It’s Not You. It’s The Playbook.
by Chad de Lisle
I heard something this week that stuck with me.
A colleague who coaches marketing directors told me the same confession keeps showing up, almost word for word, across completely different companies and industries:
“I’m doing all the things. I honestly don’t know if any of it still works.”
Posting on LinkedIn. Sending the emails. Writing the content. Running the ads. Updating the website. Every motion a marketing leader is supposed to run.
And underneath it, a quiet suspicion that the playbook itself has expired, with nothing obvious to replace it.
If that’s you, here’s what I’d tell you.
THE PROBLEM: YOU’RE RUNNING A PLAYBOOK BUILT FOR A BUYER WHO NO LONGER EXISTS
You’re right. And it’s not your fault.
The standard lead gen playbook, gated content, demo forms, post-and-pray, cold volume, was built for how buyers behaved five years ago. Buyers don’t behave that way now. They research invisibly. They ask AI before they ask you. By the time they fill out a form, if they ever do, the decision is mostly made.
The playbook didn’t break in one bad quarter. It decayed, quietly, while you kept running it and wondering why the same work produced less every month.
Which is why it’s so easy to conclude the problem is you.
It isn’t. Nobody sent the memo. Every marketing leader is figuring this out at the same time, and almost every one of them privately feels behind.
WHY THIS IS A STRATEGY PROBLEM, NOT AN EFFORT PROBLEM
At Disruptive, Strategy is one of four pillars in VSET, the operating system behind every engagement we run.
Vision clarifies the destination. Strategy builds the map. Execution proves the vehicle is moving. Team ensures the journey doesn’t depend on one person.
When the map is outdated, no amount of Execution fixes it. You can post more, email more, run more ads, and still lose ground, because you’re optimizing a route that no longer leads anywhere.
This is also, quietly, a Trust Gap problem. Your CEO doesn’t see the decay. They just see the numbers softening and start asking why. You end up defending a playbook you already suspect is broken, which is a losing position no matter how hard you work.
TAKE THIS AND USE IT MONDAY
For Marketing Leaders: Before adding another channel or tactic, ask which parts of your current playbook assume a buyer who researches openly and fills out forms early. If most of it does, that’s your decay.
For CEOs: If your marketing leader seems to be working harder for less, the fix probably isn’t more budget or more activity. It’s a strategy conversation about how your buyer actually behaves now.
One change this week: Pick your single most-relied-on lead gen tactic and ask honestly whether it still matches how your buyer actually moves. If you’re not sure, that uncertainty is the answer.
THE TRUTH
The anxiety isn’t a you-problem. It’s a playbook problem. The only difference between the marketing leaders who get stuck and the ones who don’t is what they do with that realization.
Take the Indispensable Marketer Assessment and find out exactly where your own strategy has decayed.
— Chad de Lisle
Head of Marketing, Disruptive Advertising
P.S. — Every capable marketing leader I’ve talked to has felt exactly this, right before they figured out how to fix it. If you’ve had the quiet suspicion and haven’t said it out loud yet, the assessment is a good place to start.
