Most marketing is built on a lie.
The lie is that everyone who sees your ad, visits your website, or stumbles across your social media page is just a well-placed CTA away from pulling out their wallet.
The truth?
Only about 10% of your audience is remotely ready to buy. The other 90% aren’t ignoring you — they’re just not there yet.
Explore Website Design Resources: Small Business Website Design That Drives Leads and Growth
If you’re still building marketing campaigns that chase only the easy wins, you’re setting your business up to lose the long game.
Enter Chet Holmes’s Buying Pyramid — a framework that, once you understand it, will change the way you think about marketing forever. And suppose you want to make it work (instead of just sounding good in a strategy deck). In that case, you will need Modern Business Infrastructure (MBI).
Let’s break it down.
Who Was Chet Holmes?
Before growth hacking was a buzzword and before “funnels” became the default marketing shape, Chet Holmes was quietly teaching companies how to build real, lasting sales systems.
He was a business strategist, sales trainer, and author of The Ultimate Sales Machine. He worked with more than 60 Fortune 500 companies, and his approach boiled down to one radical idea:
“You don’t need more leads. You need better systems for nurturing the ones you already have.”
Holmes’s Buying Pyramid is one of his most powerful (and overlooked) contributions to modern marketing and sales thinking.
Read: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Funnels and Lead Generation: From First Click to Lifetime Customer
The Buying Pyramid Explained
Here’s the quick version:
Out of 100 potential customers at any given moment:
- 3% are actively buying.
- 7% are open to buying if you give them a nudge.
- 30% are not thinking about it at all.
- 30% think they’re not interested.
- 30% are absolutely not interested (and probably never will be).
Translation?
You’re fighting tooth and nail for a tiny sliver of the market while 90% of your potential customers are sitting quietly, untouched — simply because nobody is talking to them the right way.
And yes, if your entire marketing plan is to “run ads to a landing page and hope for the best,” you’re playing darts blindfolded.
Why Most Marketing Misses the Mark
Most marketing teams — even the “good” ones — spend 90% of their budget fighting over the 10% of people who were going to buy anyway.
Here’s what happens:
- Ad costs skyrocket (because everybody’s targeting the same people).
- Conversion rates plummet (because you’re one of 27 identical pitches).
- ROI falls apart (because you’re paying champagne prices for tap water results).
Meanwhile, the middle 60% — the people who could become your next wave of loyal customers — never even get a serious look.
If you’re serious about growth, this isn’t just a mistake. It’s a business risk.
Talk With a Systems Strategist: The Systems Smart Companies Use to Grow
Why the Other 90% Matters
The 90% aren’t saying “no.” They’re mostly saying, “Not now.”
Or maybe, “I don’t know enough yet.”
Or “I don’t think I need this… but maybe I do.”
If you educate, nurture, and stay relevant over time, a large portion of the middle 60% will eventually move up the pyramid. But they won’t do it overnight, and they sure won’t without a system to guide them.
In short: Your next great customers are lurking in the middle of the pyramid.
You can either wait for them to wake up on their own (good luck) or build the engine that gently moves them forward.
How to Market Smarter Using the Pyramid
Here’s how smart businesses approach each buyer group:
| Buyer Group | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Top 10% (Buying or Open) | Use direct offers, CTAs, urgency-driven promotions, retargeting ads. Make it easy for them to say “yes” right now. |
| Middle 60% (Not Thinking / Think They’re Not Interested) | Publish educational content. Offer lead magnets. Build automated nurture sequences. Stay top of mind without being pushy. |
| Bottom 30% (Not Interested) | Ignore them. Seriously. Save your budget for people who might care one day. |
Pro Tip:
Your email list isn’t just a newsletter subscriber count. It’s your pyramid-in-waiting. Treat it that way.
Challenges Customers Face: I Have Traffic, But My Business Isn’t Growing
Why Moving Buyers Up the Pyramid Requires Modern Business Infrastructure
Here’s the part most people miss:
Wanting to nurture buyers isn’t enough. You need the right systems to actually do it.
That’s where Modern Business Infrastructure (MBI) comes in.
MBI gives you the digital backbone — the website, the CRM, the marketing automation, the analytics — to not just reach the 3%, but move the 90% upward efficiently.
Here’s how it maps out:
| Buyer Stage | MBI Focus Area | How It Helps |
|---|---|---|
| 3% Buying Now | Visibility + Conversion Systems | Find them fast. Make buying frictionless. |
| 7% Open to Buying | Credibility Proof + Follow-up Systems | Reinforce that you’re the best option, not just another option. |
| 30% Not Thinking | Education Systems + Content Strategy | Spark new needs they didn’t even know they had. |
| 30% Think They’re Not Interested | Retargeting + Drip Campaigns | Gently shift perceptions and stay relevant without being annoying. |
| 30% Not Interested | Efficiency + Control Systems | Prioritize your best leads and avoid wasting energy on dead ends. |
Without MBI, you’re stuck in the same expensive, frantic race for the few who are already shopping.
With MBI, you build a self-reinforcing growth machine that compounds over time.
Modern Business Infrastructure isn’t about getting louder.
It’s about getting smarter — and playing the long game better than your competitors ever will.
Real-World Applications: Turning the Theory Into Reality
Today’s most successful businesses (whether they realize it or not) operate like Buying Pyramid machines:
- Inbound content fuels awareness at the bottom.
- Lead magnets and nurturing emails warm the middle.
- Direct sales offers catch the top.
If you’ve ever downloaded a guide, received a follow-up email, and eventually booked a call months later, congratulations—you’ve personally moved up someone’s pyramid.
The good news?
You don’t have to be a billion-dollar brand to play this game.
You just need the right infrastructure and the discipline to build smarter, not just louder.
Read: Why Marketing Doesn’t Work (and What’s Really Holding Your Business Back)
Conclusion: Think Pyramid, Build Infrastructure
If your marketing only targets the 10% who are ready now, you’ll keep fighting harder and spending more—for smaller and smaller rewards.
The businesses that dominate the next decade will be the ones that understand buyer behavior — and build the systems to support it.
The Buying Pyramid is the reality.
Modern Business Infrastructure is the answer.
You can chase — or you can compound. Your choice.
Want to know where your buyers are stuck in the pyramid?
Request a free growth review — we’ll help you assess your infrastructure and show you exactly how to build smarter for the long haul.
DKeith Wilson is the founder of Ytechnology, where he helps businesses replace fragmented marketing, sales, and operational efforts with structured systems that make growth more predictable.
His work focuses on how systems, data, and decision-making come together to drive business performance. Through his writing, he explores why companies stall before they scale—and what it takes to build repeatable growth.
You can find more of his work on Ytechnology, LinkedIn, Substack, and dkeithwilson.com.
