going to cost me $10,000 or $100,000."

Same thing with authority. "Who's the decision-maker?" "

Well, I need to get buy-in from my VP, but also IT needs to approve it, and Finance will want to review the contract."

The rep hears, "You're not the decision-maker."

The buyer hears, "This sales rep doesn't understand how decisions actually work here."

The framework is optimizing for the wrong thing. It's optimizing for the rep's ability to forecast, not the buyer's ability to buy.

Before I even introduce the PLAN framework, I want you to understand the single most important shift in discovery. You need to stop accepting surface-level problems and start uncovering root causes.

This is where the 3 Whys technique comes in, and it's the foundation of everything else.

In the video, around the 28-minute mark, I walk through a live example of this with the audience. Someone says they have a problem with "manual data entry." Most reps would jump straight to showing how their tool automates data entry. They'd demo the feature. They'd talk about time savings. They'd completely miss the actual problem.

Here's how the 3 Whys works.

The buyer says, "We have a problem with manual data entry."

You ask, "Why is manual data entry a problem for you?"

They might say, "Because it takes our team hours every week." That's still a symptom.

You ask again, "Why does it take hours every week?"

Now they might say, "Because my team is spending time on admin instead of actually closing deals." You're getting closer.

Ask one more time. "Why are they're spending time on admin instead of closing?"

"Because we're missing our revenue targets and my CEO is breathing down my neck about pipeline." Finally, you get to the root.

Now you've gone from "manual data entry problem" to "CEO pressure about revenue targets." Those are two completely different problems requiring two completely different solutions. One is a feature conversation. The other is a business conversation.

As I tell my team, and you can hear me explain this in detail around the 31-minute mark of the video, most sales reps are solving for symptoms because they never dig deep enough to understand the disease.

You can't solve a revenue problem with a data entry tool.

But you can solve a revenue problem by showing how eliminating data entry frees up time for actual revenue-generating activities that directly impact the CEO's targets.

The 3 Whys forces you to get uncomfortable. It forces you to push past the polite, surface-level answers buyers give you. It forces you to connect features to business outcomes. And it completely changes the conversation from "Here's what we do" to "Here's how we solve the actual problem keeping you up at night."

Watch the session to see me walk through several more examples of this technique in action. The energy in the room shifted when people realized they'd been having the wrong conversations with their buyers for years.

Now that you understand the foundation of digging deeper, let me introduce PLAN Selling. This isn't another acronym to memorize. It's an operating system for running buyer-centric deals.

PLAN stands for Pinpoint the problem, Line Up Priorities, Advance Decision Dynamics, and Next Steps Tied To Value Dates.

Notice what's different here. Every element of PLAN is focused on helping the buyer navigate their decision, not helping you forecast your pipeline.

Let me break down each component, and I'll reference specific parts of the video where you can see these principles in action.

This is where the 3 Whys comes in. You're not just identifying a problem. You're identifying THE problem. The one that matters most. The one that has urgency. The one that's connected to business priorities.

In the session, around the 35-minute mark, I explain why most discovery calls fail. Reps ask about problems, get a list of three or four issues, and then try to show how their product solves all of them. That's not pinpointing. That's checking the box.

Pinpointing means you use the 3 Whys to get to the root cause, then you test whether it's truly a priority. I showed the audience what I call the "Priority Test," which you can see demonstrated around the 40-minute mark of the video. You literally ask the buyer, "Of all the things on your plate right now, where does solving this problem rank?" If they can't give you a clear answer, or if they say it's one of five priorities, you don't have a priority problem. You have a nice-to-have.

The uncomfortable truth is that most of your pipeline is filled with nice-to-haves disguised as priorities. PLAN Selling forces you to confront that reality early, before you waste months chasing a deal that was never going to close.

This is where most reps completely fall apart. They've identified a problem. Maybe they even got to the root cause. But they failed to connect it to what the company is actually prioritizing this quarter, this year, or this cycle.

As I explain in the video, company priorities are not the same as individual priorities. Your champion might have a problem they desperately want to solve. But if that problem isn't aligned with what the CEO announced in the last all-hands, or what's in the annual operating plan, or what Finance is tracking as a key metric, you're going to hit a wall.

I shared a specific example from my time at Mixmax where we were selling to a VP of Sales who had a real problem with sales productivity. We did great discovery. We understood the problem. We even quantified the impact. The deal died because the company's priority that quarter was customer retention, not new logo acquisition. Sales productivity wasn't on the executive radar. No matter how good our solution was, it wasn't lined up with company priorities.

This is where you need to do your homework. You need to read the earnings calls. You need to look at what the CEO is posting on LinkedIn. You need to understand what initiatives are funded and which ones are just ideas. Then you need to explicitly connect your solution to those funded priorities.

In the session, I walk through a framework for this that you can see around the 52-minute mark. You literally map the problem you've identified to a company priority, then you test that connection with your champion. "You mentioned this productivity issue is costing you X per month. I saw in the Q3 earnings call that your CEO is focused on improving sales efficiency by 20%. How does solving this problem connect to that goal?"

If you can't make that connection, or if your champion can't articulate it clearly, your deal is at risk. Line it up or lose it.

This is where PLAN Selling diverges most sharply from traditional frameworks. Instead of just identifying the "decision-maker," you're mapping the entire decision-making ecosystem and actively advancing through it.

Remember that poll result? Most deals involve four to six stakeholders. Some involve seven to ten. You can't just sell to one person anymore. You need to understand the web of influence, approval, veto power, and input that goes into a modern B2B purchase.

Later in the video, I introduce what I call the "Decision Dynamics Map." You're not just listing stakeholders. You're understanding their roles in the decision. Who's the champion? Who's the economic buyer? Who has veto power? Who needs to provide input but doesn't have final say? Who are the influencers that the economic buyer trusts?

More importantly, you're understanding the relationships between these people. Does Finance trust your champion? Does Security have a good relationship with IT? Have Legal and Procurement worked together before or are they going to fight over contract terms?

As I explain in the session, most deals stall not because of competitive losses but because of internal friction between stakeholders. Your job is to identify that friction early and help orchestrate the internal selling process.

I share a specific tactic that you need to watch. I call it "multi-threading with purpose." You're not just getting meetings with multiple stakeholders to check a box. You're strategically engaging each stakeholder based on their role in the decision and what they need to feel confident.

Finance needs to see ROI models and budget impact. Security needs to see compliance documentation and integration architecture. The economic buyer needs to see business outcomes and risk mitigation. Your champion needs ammunition to sell internally.

Advancing decision dynamics means you're actively helping your champion navigate this complexity. You're not waiting for them to figure it out. You're not hoping they'll do the internal selling for you. You're orchestrating it together.

This is the most tactical but also most powerful element of PLAN. Every single interaction ends with concrete next steps that have dates, owners, and a clear connection to when the customer expects to see value.

Notice I didn't say "close dates." I said "value dates." When does the customer actually need this solution in place and delivering results? That's your North Star. Everything else works backward from there.

Towards the end of the video, I walk through what I call "reverse engineering the value date." If your customer needs to see results by Q1 next year, when do they need to go live? If they go live December 1st, when does implementation need to start? If implementation takes six weeks, when does the contract need to be signed? If Legal review takes two weeks, when do we need to submit the contract?

Suddenly, your "next steps" aren't arbitrary. They're connected to a real timeline that the customer cares about. This completely changes the dynamic of the deal. You're not pushing. You're pulling based on their needs.

But here's the critical part, and you can see me demonstrate this around the 1-hour-18-minute mark. Next steps have to be mutual commitments. Not tasks for the buyer. Not tasks for you. Mutual commitments.

"By Friday, I'll send you the ROI model we discussed. By Monday, you'll review it with your CFO and let me know if the assumptions make sense. Then we'll set up a call for Wednesday to walk through it together with Finance." That's mutual. That's commitment. That's momentum.

Compare that to "I'll send you the proposal and you let me know what you think." That's hoping. That's not selling.

Here's the uncomfortable truth that I shared around the session, and you can hear the audience reaction to this. When deals ghost, when you get the "no decision" outcome, when status quo wins, it's almost always because of lack of clarity in one or more areas.

I introduced what I call the "Clarity Test," and you can see me walk through this framework in detail in the video. At any point in your deal, you should be able to answer four questions with complete confidence:

What is the priority problem we're solving? Not a problem. THE problem. The one that has urgency and business impact.

How does solving this problem connect to funded company priorities? If you can't draw a straight line from your solution to something in the annual operating plan or a board-level metric, you're in trouble.

Who are all the stakeholders involved in this decision and what does each person need to feel confident? Not just names. Actual understanding of their concerns, their criteria, and their relationships with each other.

What are the concrete next steps with dates and owners that move us toward the value date? Not "follow up next week." Actual commitments.

If you can't answer all four with specificity, your deal has clarity gaps. And clarity gaps kill deals. Watch the video to see me work through examples of how to identify and close these gaps.

The reason buyers ghost is simple. They got stuck somewhere in their decision process and didn't feel comfortable telling you. Maybe they couldn't get internal alignment on the priority. Maybe they couldn't get Finance to agree on budget. Maybe they realized the problem wasn't urgent after all.

But instead of telling you any of that, they just stopped responding. Because you were running a seller-centric process focused on your pipeline, not a buyer-centric process focused on their decision.

PLAN Selling prevents ghosting by creating clarity at every stage. When everyone knows the problem, the priority, the people involved, and the path forward, there's nothing to hide behind.

To wrap up the conversation, I touched on something that's fundamentally changing B2B sales and most people haven't adapted to yet. We're experiencing a generational shift in how decisions get made.

Millennials and Gen Z buyers make decisions differently than Boomers and Gen X. They want more collaboration. They want more consensus. They want to involve more people in the decision. They don't trust top-down mandates the way previous generations did.

This isn't good or bad. It's just reality. And it's why you're seeing stakeholder counts increase even for relatively small purchases. It's why deals take longer. It's why "getting to the decision-maker" doesn't work the way it used to.

The decision-maker might be a 32-year-old VP who genuinely wants input from their team before making a call. The decision-maker might be a CEO who expects their direct reports to build consensus before bringing a recommendation. The decision-maker might not even exist in the traditional sense because the company operates on a more democratic model.

PLAN Selling adapts to this reality. It doesn't fight it. It doesn't try to "get around" all those stakeholders. It embraces the complexity and helps you navigate it systematically.

At the end of the session, I asked the audience what they were going to implement. The results were telling:

35% said they'd start using the 3 Whys to pinpoint root problems. 26% said they'd challenge whether deals are truly priorities with priority testing. 26% said they'd force concrete next steps with dates on every call. Only 13% said they'd map and engage multiple stakeholders on their top three deals.

I love that the 3 Whys won because it's the foundation of everything else. You can't line up priorities if you haven't pinpointed the real problem. You can't advance decision dynamics if you're solving for symptoms. You can't create meaningful next steps if you don't understand what matters.

But here's what I told them, and what I'll tell you: pick one thing and do it well. Don't try to implement all of PLAN Selling overnight. Don't try to completely overhaul your sales process this week.

Start with the 3 Whys in your next discovery call. Ask why three times. Get to the root cause. See how it changes the conversation. See how it creates clarity where there was confusion. See how it gives you confidence in what you're actually selling and whether it matters.

Then add priority testing. Then start mapping decision dynamics. Then focus on mutual next steps.

PLAN Selling isn't a script. It's an operating system. And like any operating system, you need to learn how to use each component before you can orchestrate the whole thing.

If you take nothing else from this article or from watching the video, take this. The future of B2B sales isn't about always be closing. It's about always be curious.

I ended with this thought: "I go into every call, no matter if my rep has sent me everything about the company, and I open every call where I go, 'Hey, I've read about what you do, but I wanna hear from you. Tell me about your business. Tell me about your operations.'"

Because until I can walk a mile in your shoes, how am I going to help you solve your problem? And it all stems from curiosity. We're not curious enough to actually care about the customer because we care about ourselves. We need to stop being selfish and be a little bit more selfless.

Modern buyers are informed. They're prepared. They involve multiple stakeholders. They're comparing you not just to competitors but to status quo. They're making decisions in complex organizational environments with competing priorities and limited resources.

Your framework needs to match their reality. Your process needs to help them buy, not help you sell. Your discovery needs to uncover root causes, not surface symptoms. Your qualification needs to test priority, not just budget and authority.

PLAN Selling does all of that. It gives you a systematic way to run buyer-centric deals that actually close. It prevents ghosting by creating clarity. It prevents status quo wins by connecting solutions to funded priorities. It prevents competitive losses by helping you orchestrate complex stakeholder environments.

But more than any framework, you need curiosity. You need genuine interest in understanding your buyer's world. You need to care about solving their problems more than hitting your quota.

When you do that, when you put the buyer at the center of your process, when you use frameworks like PLAN to bring clarity instead of confusion, you don't just close more deals. You build relationships that compound. You create customers who become champions. You build a reputation as someone who actually helps instead of just sells.

And that's the difference between a framework that kills deals and a framework that creates lasting value.

Watch the full session at Midnight to Millions to see these principles in action, including live examples, audience interaction, and detailed walkthroughs of each component. The energy and engagement in that room showed me that sales leaders are ready for a new approach. They're tired of frameworks that don't match modern buyer behavior. They're ready for something that actually works.

PLAN Selling is that something. Start with curiosity. Start with the 3 Whys. Start with caring more about your buyer's problems than your pipeline.

Everything else follows from there.