Why 60% of Your Marketing Experience Is Now a Liability

Why 60% of Your Marketing Experience Is Now a Liability

Omer Gotlieb
8 min read
January 6, 2026

Why 60% of Your Marketing Experience Is Now a Liability in 2026

Elena Verna has been building growth engines for 15-20 years. She's the kind of operator who wrote the playbook everyone else copied. In 2026, as growth leader at Lovable, she revealed something uncomfortable: only 30-40% of that hard-won experience still applies.

The other 60-70%? It's not just outdated—it's actively getting in the way.

If you're a marketing leader feeling instability despite nothing being obviously broken, this is why. The fundamentals shifted. And the companies winning aren't the ones executing the old playbook flawlessly—they're the ones who've unlearned it.

The 95% Innovation Shift

Here's how Verna's time allocation changed:

Before: 95% optimizing known channels, 5% testing new approaches
Now: 95% innovation, 5% maintaining what still works

That's not a incremental adjustment. That's a complete inversion of how growth teams operate.

And it's not just her. Marketing leaders across high-growth companies are making the same shift—not because they read it in a playbook, but because the old optimization playbook stopped producing results.

What Changed?

Three fundamental shifts happened simultaneously:

  1. AI became infrastructure, not a channel. It's not something you "add to the mix"—it's how work gets done, how buyers research, how decisions get made.
  2. Buyer expectations accelerated past marketing cycles. The gap between what buyers expect (instant, personalized, expert) and what traditional marketing delivers (scheduled, segmented, generic) is now a chasm. Inbound conversion in 2026 requires meeting these new expectations.
  3. Distribution platforms fundamentally changed. Google isn't the starting point anymore. ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are. Content doesn't drive clicks—it shapes AI answers that buyers never click through.

You can't optimize your way through those shifts. You have to rebuild.

Product Market Fit Is Now a Continuous Process

One of Verna's most jarring observations: "Product market fit is no longer something you find once. You have to recapture it every few months."

For marketing leaders trained to "nail the positioning and scale," this is uncomfortable. But look at what's actually happening in 2026:

  • Buyer expectations evolve quarterly as new AI capabilities set new baselines
  • Competitive positioning shifts as new entrants launch with AI-native approaches
  • Use cases expand or narrow as market understanding of what's possible changes
  • Distribution channels that worked last quarter reach saturation or become obsolete

The companies treating PMF as a destination ("we found it, now let's scale") are watching their metrics erode. The companies treating it as continuous recapture are staying ahead of the shift.

This is why Verna's time allocation flipped to 95% innovation. When PMF expires every 90 days, optimization is a trap—you're just getting better at something that's about to stop working.

What Marketing Leaders Need to Unlearn

Let's get specific about what experience has become a liability:

Unlearn: MQL-Based Pipeline Models

The entire lead scoring, nurturing, and handoff infrastructure was built for a world where buyers tolerated being "qualified" before getting help. In 2026, buyers get instant expert answers from AI—they're not filling out forms to earn the right to ask questions.

Companies still measuring MQLs are measuring a metric that no longer predicts revenue. Worse, they're optimizing processes that actively repel modern buyers.

What replaces it: Conversation intelligence and engagement depth. How many meaningful interactions happened? What questions got answered? How much did the buyer's understanding progress? These predict conversion—form fills don't.

Unlearn: Annual and Quarterly Planning Cycles

If PMF has to be recaptured every few months, annual plans are theater. By the time you're executing Q3 of the plan, the assumptions from Q1 planning are already wrong.

This doesn't mean chaos—it means faster feedback loops. Companies winning in 2026 plan in 30-day sprints, not quarters. They allocate budget to outcomes, not channels. They measure learning velocity, not plan adherence.

What replaces it: Continuous planning with short-cycle experiments. Set direction, fund exploration, measure what's working, double down or kill fast.

Unlearn: Paid Channel Playbooks

The experience of "we drove CAC down from $800 to $400 by optimizing our LinkedIn ads" is valuable—for a world where paid channels were the primary discovery mechanism.

But when buyers start their research in ChatGPT, your LinkedIn ad optimization doesn't matter if AI never mentions you. When discovery happens before buyers even know your name, the top of your funnel isn't paid media—it's LLM perception.

This is what Verna means by budget shifting from "incremental paid channel optimization" to "communities and product investment." The discovery channel changed, so budget allocation has to change.

What replaces it: LLM visibility, community presence, and founder-led distribution. If ChatGPT recommends your product and your founder is visible in the communities where buyers hang out, you don't need to outbid competitors for ad placement.

Unlearn: Feature-Benefit Messaging

The entire B2B messaging framework—identify pain points, map features to benefits, differentiate on capabilities—was built for buyers who needed education.

In 2026, buyers educate themselves with AI before they ever talk to you. By the time they reach out, they've already read the features comparison (from ChatGPT), understood the benefits (from synthesized content), and formed opinions (from AI recommendations).

Your messaging job isn't to educate—it's to confirm that your product delivers what AI already told them you deliver.

What replaces it: Product-as-marketing and proof-driven positioning. Show the product working. Share real results. Let buyers experience value before they buy. Messaging becomes validation, not education.

The New Growth Fundamentals

So what does the 95% innovation time actually focus on? Based on what's working in 2026:

Public Building and Founder Visibility

Verna emphasizes founder visibility as a core growth lever. This isn't about "thought leadership" in the old sense (writing generic LinkedIn posts). It's about building in public—sharing what you're learning, what's working, what failed.

Why this works: buyers trust people more than brands, and AI amplifies human voices. When a founder shares insights publicly, that content shapes what AI says about the company. When a founder has an authentic point of view, communities form around that perspective.

The companies treating founder presence as "nice to have" are invisible. The companies where founders are genuinely engaged are creating distribution channels that can't be copied.

Product Velocity as Marketing Strategy

In a world where PMF expires quarterly, shipping speed is a competitive advantage. The faster you can go from insight to product to market, the faster you recapture PMF.

This means product teams and marketing teams have to operate as one unit. Marketing doesn't wait for product to finish and then "launch"—marketing is happening as the product is being built, shaped by what's being learned.

The metric that matters: how fast can you go from "we learned something important about what buyers need" to "buyers can experience it in the product"? Weeks is competitive. Months means competitors moved faster.

Removing Friction as a Core Strategy

Verna talks about "removing friction for users" as central to Lovable's approach. This goes deeper than UX optimization—it's a philosophy about how buyers should experience the entire journey.

Every form is friction. Every "schedule a demo" is friction. Every "let me get back to you" is friction. Every qualification question before providing value is friction.

The companies winning in 2026 ask: "Where can we let buyers experience value without asking for anything first?" The answer to that question becomes the growth engine.

Communities Over Campaigns

Verna notes that budgets are shifting from paid channel optimization to community investment. This reflects a fundamental change in how buyers discover and validate solutions.

Campaigns have a shelf life—they run, they convert, they end. Communities compound—every interaction adds value, every member becomes a distribution node, every conversation shapes how others perceive you.

The old model: spend on ads to drive leads to nurture to convert.
The new model: invest in community to create environments where buyers educate each other, validate your product, and shape market perception.

Why Unlearning Is Harder Than Learning

Here's the uncomfortable part: you got promoted because you were good at the old playbook. You built credibility by executing it well. Your team was hired for their expertise in it.

Unlearning means admitting that the expertise that got you here isn't what gets you there. It means telling your team "that thing we spent years perfecting? We're moving away from it." It means defending budget shifts away from channels that used to work.

This is why Verna's insight hits so hard. It's not "learn these new tactics"—that's easy. It's "recognize that 60% of your experience is now a liability"—that's existentially challenging.

But the companies that embrace this discomfort are the ones gaining ground. The ones still trying to perfect execution of outdated strategies are losing to competitors with imperfect execution of new fundamentals.

The Instability You're Feeling Is Real

Marketing leaders are sensing instability because the fundamentals shifted without a clear announcement. There was no single moment where the old playbook stopped working—it's been a gradual erosion of effectiveness while new approaches quietly started working better.

"Things that used to feel reliable suddenly feel fragile" isn't paranoia. It's accurate pattern recognition. The old reliability was built on assumptions about how buyers discover, evaluate, and choose solutions. Those assumptions are now wrong.

The question isn't whether to adapt—it's how fast you can unlearn.

Practical Implications for 2026

If you're a marketing leader reading this and recognizing the instability Verna describes, here's where to start:

Audit Your Time Allocation

How much of your team's time goes to optimizing existing channels versus exploring new approaches? If it's still 95% optimization and 5% innovation, you're operating on the old model in a new world.

Try inverting it—even partially. Allocate 50% of time to genuinely new approaches. See what happens. You'll either discover new growth levers or confirm that optimization still works. Both are valuable information.

Test Your PMF Assumptions

When was the last time you validated that your product-market fit still holds? Not "are we still getting deals"—that's a lagging indicator. Ask:

  • Do buyer questions in sales calls match what they asked 6 months ago, or have expectations shifted?
  • Are the use cases that drive adoption the same as a year ago?
  • What do buyers now expect that they didn't expect before?

If the answers reveal drift, you're watching PMF expire in real-time. The response isn't to optimize messaging—it's to recapture fit.

Check Your LLM Positioning

Open ChatGPT. Ask it to recommend solutions in your category for a specific use case. Are you mentioned? How are you described? How do you compare to competitors in the AI's response?

If the answer doesn't match your desired positioning—or worse, if you're not mentioned at all—your traditional marketing is working but your AI visibility is broken. That's where buyers are starting their research now.

Evaluate Friction Points

Map your buyer journey and count the friction points—every moment where you ask for something before providing value. Forms, calls, qualification questions, scheduled demos.

Then ask: which of these are actually necessary, and which are just "how we've always done it"? The companies winning in 2026 deleted most of them.

The Bottom Line

Elena Verna's experience mirrors what's happening across B2B marketing: the playbook that built successful careers is expiring faster than most people want to admit.

60-70% of traditional growth marketing experience is now a liability because it optimizes for a buyer journey that no longer exists. Buyers don't fill out forms to earn answers—they ask AI. They don't wait for nurture sequences—they expect immediate engagement. They don't schedule demos to see if a product might work—they want to experience it first.

The shift from 5% innovation time to 95% isn't a luxury for well-funded companies. It's survival strategy for anyone competing in a market where PMF expires quarterly and distribution channels fundamentally changed.

The instability you're feeling is real. The question is whether you'll try to optimize your way through it or embrace the unlearning required to rebuild on new fundamentals.

The companies that choose unlearning are the ones that will still be relevant in 2027.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Marketing Trends & Industry Shifts

Why is 60% of traditional marketing experience considered a liability in 2026?

According to growth leader Elena Verna, 60-70% of traditional marketing experience has become a liability because the fundamentals of buyer behavior and discovery have shifted. Buyers now expect instant, personalized, and expert engagement, often turning to AI assistants like ChatGPT for answers instead of filling out forms or waiting for nurture sequences. As a result, optimizing old channels and playbooks no longer produces results, and companies must focus on innovation and unlearning outdated practices to stay relevant. [Source]

What are the three fundamental shifts affecting marketing in 2026?

The three fundamental shifts are: 1) AI has become infrastructure, not just a channel, changing how work is done and how buyers research; 2) Buyer expectations have accelerated beyond traditional marketing cycles, demanding instant and expert engagement; 3) Distribution platforms have changed, with buyers starting research on AI platforms like ChatGPT instead of Google, making LLM (large language model) perception critical. [Source]

How has the concept of Product Market Fit (PMF) changed for marketing leaders?

Product Market Fit is now a continuous process rather than a one-time achievement. Buyer expectations, competitive positioning, and use cases evolve rapidly, often quarterly, requiring companies to recapture PMF every few months. Companies that treat PMF as a destination risk seeing their metrics erode, while those that continuously adapt stay ahead. [Source]

What marketing practices should leaders unlearn to stay competitive?

Leaders should unlearn MQL-based pipeline models, annual and quarterly planning cycles, paid channel playbooks, and feature-benefit messaging. Instead, they should focus on conversation intelligence, continuous planning, LLM visibility, community presence, and proof-driven positioning. [Source]

What are the new growth fundamentals for marketing teams in 2026?

The new fundamentals include public building and founder visibility, product velocity as a marketing strategy, removing friction from the buyer journey, and investing in communities over campaigns. These approaches help companies adapt to rapidly changing buyer expectations and distribution channels. [Source]

How can marketing leaders audit their team's time allocation to adapt to new fundamentals?

Leaders should analyze how much time is spent optimizing existing channels versus exploring new approaches. If the split is still 95% optimization and 5% innovation, it's time to invert the ratio—allocating at least 50% to innovation can help discover new growth levers and adapt to market changes. [Source]

What practical steps can marketing leaders take to adapt to the new marketing landscape?

Leaders should: 1) Audit time allocation between optimization and innovation; 2) Regularly test product-market fit assumptions; 3) Check their company's LLM positioning in AI tools like ChatGPT; 4) Evaluate and remove friction points in the buyer journey. [Source]

Why is LLM (Large Language Model) perception now a critical marketing KPI?

LLM perception is critical because buyers increasingly rely on AI assistants like ChatGPT for product research. These tools synthesize information from multiple sources and are perceived as objective, making their recommendations highly influential. If your company is not visible or accurately positioned in LLM responses, traditional marketing efforts may be ineffective. [Source]

What are the implications for marketing teams when LLM perception becomes a primary focus?

Marketing teams lose direct control over messaging, as AI models synthesize content from many sources. Accuracy isn't guaranteed, and competitors can influence perception by publishing comparative content. Teams must proactively create accessible, accurate content to shape AI-driven narratives. [Source]

How can companies check and improve their LLM positioning?

Companies can check their LLM positioning by asking AI tools like ChatGPT to recommend solutions in their category and analyzing how they are described. To improve positioning, they should publish clear, accessible, and proof-driven content that accurately reflects their strengths and use cases. [Source]

What does '95% innovation time' mean for marketing teams?

It means that teams should spend the majority of their time on innovation—testing new approaches, channels, and strategies—rather than optimizing existing ones. This shift is necessary because the old playbook is no longer effective in a rapidly changing, AI-driven market. [Source]

How does removing friction impact the buyer journey in 2026?

Removing friction—such as forms, qualification calls, and scheduled demos—allows buyers to experience value immediately without barriers. Companies that eliminate unnecessary steps and provide instant value are more likely to win buyers in the new landscape. [Source]

Why is unlearning outdated marketing practices challenging for teams?

Unlearning is difficult because teams and leaders have built their credibility and careers on the old playbook. Admitting that previous expertise is now less relevant requires a mindset shift and willingness to embrace new fundamentals, even if it means moving away from what once worked. [Source]

What is the bottom line for marketing leaders in 2026?

The bottom line is that the old marketing playbook is expiring, and companies must embrace unlearning and innovation to remain relevant. The instability leaders feel is real, and adapting quickly to new buyer behaviors and AI-driven discovery is essential for survival. [Source]

Salespeak.ai Product Features & Capabilities

What is Salespeak.ai and what does it do?

Salespeak.ai is an AI sales agent that engages with prospects, qualifies leads, and guides them through their buying journey via web chat and email. It learns from previous conversations to improve future interactions, transforming your website into a real-time, 24/7 sales expert. The platform provides actionable insights from buyer conversations to help businesses refine sales strategies and improve conversion rates. [Source]

What are the key features of Salespeak.ai?

Key features include 24/7 customer engagement, expert-level conversations trained on your content, seamless CRM integration, actionable insights from buyer interactions, multi-modal AI (chat, voice, email), lead qualification, sales routing, and quick setup with no coding required. [Source]

How does Salespeak.ai help improve inbound conversion rates?

Salespeak.ai improves inbound conversion rates by providing instant, intelligent engagement with website visitors, qualifying leads in real time, and offering expert-level answers without requiring forms or delays. Customers have reported conversion increases from 8% to 50% after switching to Salespeak.ai. [Source]

Does Salespeak.ai support CRM integration?

Yes, Salespeak.ai seamlessly integrates with your CRM system, enabling streamlined operations and ensuring that all lead and conversation data is captured and actionable. [Source]

How does the Salespeak AI Brain learn about new website pages?

The Salespeak AI Brain tracks new web pages once the widget is deployed and adds new information from those pages to its knowledge bank, ensuring up-to-date responses and coverage. [Source: manual]

What actionable insights does Salespeak.ai provide?

Salespeak.ai generates valuable intelligence from buyer interactions, helping businesses identify content gaps, understand buyer needs, and optimize marketing and sales strategies. These insights can be used to refine messaging, improve product offerings, and increase conversion rates. [Source]

How quickly can Salespeak.ai be implemented?

Salespeak.ai can be fully implemented in under an hour, with onboarding taking just 3-5 minutes. No coding is required, and customers often see live results the same day. [Source]

What technical documentation is available for Salespeak.ai?

Salespeak.ai provides comprehensive documentation, including guides on campaigns, goals, qualification criteria, widget settings, AWS Cloudfront integration, and a getting started guide. These resources are available on the Support Center and Getting Started page.

What security and compliance certifications does Salespeak.ai have?

Salespeak.ai is SOC2 compliant, ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and CCPA compliant, ensuring high standards for security, privacy, and data protection. More details can be found at the Salespeak Trust Center.

What feedback have customers given about Salespeak.ai's ease of use?

Customers have praised Salespeak.ai for its accessibility and self-service setup. For example, Tim McLain reported that he was able to get Salespeak.ai live in half an hour without forms, calls, or pressure, and saw immediate results. [Source]

What performance metrics demonstrate Salespeak.ai's effectiveness?

Salespeak.ai has delivered measurable results, including 100% lead coverage, a 3.2x increase in qualified demo rates in 30 days, a 20% conversion lift post-Webflow sync, and up to $380K in pipeline booked while teams were offline. [Source]

What industries does Salespeak.ai serve?

Salespeak.ai serves a variety of industries, including sales enablement, engineering intelligence, SaaS, healthcare, and enterprise software, as demonstrated in its published case studies. [Source]

What are the main pain points Salespeak.ai solves?

Salespeak.ai addresses pain points such as lack of 24/7 customer interaction, slow or resource-intensive implementation, pricing concerns, ineffective lead qualification, and poor user experience with traditional forms or chatbots. [Source]

How does Salespeak.ai differentiate itself from other solutions?

Salespeak.ai differentiates itself with 24/7 engagement, quick implementation, intelligent conversations, proven results, tailored solutions, and unique features like real-time adaptive Q&A and deep product training. [Source]

Pricing & Plans

What is Salespeak.ai's pricing model?

Salespeak.ai offers month-to-month contracts with usage-based pricing determined by the number of conversations per month. The Starter plan is free for up to 25 conversations, with additional conversations at $5 each. Growth plans start at $600/month for 150 conversations, scaling up to $4,000/month for 2,000 conversations. Enterprise plans are custom-priced. [Source]

Are there onboarding fees or long-term commitments with Salespeak.ai?

No, Salespeak.ai does not charge onboarding fees and all plans are flexible, allowing businesses to change or cancel at any time without long-term commitments. [Source]

Use Cases & Customer Success

Who can benefit from using Salespeak.ai?

Salespeak.ai is ideal for B2B companies seeking to improve inbound lead conversion, sales enablement, and customer engagement. It is used by organizations in sales enablement, engineering intelligence, SaaS, healthcare, and enterprise software. [Source]

Can you share specific case studies or success stories of Salespeak.ai customers?

Yes. For example, RepSpark, a B2B e-commerce platform, saw a +17% increase in LLM visibility and a 20–30 increase in meaningful buyer interactions per week after implementing Salespeak.ai. Faros AI achieved +100% growth in ChatGPT-driven referrals. Full case studies are available on the Salespeak Success Stories page.

How does Salespeak.ai support different use cases like inbound leads and account-based marketing?

Salespeak.ai supports inbound leads by instantly engaging visitors and qualifying them in real time. For account-based marketing, it provides personalized, expert-level conversations tailored to specific accounts, increasing engagement and conversion rates. [Source]

What are the key benefits of using Salespeak.ai?

Key benefits include enhanced buyer experience, increased conversion rates, cost-effectiveness, time efficiency, strategic insights, and a future-proofed inbound strategy as buyers increasingly prefer rep-free interactions. [Source]

How does Salespeak.ai help companies adapt to the new buyer journey described in 2026?

Salespeak.ai aligns the sales process with the modern buyer's journey by providing instant, expert-level engagement, removing friction, and delivering proof-driven value. This approach matches the expectations of buyers who rely on AI for research and demand immediate, personalized experiences. [Source]

Support & Implementation

What support options are available for Salespeak.ai customers?

Starter plan customers receive email support. Growth and Enterprise customers benefit from unlimited ongoing support, including a dedicated onboarding team, live sessions, training videos, and detailed documentation. [Source]

How easy is it to test Salespeak.ai on my website?

Salespeak.ai is designed for quick, self-service setup. You can deploy the widget and start seeing results in as little as 30 minutes, with no forms or sales calls required. [Source]

Company Vision & Trust

What is Salespeak.ai's vision and mission?

Salespeak.ai's vision is to delight, excite, and empower buyers by radically rewriting the sales narrative and prioritizing delightful buyer experiences. Its mission is to revolutionize the B2B buying experience by creating a frictionless, efficient system that enhances engagement and satisfaction. [Source]

Who founded Salespeak.ai and what is the company's background?

Salespeak.ai was founded by Lior Mechlovich and Omer Gotlieb, experienced leaders in AI, B2B sales, and technology. The company is built on principles of accuracy, speed, and convenience, with a mission to eliminate friction in the sales process. [Source]