Advances in martech and the growing role of millennials and Gen Z in business decision-making mean that the B2B buying process is becoming increasingly familiar to consumers, with an omnichannel presence, intuitive interfaces, and positive user experiences. According to a 2023 report from Forrester, these generational cohorts will make up 64% of business buyers, and their “digital literacy” will lead them to seek out self-service transaction channels and information from a variety of third parties rather than the seller. The scale and impact of these changes are so far-reaching that B2B companies need to embrace them as the known, not as a new or passing trend.
The consumerization of B2B marketing and sales requires the marketing function to upgrade from simply generating awareness to a role as co-owner and primary driver of the entire sales conversion funnel. This requires a new marketing and sales operating model that covers the entire funnel, with the demand center as the new function for lead generation, qualification, and nurturing.
Economic uncertainty and higher-quality products have made customers more likely than ever to postpone major purchases to extend the life of their existing devices. This trend, combined with widespread consumer biases, has caused sales interactions across many industries to evolve from a series of discrete transactions to a continuous stream of opportunities that flow as needs arise. Aftersales parts and service, as well as upsell and cross-sell opportunities, now play a much larger role in generating revenue and satisfying customer needs. As individual transactions tend to be less valuable, companies must focus on identifying, qualifying, and converting leads more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Applying Martech and GenAI to lead generation and enrichment can improve marketing efficiency and account engagement by creating highly personalized marketing content, including visuals. For B2C applications, some companies have reduced the lead time for creating new marketing content and campaigns from over six weeks to less than six hours. For B2B companies, GenAI opens up many possibilities, including the ability to draw inspiration and insights from the extensive and diverse data they already collect about their customer base. GenAI can help sales and marketing teams understand what a compelling offer should look like. It can also provide recommendations for better business cases and stories that help teams reshape the decision-making process for individual buyers. This is especially helpful for new salespeople.
Given these three distinct changes, B2B companies can’t afford to miss out on the opportunities presented by a strong marketing function integrated with their sales and demand centers.
To take advantage of this changing environment, companies must align the roles and responsibilities of marketing and sales to tightly integrate the two functions to include clearly defined collaboration and handoff points to ensure a seamless customer journey.
