The B2B Copy Test That Reveals Everything

Simon ran a live experiment on this week's Sales Show.

Take HubSpot's homepage. The biggest CRM in the world. Run it through a 5-question copy test with David Deutsch, one of the most respected copywriters alive.

The verdict? Fail on 4 out of 5.

Not because HubSpot is bad. Because their copy is chasing a trend instead of owning a truth.

The 5-Question Test

David's framework is ruthless. Here it is, question by question:

1. What desire is this tapping into?

HubSpot's headline: "The agentic customer platform. Where go-to-market teams go to grow."

The desire? Vague. "Grow" is not a desire. It's a category. A million products claim to help you grow. The word "agentic" is tech jargon that the person signing the budget doesn't even understand.

2. Could any competitors say this?

Every competitor says it. Salesforce calls it "Agent Force." Every CRM with AI features is now "agentic."

When any competitor can say your headline, it's not a headline. It's a commodity claim.

3. Is it talking to the customer's problem or describing the company's platform?

Describing the platform. What's the customer's problem? Simon's reframe in real time: "We take you from waiting for the phone to ring.. to making it ring." That's a customer problem. That's copy that lands.

4. Does it make someone want to act?

Not really. "Get started free" appears before the visitor understands why they should care. No urgency. No pull. No emotion. 

5. What would be an alternative that can be tested?

HubSpot's real advantage: 20+ years of battle-tested software. They've been here through the internet era, the AI era, the agentic era. "We were here when the internet changed everything. We're here when AI does." That's an evergreen claim. Trends come and go. Trust compounds.

The Eternal Marketing Techniques

David and Simon then dug into Eugene Schwartz's legendary "Breakthrough Advertising" — three techniques from the second half of the book.

Intensification: Don't say "more phone calls." Say "imagine your boss asking you to hire more people just to handle all these incoming calls." Show them what the benefit actually looks like inside their life.

Identification: People don't buy products. They buy the person they'll become. HubSpot's buyer wants to be the person at their company who figured out the growth lever. Speak to that identity. What role do they want to step into?

Gradualization: Don't ask for the demo before you've built belief. Move them step by step. HubSpot's "Get started free" appears before the visitor has been given a reason to trust. That's too much, too soon.

The Bold Prediction

Simon's prediction: by December 2026, saying "I use AI" will carry no more differentiation than saying "I use the internet." Anyone who built their whole positioning around being "the AI expert" will need to reposition fast.

What doesn't go stale? The outcome. The role the buyer wants to step into. The result they wake up wanting.

David's prediction:  writing is splitting into two camps. AI-generated copy (efficient, scalable, labeled as such) and human-authored copy (emotional, individual, proudly human). That split is already happening on LinkedIn, in magazine submissions, in certification exams — including Anthropic's own certification exam, which explicitly bans AI use.

The Line That Won 2025

Simon's best LinkedIn post of the year. Red background. White text. Eight words:

"Learn to sell or get ready to work for someone else."

No AI. No clever wordplay. Just a truth that cuts. David called it perfectly dramatized.

That's timeless copy. And it's what David Deutsch has been teaching for decades.

Catch the full video here: https://youtu.be/yGQNYUoiGZo

keep rolling, Simon & The Sprinters