Key Takeaways:
- You can’t spot the flaws in processes you helped build.
- Unbiased outsiders uncover the gaps and barriers you overlook.
- Fixing hidden friction points removes invisible revenue leaks.
The Dangerous Blind Spots in Your Customer Journey
One of the toughest truths in The B2B Marketing Revolution® comes from Battle 2:
“You can’t possibly see all of the friction in your sales process or the lack of alignment between your sales and marketing messaging when you have been instrumental in putting them together.”
— The B2B Marketing Revolution®
When I speak with CEOs, most believe they have a decent handle on their customer journey. After all, they helped design it. They’re intimately familiar with every step, every touchpoint, every script, every handoff.
And that’s exactly the problem.
Because you can’t critique a system you’ve grown emotionally attached to. You can’t see the cracks in the process you defended in leadership meetings or objectively evaluate the messaging you personally approved.
Friction hides best in the places we’re most confident in.
Battle 2 exists for this reason: it forces leaders to accept that proximity creates blindness, and only objectivity can illuminate the truth.
The ApexIndustrial Story: When Familiarity Hides the Real Problem
A few years ago, I worked with a mid-market firm I’ll call ApexIndustrial. Their CEO was convinced their conversion problem was at the top of the funnel. “We just need more qualified leads,” he told me.
But when we ran both stakeholder interviews and third-party customer research, we discovered a very different truth:
- Their sales reps were inconsistent in how they presented value.
- Their nurture emails were misaligned with their actual offering.
- Their pricing conversation created confusion instead of confidence.
- And, worst of all, customers felt talked at, not listened to.
None of this was visible internally because the team had built those processes themselves. They were too close to see them. Too invested to question them. Too proud to challenge what they’d always done.
But when the truth came in through unbiased research?
Everything clicked.
It wasn’t a lead-gen problem. It was a friction problem.
The moment Apex removed those hidden tripwires, their close rate jumped 27% in a single quarter.
Not because they generated more leads, but because they finally stopped losing the ones they already had.
Why You Can’t See Your Own Friction Points
Leaders often ask me, “Why do we need an outside lens? Can’t we self-diagnose?”
And my answer is always the same: No, you can’t. Not fully. Not reliably. Not objectively.;
Here’s why:
- You’re emotionally connected to your own ideas.
- You normalize what your buyers find confusing.
- You underestimate the gaps buyers actually feel.
- You’re too close to spot misalignment.
- You assume intent equals clarity.
Your brain wants to protect what you helped create, not criticize it.
Because confusion doesn’t feel like confusion when you’ve seen it a hundred times.
Because you experience the journey with insider knowledge buyers don’t have.
Sales says one thing. Marketing says another. You think they match because you understand both.
Your intention behind a message doesn’t matter. The buyer’s interpretation does.
As I write in the book:
“Understanding customer barriers is key to converting leads.”
— The B2B Marketing Revolution®
You can’t understand those barriers if you can’t see them.
The Power of Objectivity in Battle 2
Battle 2 asks leaders to acknowledge something most won’t admit out loud: You don’t know your customer as well as you think you do.
And you certainly can’t see the journey the way they experience it.
Objectivity introduces the clarity you’ve been missing by:
- Revealing the gaps between what you think you’re saying and what customers are actually hearing.
- Identifying the emotional triggers you overlook because you’re too inside the product.
- Uncovering disconnects between sales and marketing that feel invisible internally.
- Spotting friction you mistake for “just how we do things here.”
- Showing you what’s broken without triggering internal defensiveness.
Messaging that feels clear internally often creates confusion externally.
How customers feel matters as much as what they think.
Alignment isn’t a belief. It’s a measurable reality.
Rituals and routines become sacred without being questioned.
Because people open up more to outsiders than to colleagues.
That’s why Battle 2 insists on unbiased, external research. Not optional, not “nice to have,” but non-negotiable.
Case Study: The Invisible Bottleneck in a High-Performing Sales Team
A professional services firm we worked with prided itself on having rock-solid sales reps. And to their credit, they were strong, but their conversion rate kept slipping.
Internally, the assumption was, “Our reps need more leads.” But when we ran customer interviews, the truth shocked them.
Prospects consistently said:
- “The reps didn’t ask about our goals.”
- “I felt rushed.”
- “The follow-up made me feel like a number, not a priority.”
- “I didn’t understand the differences between your packages.”
The friction wasn’t in quantity. It was in experience. The sales team wasn’t failing, but the process they were following was, and the internal team never saw it because they authored it.
By reworking key touchpoints, humanizing messaging, and restructuring follow-ups based on real buyer expectations, conversions jumped dramatically without a single additional lead.
That’s the power of objectivity.
Fixing Hidden Friction Points Removes Invisible Revenue Leaks
When you uncover friction you couldn’t see before, everything changes.
- Leads convert more easily.
- Sales cycles shorten.
- Buyers trust your process.
- Messaging resonates more deeply.
- Your team stops losing deals they didn’t even know they were losing.
- Revenue climbs without increasing spend.
This is predictable growth in its purest form, not because you’re adding more fuel but because you’re finally sealing the leaks in the tank.
Start a Revolution: You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See
Battle 2 is a humbling battle. It asks you to set aside pride, familiarity, and assumptions. It asks you to listen, really listen, to the truth your buyers whisper but never tell you directly.
Because predictable growth doesn’t come from hoping your customer journey works. It comes from proving it does through unbiased research.
So ask yourself:
Are you losing deals because of friction you can’t see?
And is your pride costing you more than your pipeline can afford?
The sooner you embrace objectivity, remove invisible barriers, and unlock the growth you’ve been chasing? This is where your revolution begins.
By Lori Turner-Wilson, RedRover CEO/Founder, Internationally Best-Selling Author of The B2B Marketing Revolution™: A Battle Plan for Guaranteed Outcomes
Taking Action
The above insights are part of hundreds of best practices found in The B2B Marketing Revolution™: A Battle Plan for Guaranteed Outcomes — the playbook that middle-market B2B CEOs and marketing leaders lean on to scale. Backed by a groundbreaking research study, this book offers time-tested best practices, indispensable KPIs for benchmarking, insights on where your dollars are best spent, and, above all, the proven 12 Battles™ Framework for generating guaranteed marketing outcomes. The B2B Marketing Revolution™ is a battle-hardened approach to becoming an outcomes-first leader who’s ready to shake up the status quo, invest in high-payoff market research and optimization, and — yes — even torch what’s not serving your endgame. Download more than 50 templates, scripts, and tools from the book on the Battle Reader Hub.
If you’d like to talk about how to build a marketing engine that delivers predictable results — whether you want to build it yourself or tag in our team to lead the way — we’d be delighted to help you get started.
