👀 14 of the best B2B demand marketers weigh in on the future of demand gen…
Last week I spent a few days with demand gen leaders from companies like Red Hat, Databricks, VMware, Adobe and more for the Integrate Customer Advisory Board.
We discussed the current state of B2B demand gen and what to expect in 2024...
⚡⚡The realities of 2023 (current state) ⚡⚡
1// Budget and resource constraints post COVID suck. Teams were getting used to fast growth and scaling, but are now having to tighten up and analyze efficiency to prove ROI.
2// There has been a shift in buyer behavior. 7 out of 10 sellers cannot get in touch with a buyer and only 17% of the buying process includes a sales person.
3// ABM and demand is getting conflated. Is ABM part of demand gen, is demand gen part of ABM? Who owns it?
ABM teams want their own tech stack and are operating in siloes, outside of the demand gen process.
Campaigns teams are hesitant to adopt ABM and friction is created for leaders.
⭐⭐ What's in store for 2024 ⭐⭐
1// Demand teams are going to be asked to evolve beyond just net new acquisition to support retention, upsell, x-sell.
2// The tech stack needs to be optimized. There was quite a bit of discussion about whether MAPs are dead and how GenAI will play out.
Most GenAI use cases are surface level or based on content personalization. The real value will come from leveraging company owned LLM's on prospect and customer data.
3// Greater emphasis on reporting of marketing impact. Demand gen has become revenue marketing and leadership wants sourced revenue reporting.
4// The evolution from MQLs to buying groups. There's a lot of confusion around buying “groups”… are they committees, groups, or teams?
Many are shifting to account qualification, but ultimately organizations have to figure out what works for them. The future is moving away from MQLs and towards MQAs. Demand gen teams will get even better at account intelligence.
But we need to grapple with how complex this will get across verticals, segments, and territories. Not to mention the strain it'll put on marketing ops and lead (or should I say account) routing.
5// Governance of the demand operation is imperative. Protecting your media investment and ensuring that your leads and contacts are 100% compliant is crucial.
Another notable mention was the new research coming out from The B2B Institute on the 95-5 rule.
B2B demand gen has gone really hard on capturing the existing demand in their TAM (the 5%). As a result, brand investment has diminished. We will start to see more B2B investment in brand initiatives to reach the 95% of folks that are not actively in market.
How are you planning for 2024 and what else would you add to the realities of 2023?
Last week I spent a few days with demand gen leaders from companies like Red Hat, Databricks, VMware, Adobe and more for the Integrate Customer Advisory Board.
We discussed the current state of B2B demand gen and what to expect in 2024...
⚡⚡The realities of 2023 (current state) ⚡⚡
1// Budget and resource constraints post COVID suck. Teams were getting used to fast growth and scaling, but are now having to tighten up and analyze efficiency to prove ROI.
2// There has been a shift in buyer behavior. 7 out of 10 sellers cannot get in touch with a buyer and only 17% of the buying process includes a sales person.
3// ABM and demand is getting conflated. Is ABM part of demand gen, is demand gen part of ABM? Who owns it?
ABM teams want their own tech stack and are operating in siloes, outside of the demand gen process.
Campaigns teams are hesitant to adopt ABM and friction is created for leaders.
⭐⭐ What's in store for 2024 ⭐⭐
1// Demand teams are going to be asked to evolve beyond just net new acquisition to support retention, upsell, x-sell.
2// The tech stack needs to be optimized. There was quite a bit of discussion about whether MAPs are dead and how GenAI will play out.
Most GenAI use cases are surface level or based on content personalization. The real value will come from leveraging company owned LLM's on prospect and customer data.
3// Greater emphasis on reporting of marketing impact. Demand gen has become revenue marketing and leadership wants sourced revenue reporting.
4// The evolution from MQLs to buying groups. There's a lot of confusion around buying “groups”… are they committees, groups, or teams?
Many are shifting to account qualification, but ultimately organizations have to figure out what works for them. The future is moving away from MQLs and towards MQAs. Demand gen teams will get even better at account intelligence.
But we need to grapple with how complex this will get across verticals, segments, and territories. Not to mention the strain it'll put on marketing ops and lead (or should I say account) routing.
5// Governance of the demand operation is imperative. Protecting your media investment and ensuring that your leads and contacts are 100% compliant is crucial.
Another notable mention was the new research coming out from The B2B Institute on the 95-5 rule.
B2B demand gen has gone really hard on capturing the existing demand in their TAM (the 5%). As a result, brand investment has diminished. We will start to see more B2B investment in brand initiatives to reach the 95% of folks that are not actively in market.
How are you planning for 2024 and what else would you add to the realities of 2023?
