The Complete Guide in 5 Minutes

Everything you need to know about winning in the age of AI-informed buyers

5 m read

Your buyer already knows what you are going to say.

By the time you get the meeting, they have asked ChatGPT to rank you against competitors and formed opinions about whether you are worth their time. The window where you used to demonstrate value has compressed into a fraction of what it once was.

This book exists to help you win in that shrinking window. Here is everything you need to know.

Three Forces Working Against You

The Invisible EvaluationBuyers use AI to build shortlists before you know they exist. No form fill. No demo request. No signal. What took months now takes one afternoon.

The Crisis of SamenessWhen everyone uses the same AI tools, frameworks, and best practices, differentiation dies. If an AI could have written your email or given your pitch, why do they need you?

The Engagement DeficitVideo calls turn audiences into passive listeners. The brain needs emotion to tag experiences as meaningful, but screens create distance that dilutes emotional impact.

The New Reality of B2B Buying

Your buyers are doing in minutes what used to take them months, and they are doing it without you. The research phase that once gave you multiple touchpoints to build relationships is gone.

Using AI

89%

of B2B buyers now use generative AI in purchasing decisions

Start in AI

50%

start their buying journey in a chatbot, not Google

Without You

83%

of their journey happens without you. Only 17% involves any sales interaction

The Shrinking Window

When buyers finally show up, they do not want your overview. They want proof you understand their situation better than the AI that got them this far.

Pre-AI Buyer Journey

8-12 weeks

75% Sales Involvement

ResearchWeek 1-2

ContentWeek 3-4

Discovery CallWeek 5-6

EvaluationWeek 7-8

DecisionWeek 9-12

Research

• Google searches
• Industry blogs

Content

• Download whitepapers
• Fill out forms

Discovery Call

• Intro call with AE
• Needs assessment

Evaluation

• Product demos
• Technical deep dives

Decision

• Reference calls
• Final negotiations

Post-AI Buyer Journey

Hours to Days

17% Sales Involvement

AI QueryMinutes

Instant ShortlistMinutes to Hours

Invisible ResearchDays

First Sales ContactThe 17%

AI Query

• Ask ChatGPT to compare vendors
• Get instant comparison

Instant Shortlist

• AI generates shortlist
• One-shot vendor recommendations

Invisible Research

• Deep research via AI
• G2 reviews (no form fill)

First Sales Contact

• Already deep in evaluation
• Shortlist already built

The Four-Phase Solution

Burn the Deck is built on four interconnected phases. Each addresses a specific aspect of winning in the compressed AI-era sales cycle.

PREPARE

From Vendor to Valued Partner

Think buyer-first, not content-first. The meeting is not over when you hang up. It is over when your champion pitches you to their boss without you in the room.

From Vendor to Valued Partner

Think Buyer First

What Will They Say?

Know Your Buyer

Discovery in the Age of AI

PLAN

An Experience Worth Sharing

You are not competing against vendors. You are competing against the forgetting curve. Design experiences that survive in memory.

An Experience Worth Sharing

Building Trust Through Presence

Structure for Clarity

Engineering Memorable Moments

Boost Engagement with Interaction

PRESENT

Features Scatter. Stories Travel.

Features are loose papers. Stories are envelopes. Only envelopes travel through organizations intact.

Features Scatter. Stories Travel.

Story Fundamentals

Why Stories Win Deals

Weaving Metrics Into Story

Show, Don't Tell

SCIENCE

The Research Behind What Works

90% of B2B decisions are made subconsciously. Understanding how the brain actually works is your unfair advantage.

Evolution of Communication

How Your Brain Actually Remembers Things

What Captures & Keeps Attention

Why Emotion Beats Logic

How Messages Spread (or Die)

Why Doing Beats Watching

The Science That Changes Everything

These are not opinions. These are research-backed findings that should reshape every conversation you have.

Stories vs Facts

Stories are remembered dramatically better than facts alone. Facts are 12x more likely to be remembered if part of a story.

12xmore memorable

Emotion Drives Decisions

B2B buying is not the rational process we pretend it is. Decisions happen subconsciously.

90%emotional first

The Forgetting Curve

Without reinforcement, most of what you say vanishes by tomorrow. Stories persist.

50-80%forgotten in 24h

Connection Lost

We have lost 85% of human connection since the fire circle. Video calls score 3/20.

85%connection lost

Why Story Is Your Greatest Weapon

The three forces create a perfect storm against traditional selling. But there is one thing that defeats all three: story.

How Story Fights Each Force

Story Defeats Invisible EvaluationBy the time you get the meeting, buyers are deep into their evaluation. There is no time for multiple discovery calls to get to know them. You must show up leaned into their world from the first conversation. Story is how you demonstrate that you understand what is important to them and have the expertise to guide shared success. When you arrive with a perspective shaped by relevant customer stories, you prove you are worth their limited time.

Story Defeats SamenessRelevancy is so powerful it literally moves people. Research shows self-relevant information activates deeper processing and significantly improves memory. Story is how you bring your solution into their world with precision. When you wrap capabilities in stories that use their language, reference their industry, and connect to their specific challenges, you transform generic features into something that feels built for them. The delivery style matters as much as the content.

Story Defeats the Engagement DeficitWhen you tell a story, something remarkable happens: the listener's brain synchronizes with yours. Neural coupling means they experience your narrative as if it were happening to them. This is how you create emotional connection through a screen. Story cuts through the distance that video creates.

This is why story is not just a nice-to-have. In the age of AI-informed buyers, story is your only sustainable competitive advantage.

The Envelope Metaphor

This is the central insight of the book:

Technical details are loose papers. Hand someone fifty loose papers and they will drop most of them. Put those papers in an envelope with a clear label and they can carry it anywhere.

Your features and technical specs are the papers inside. The story is the envelope.

Your champion does not need to understand your entire tech stack to retell your value. They just need the envelope: "A team drowning in 4-hour response times now resolves issues in 12 minutes."

Enterprise deals involve 4+ stakeholders. You will not be in every room. If you gave them a feature list, they will stumble. If you gave them a story envelope, they can retell it with high fidelity.

Features scatter. Envelopes travel. And in B2B sales, the message that travels wins.

The Three Biggest Shifts You Must Make

Based on the challenges buyers face today versus how most sellers still operate, here are the three fundamental mindset shifts required to succeed.

From Old Playbook to New Reality

From Educator to ValidatorOld way: Lead with product education, feature explanations, and discovery questions. New way: Show up with a perspective that demonstrates your expertise and understanding of their world. There is no time for multiple calls to learn about them. Your job is to validate their research, challenge assumptions, and prove you can guide shared success from the first conversation.

From Content-First to Buyer-FirstOld way: Start with your slides, your agenda, your company overview. New way: Invest deeply in understanding their ecosystem, company strategy, and individual objectives before you connect. Use their language, reference their metrics, and frame your value through their lens. Relevancy activates deeper processing and builds trust.

From Feature Delivery to Experience DesignOld way: Walk through capabilities, cover all the bases, make sure nothing is missed. New way: Design for participation and memory. You are not competing against other vendors. You are competing against the forgetting curve. Create moments that survive in memory and stories worth retelling.

Fighting Back: Your Action Plan

Each of the three forces has a specific counter-strategy. Here is how to fight back with the shifts you just learned.

How to Win

Fighting the Invisible EvaluationApply the Educator to Validator shift. Show up with a prepared mind and hypothesis, not a discovery checklist. Research five layers before the call: ecosystem trends, company strategy, business unit objectives, individual backgrounds, and relevant proof points. Ask "What have you already learned about solutions like ours?" Then validate, clarify, or challenge. The old discovery playbook is dead. The sellers who win prove they already understand the buyer's world.

Fighting the Crisis of SamenessApply the Content-First to Buyer-First shift. Relevancy is your differentiator. Use their language, reference their industry metrics, and connect your stories to their specific challenges. Speaking your customer's language increases processing fluency, which the brain misattributes as truth and credibility. One story about a company like theirs beats ten generic case studies. Delivery style matters as much as content.

Fighting the Engagement DeficitApply the Feature Delivery to Experience Design shift. Design for participation, not passive consumption. Ask questions. Offer choices. Co-create with your buyer. The IKEA effect means buyers value experiences they helped build. When they touch it, they own it. Create peak moments that break patterns and stick in memory long after the call ends.

The Bottom Line

Buyers have moved around you, not ahead of you. They are researching invisibly through AI.
You get 17% of the buyer's time. Make every minute count.
Stop explaining features. Start telling stories that make success feel real.
Your champion is your channel. Equip them with envelopes they can carry.
90% of decisions are emotional. Logic is the justification system, not the decision engine.
The experience you create is your only sustainable differentiator.

Dense decks do not travel. Relevant stories do.

This book shows you exactly how to create stories worth retelling. Not just to win the meeting, but to win the conversations that happen after you leave the room.

That is how you win when the window is shrinking.

StoryPath