Why does GTM feel harder than it used to?

Go-to-market teams have never had more leverage. We have more data, better enrichment, tighter targeting, more automation, and more ways to reach buyers than at any point in the last decade. In theory, that should make growth easier. In reality, many teams are experiencing the opposite.

Reply rates are abysmal and connections are inconsistent. Across millions of campaigns, average B2B cold email reply rates sit between roughly 3–5% in 2025, and in some analyses fall closer to 1–3% when generic tactics are applied. Cold calling reflects the same pattern, with buyers screening unknown numbers by default — and yes, Apple just made that the default setting. Reaching a target has become straightforward, but earning meaningful engagement has not.

The current buying environment rewards demonstrated relevance and penalizes interruption. Buyers now control when and how they engage, and they have the tools to filter anything that feels untailored or unnecessary. Systems designed around volume are meeting buyers who are increasingly equipped to ignore it.

Small Moments of Disconnection Add Up

Since 2020, go-to-market teams have operated in an increasingly digital-first buying environment. Each individual shift feels minor on its own, a slightly lower reply rate, a slightly lower connect rate, a bit more time before a response comes back, but these small frictions compound and ultimately result in unattained goals.

Sales and marketing have always depended on trust and relationships. Many of those trust signals used to be built in person, over coffee, at events, or in the moments between formal conversations. Today, most of that trust has to be established through screens, inboxes, and notifications long before a buyer ever meets a seller.

When communication feels templated or overly automated, even if it is technically “personalized”, buyers sense it immediately. How many “Hey {First Name}” emails have you received that you immediately deleted? The challenge isn’t reaching buyers. It’s convincing them that a message deserves their attention in the first place.

Video Has Always Promised Connection

Video is one of the most direct ways to communicate presence outside of a live conversation. Seeing a face and hearing tone compresses trust-building into seconds in a way that text simply cannot achieve at scale. That’s why video shows up everywhere in GTM motions: in prospecting, demo follow-ups, onboarding, renewals, and customer education.

The issue is consistency, quality, and time. In many organizations, video still depends on individual effort. Revenue leaders who use video consistently report measurable impact. 93% say it positively affects revenue, with 35% reporting higher win rates and 27% citing shorter deal cycles. Yet usage remains uneven. Over time, video becomes something that “works when someone remembers to send it” instead of something that reliably shows up when it matters most.

Do teams use video? Yes. Do they use it in a way that consistently moves pipeline and creates trust across the funnel? Not always. We’re on a mission to change that.

Video Alone Isn’t Enough, We Still Have Targets to Hit!

We all have growth targets to hit. Quotas certainly haven’t decreased, and leadership expects pipeline acceleration. SDRs and AEs are measured on activity and outcomes. You can’t rely on individual sellers remembering to record a personalized video every time the context calls for it.

There is absolutely a time and a place for rep-recorded personalization, especially in high-touch moments. But it is not a repeatable model for scaling trust across hundreds or thousands of touchpoints. You need something that works hard at the way you make an impression, the way you reuse what works, and the way you ensure the right message reaches the right buyer at the right moment. 

Turning video from a tactic reps occasionally execute into something embedded in your GTM workflows, something that consistently communicates real human intent, is what lets it move from novelty to impact. It’s how you take the power of video and make it measurable and repeatable.

The Data Shows What Happens When Teams Operationalize Video

The data from Vidyard’s Future of Revenue Report, based on more than 600 revenue leaders, shows clear patterns in what drives performance.

93% of revenue leaders using video report a positive impact on revenue. Teams that pair video with AI are 79% more likely to hit KPIs sooner and 76% more likely to accelerate deal cycles. On average, these teams see a 31% lift in closed deals per quarter and meaningful time savings from automating repetitive outreach tasks. 

What stands out is not that video works better than text, we’ve known that for years! What stands out is that teams seeing the strongest results aren’t simply recording more video. They are embedding video into their GTM systems so that it becomes a reliable part of how they operate, not an optional add-on that depends on individual bandwidth. One SDR doubled their meeting-to-opportunity conversion rate and achieved a 37.5% response rate using video as part of a repeatable process.

Those workflows look different depending on the team, but common patterns include automated video delivery after a demo, triggered follow-up videos based on engagement signals, and lifecycle video touchpoints integrated into CRM and marketing automation.

Automation and Human Presence Are Not Opposites

There’s a common fear that scaling communication means losing authenticity. The reality is much more nuanced.

Automation, when applied thoughtfully, removes friction that typically kills consistency. It ensures that key moments aren’t skipped when calendars get full, workloads surge, or reps are out of office. Human presence layered into those automated flows restores warmth and context without creating extra manual work.

Today, with integrations like Zapier and native CRM connections, teams can build no-code workflows that trigger personalized videos based on buyer behavior signals. CRM updates, lifecycle stage changes, meeting bookings, or content engagement can automatically initiate outreach. The video that is delivered can still reflect a real person, consistent voice, and relevant context. The benefit is not only novelty, but reliability and consistency. Video becomes embedded in the workflow rather than dependent on whether someone remembers to send it.

Designing for the Buyer We Actually Have

Buyers today are selective and they filter aggressively. They ignore what feels generic and they’re inherently a little distrustful. Think about it, when you get a call from a number you don’t recognize, you’d rather risk the chance of ignoring a call from your bank than pick up a spam call.

So for any customer facing teams, scaling activity alone is no longer enough. Scaling credibility is what matters.

Video, when embedded properly into systems, becomes a visible signal of effort and intent. It communicates that someone took the time to understand the context, and signals that the outreach is relevant, truthful, recognizable and worthy of attention. When that signal is delivered consistently at the right moments across the buyer journey, it compounds value in a way generic outreach never can.

The teams that are pulling ahead aren’t simply doing more outreach. They are building systems where outreach feels human by default and where trust is earned through something as simple as video. 

If this raised questions about where your own systems may be leaking credibility or consistency, it may be worth examining how other revenue teams are addressing the same challenge. Our Future Revenue Strategy report breaks down how agentic AI and video are being integrated into modern GTM infrastructure.

→ Read the full report