How cheap money broke B2B sales—and what comes next

Cheap money has perverted sales.

For years, the market was flooded with capital. VCs and PEs built a model based on one thing: pumping cash into their portfolio companies to drive growth—at all costs. That became the reference point.

The issue? As talent moved around, and the press glorified the rare companies that made it big—the infamous unicorns—survivor bias kicked in hard. And so people began to think:

“This is what we should be doing!”

Slow down to speed up…

There’s a key principle in sales: slow down to speed up. When interacting with a prospect, too many sales people try to rush. Putting undue pressure on their prospects, leading to poor discovery, etc…

The same applies at the organisational level. Nothing good happens fast.

Product teams need time to develop robust, bug-free, market-fit products. Marketing needs time to craft the right message and build the right infrastructure.

Sales is, of course, not different.

It takes time to grow into a strong sales professional. It takes a lot of sweat to become a great manager. It takes time to build rapport with prospects, to truly understand their challenges.

But during the past years, the flood of VC and PE cash was accompanied by one mantra:

Growth. At. All. Costs.

Vs speed up to … crash?

 So now, if an entrepreneur raised cash, what happened?

• Build a team of 10 reps.

• Talking to a prospect? Do a demo, close in 1 or 2 meetings.

• Want to scale outbound? Hire a squad of SDRs to drive activity.

Etc., etc. It was all about speed—because VCs and PEs needed speed. And they could afford it. Not only because LPs were backing them, but because one winner could offset a dozen flameouts.

The issue?
Firstly, the market isn't awash with cash anymore. And what was acceptable "back then" isn't anymore today. But mentalities will take time to change.

And it would be fine is this modus operandi had been contained into the VC / PE world. But the rot has spread. That mindset infected the rest of the economy. Many companies, even outside of VC/PE circles, adopted it.

Now we see the consequences every day, across sales organisations. Whether VC / PE backed. Or "traditional".

The rot has spread

1. Salespeople who don’t know how to sell

On the sales floor, the art of asking thoughtful questions is gone. Demos became the centrepiece. Everyone talks about creating a “wow effect.” That’s the goal: Wow them.

Not build rapport.
Not understand their vision or pain.
Just wow them.

Sales efficiency? Sacrificed. Activity volume became the only metric. And in the AI era, that obsession has gone into overdrive.

2. Sales managers who don’t know how to manage

Sales management is a critical pillar of success. But it's not easy. But when sales became about activity and demos, management became optional. Or worse, expensive overhead.

If “what” matters more than “how,” then a CRM dashboard will do just fine.

Building coaching plans aligned to the sales person unique DNA? Way too time consuming.
Being able to motivate sales people, value add sales team meeting, robust sales culture? Too complicated.
Driving accountability, rejecting mediocrity and driving on-going development? Seen as micro-management,

All these principles upon which sales excellence is built?

Gone.

3. Leadership tunnel vision

Inspired by the leadership of tech companies fuelled by VC money, leadership focus on two things:

• Product: Sales became about that wow effect. Just look at most tech websites:
  “Book a demo.”
  Not “Curious? Let’s talk.”
  Nope. Just book the demo.

• Financials: In VC/PE-backed companies, everything is about hitting the number—fast—so you can raise the next round or exit.

4- Short term vs Systems:

What matters for the success of an organisation is the systems that underpin it. Yet, with the rush for speed and, admittedly, the lack of sales expertise from many founders and leaders, sales stopped being about building systems:

• Robust hiring processes

• Building a bench

• Onboarding

• Coaching

• Detailed sales playbooks

• Clear stages

• World-class management

All these are more often than not gone, due to the obsession with speed.

AI compounding the need for speed

Speed mattered more than building a recession-proof, interest-rate-proof, investor-proof sales culture. And now, with the AI storm reshaping everything and the future uncertain, the need to build robust systems - not panic - should be top priority.

Instead, we’re doubling down on the old errors.

What we’re seeing is this short-term thinking is costing companies dearly. We see leadership accepting performance from sales teams that would never fly in product or finance. We see companies hiring salespeople they shouldn’t. And firing good ones who never had a chance.

Sales isn't for everybody. Sales management isn't for everybody. And building sales excellence isn't for all leaders.

But there are some good sales people out there who have the potential. And leaders who have the vision and determination to build the robust systems their organisation and their teams deserve.

So what do we do now?

So, if you want quick results and "closers", sales techniques and if you think sales management is all about having a CRM churning a dashboard, then we can't help.

But if you have been burned by the "speed at all cost mantra", if you're convinced that, just like for your product team, your finance team or any professional team a sales organisation needs robust, customer centric, well managed systems with a clear sales culture, then let's talk.