Read on: My website
Read time: 2 Minutes
In volatile markets, senior leadership rewards speed.
Analysts reward speed.
Media rewards speed.
But markets don’t always reward speed. In uncertainty, leaders default to acceleration because visible motion feels like control. And it can backfire on them.
I used to think rushing to market was a boldness problem. That the leaders who moved too fast were either reckless, wanted to prove something to their competitors, or had a chip on their shoulder. Then I sat with a past client who was none of those things, sharp, experienced, genuinely talented, and watched them spend a considerable amount of money on a product built for a market that only had one real customer in it.
The signals were there the whole time. They just weren’t asking the right questions about what the market was telling us.
Was this newsletter forwarded to you?
The problem was the isolated signals they were getting. There was one customer generating a strong, clear, compelling signal.
And there were other customers generating something much weaker. Something that, if the client slowed down long enough to really look at it, was telling a completely different story. It could have changed the whole outcome of how to approach the market and the strength of their product.
There’s a moment in every bad capital decision where someone in the room knew something was off.
What would have been different if we’d just slowed the room down for one honest conversation? We dive into it now.
Let’s dance.
How Marketers Are Scaling With AI in 2026
61% of marketers say this is the biggest marketing shift in decades.
Get the data and trends shaping growth in 2026 with this groundbreaking state of marketing report.
Inside you’ll discover:
-
Results from over 1,500 marketers centered around results, goals and priorities in the age of AI
-
Stand out content and growth trends in a world full of noise
-
How to scale with AI without losing humanity
-
Where to invest for the best return in 2026
Download your 2026 state of marketing report today.
Get Your Report
A Pattern
That story isn’t unique. I’ve watched versions of it play out across industries, and it almost always follows the same three phases.
First comes the shock. Something or a compelling event disrupts the market. Capital rushes toward whoever looks most decisive. Everyone moves like they understand what’s happening, even when nobody really does yet.
Then comes the overextension. Companies overspend (money, resources, people, etc.) to signal relevance. Infrastructure gets built before demand stabilizes. Regulatory exposure climbs. Early missteps start to compound. This is the phase where most of the permanent competitive damage gets done.
Not because companies moved too slowly. Because they moved before the variance narrowed.
Then, eventually, things clarify. Real demand patterns emerge. Regulatory frameworks settle. Capital efficiency separates the winners from everyone else. And the companies that waited step into cleaner conditions, lower costs, and a track that someone else already paid to clear.
The hard truth is this. My client didn’t lose because they lacked vision. They lost because they confused the strength of one signal for the strength of the whole market.
Be sure to check out some of my past issues here:
The Importance of Executive-Level Sponsorship
From One-Shot AI Prompts To Packing Some Serious Punch
You Can’t Hit Big Targets With Small Support
Three Costs
When I look back at that situation, and others like it, the damage always comes from the same three places.
The first is reduction in choices. Every early commitment made in uncertain conditions narrows what’s possible later. Vendor flexibility shrinks. Talent becomes harder to reallocate. Pricing agility disappears. The decision looks decisive in the moment. What it’s actually doing is closing doors you don’t realize you needed until they’re already shut.
The second is what I call the volatility tax. First movers in uncertain markets pay for things their competitors never have to touch. Market education. Regulatory friction. Talent mismatches. Process redesigns built on assumptions that later turned out to be wrong. The companies that arrive six months later inherit all the benefits, the lessons learned, and none of the costs. They use that efficiency gap to close the distance quickly.
The third is that the acceleration isn’t really about the market at all. It’s about the room to navigate. A competitor makes a headline. The board asks a pointed question. The leadership team feels the pressure to look like they’re ahead of things. And capital starts moving not because the signals justify it, but because stillness feels like weakness. Perception management comes with a very large price tag.
Being Bold
I want to be clear. This is not an argument for sitting still.
Speed is correct when network effects are compounding, and early movers lock in the market. It’s correct when scarce talent is consolidating and won’t be available later. It’s correct when market share, once lost, simply doesn’t come back.
In those moments, hesitation is the real risk.
The leaders who consistently come out ahead in chaotic markets don’t just react faster than everyone else. Before things get noisy, before the leadership (or a board) starts asking questions and competitors start making headlines, they sit down and decide in advance exactly what would have to be true before they spend more money or move more aggressively.
They write it down. They agree on it. And when the pressure hits, they don’t have to make a judgment call in a heated room. They just look at what they already decided.
They know in advance what signal thresholds would cause them to double down. They know what real, repeatable customer demands look like before they build the infrastructure to serve them. They know the difference between one strong signal and a market.
My client had one strong signal. They needed to ask one harder question. Is this signal telling us about one customer, or is it telling us about a market?
They didn’t ask it. Not because they weren’t smart enough. But because the environment around them kept rewarding motion over that kind of patience. At the time, it was “we have invested significantly into this product, and we need to start to have an ROI on it.”
Patience was running thin, leadership had KPIs on how well the product did, and pressure built up with the sales team. Sales wasn’t going to sell something that other customers did not want.
Proactive
Make proactive decisions before the pressure arrives.
The best teams I’ve worked with treat acceleration like a contract.
-
Here is the specific condition that triggers more spending.
-
Here is what we are watching for.
-
Here is the number, the threshold, the signal that tells us the market is ready for what we’re about to build.
When that condition is met, they move without hesitation. Until it is, they hold without apology.
Most teams do the opposite. They move on instinct dressed up as urgency, and they hold when they should move because by then the conviction is gone and the budget is already behind them.
Last-minute CFO meeting, emergency Board meetings, Quarterly meeting, the list goes on to discuss these items.
So before your next major product or offering conversation, answer this honestly. Not in the meeting. Before it. Can every person in that room name the specific condition that would justify doubling your current investment?
Not the narrative. Not the competitor. The actual signal.
If the answers aren’t the same, you don’t have alignment. You have a group of smart people about to make an expensive decision for different reasons.
And that, more than market timing or competitive positioning, is how companies end up paying for markets that were never really there.
What the Internet Taught Me This Week
From new tools, recent trends, and market updates, here is what has been on my mind.
-
States advance bills to curb data center energy costs. Check it out here
-
Hacked traffic cams and hijacked TVs: How cyber operations supported the war against Iran. Check it out here
-
Amazon revealed as buyer of GW’s Virginia campus for $427M. Check it out here
If I could go back to that client conversation, I’d slow the room down before the money moved.
I’d ask them to separate the signals. Which ones are strong and broad? Which ones are strong but narrow? And what would it cost us to wait until we could tell the difference?
Because the real question was never “should we move fast?” The real question was “what are we actually seeing, and who are we seeing it in?”
One customer with a strong signal is not a market. It’s a starting point. And there’s a very expensive difference between the two.
This week, before your next major deployment decision, do one thing. Write down your three acceleration triggers. The specific, measurable conditions that would genuinely justify moving faster. Not the narrative pressure. Not the competitor headline. The actual signal.
If you can’t write them down, you’re not ready to move yet.
And somewhere, a competitor is patiently waiting for you to finish paying the tab they were disciplined enough to avoid.
See you next week.
Whenever You’re Ready, Here are 4 Ways I Can Help You:
-
Unlocking Hidden Potential – Reconnecting with Past Clients for Explosive Growth – Check out my free eBook on how you can find hidden gems in your past clients and help you crush your sales goals.
-
AI for Business Development – Download our free eBook on how you can effectively leverage AI prompts to your advantage. From properly setting up your preferred AI tool, to how to shape your prompts, save time, and get the outputs you are looking for.
-
Sales Resources at Your Fingertips – From tools, tips, demos, and how-tos, check out our Pages and content that can provide you with additional support, whether it be social selling, account management, or something else.
-
Cribworks Advisor Program – Want more than just resources? Reach out to me and see if our Advisor Program can help you scale your business.
