#213: Why the Funnel is Breaking Your Go-To-Market - and why Closed Loops are the Answer (Closed Circuit Selling)

Closed Circuit Selling: Why the Funnel Is Breaking Your GTMMost go-to-market teams aren’t failing on effort. They’re failing on architecture.In this episode, we sit down with Charles Needham (co-author of Cold Call Algo) alongside Adem Manderovic (CRO School) to break down why the linear funnel is the biggest sacred cow in sales, and why Closed Circuit Selling is the better model for modern outbound.We unpack incentives, silos, CAC payback insanity, and why “meetings booked” became a broken religion. Then we get practical. How to run outbound as market learning. How to capture timing signals. And how to build feedback loops that actually make marketing, sales, and customer success stronger together.Tune in and learn:+ Why buyer journeys are non-linear, and funnels create blind spots+ How to shift from meetings quotas to conversation-driven market validation+ Why intent data can’t replace first-party conversationsIf you’re a B2B marketer or revenue leader, this is the blueprint for building a GTM system that compounds instead of churns.-----------------------------------------------------🔗 Links + CTAs-----------------------------------------------------🧠 Learn how to drive revenue across your organisation with CRO School: https://theb2bplaybook.com/cro-school🎓 Join our Demand Generation Program: https://theb2bplaybook.com/demand-generation-course💼 Need help running your own LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads? https://theb2bplaybook.com/linkedin-ads-agency-----------------------------------------------------🧑‍🎓ACCESS our B2B COURSES: https://theb2bplaybook.com/courses📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theb2bplaybook📩 Newsletter: https://theb2bplaybook.com/newsletter/📚 Latest content: https://theb2bplaybook.com/-----------------------------------------------------00:00 The “Sacred Cow”: Why the Linear Funnel Breaks Reality01:00 Who’s Charles Needham (And Why He Thinks Like a Quant)04:30 From Mortgage Bonds to CRMs: Seeing Sales as a Database07:00 The Moment He Realised “Meetings Booked” Is a Trap09:10 Closed Loop Continuity vs Funnel Checklists11:40 What Silos Destroy: Feedback Loops That Never Make It Back14:10 CAC Payback Madness: When “Growth” Becomes Insanity17:10 The Conversations Model: Comp People for Learning, Not Meetings20:05 Predictable Revenue Misread: “Market Development” Got Lost21:00 VC Algebra vs Real Buyers: “The Customer Doesn’t Exist”28:10 The 2008 Analogy: Incentives Create Fragile Systems32:20 Intent Data Hot Take: “Or You Could Call Them”36:00 The Guitar Demo: What “Cataloguing” Really Means39:00 “Talk to Everybody”: The Outbound Belief Most CROs Don’t Hold41:45 Fixing the Root: Change Comp, or Nothing Changes48:10 Market Validation vs Cataloguing: The Language Problem56:35 AI Didn’t Fix Outbound. It Scaled the Spam Cannon59:30 What Works Next: Follow the Underpriced Channel (Then Move)1:06:00 Cold Call Algo: The “Unplanned Communication” Thesis-----------------------------------------------------👥 Are you a B2B marketer in a small team??💰 Need to bring in more revenue for your company (so sales and your boss love you??)Get the:🔹 strategy🔹 templates🔹 toolsSo you have everything you need to drive more revenue for your brand.See why other B2B marketers like you love The B2B Incubatorhttps://theb2bplaybook.com/demand-generation-courseS07 E213 - The B2B Playbook#b2b #b2bmarketing #digitalmarketing #demandgeneration #outboundsales