The Social Reality: The Employer Branding Trap
We live in an era where B2B companies spend millions on branding. The social reality is that if you look at almost any tech or SaaS company’s website today, you will see the same buzzwords: “Agile,” “High-Velocity,” “Innovative,” and proudly displayed “Great Place to Work” badges. We are conditioned by the market to trust these validations blindly.
The IHM Lens: Looking at the Engine
Currently studying B2B Account Management at IHM, I’ve been trained to map out the actual customer journey and revenue operations behind the marketing. When you apply this analytical lens to how these “agile” companies operate internally—specifically in how they handle recruitment and onboarding—a very different picture emerges.
The Facts: Velocity is the Only Metric
As a System Builder, I measure reality not by marketing copy, but by operational data. And the most revealing data point a company has is its velocity.
The facts are often disappointing. A company claiming to be “high-velocity” will often take weeks to process a simple next step. A business that claims to be “agile” will force stakeholders through a rigid, bureaucratic 6-step process that hasn’t changed in a decade.
Why does this matter for B2B Sales? Because how a company treats its pipeline is how it treats its clients. If it takes them three weeks to make a hiring decision, it takes them three weeks to approve a customer discount or fix a critical bug.
Certifications and awards are lagging indicators—they tell you what a company paid to be audited for two years ago. Velocity is a leading indicator. The Takeaway: Stop falling in love with a company’s marketing. Fall in love with their operations. If you want to build high-performance systems—whether you are a client buying a service or a professional looking to partner with a brand—you need to align with leaders who value clarity, precision, and speed over process and badges.