Our WunderLand CEO & President, Kerry Barrett, sat down with Harish Peri, head of product marketing of security at SalesForce; Chris Pieper, vice president of enterprise marketing at ADP; and Jen Iliff, senior vice president of solutions at WunderLand, to discuss today’s landscape of B2B Marketing. 

If you missed the conversation but want to watch it, you can find it on our LinkedIn page. Here are some key takeaways:

1. Pressure is Good, Pressure Makes Diamonds.

In today’s world, we are inundated with more noise, more channels, and more news. The onslaught of information can leave many searching for where to go for information and whom to trust.

This has the marketing landscape changing. It’s less about buzzwords and new tactics and instead about establishing trust and providing exactly what clients and customers need right now.

One key piece of advice: bring your clients to the water faster. Marketers are accustomed to planning 12 months out, a luxury that may no longer work in all aspects. Instead, marketers will need to pivot quickly. A great way to do this is by listening. Typically, marketers are challenged to provide messaging frameworks and outlines—but this doesn’t always convert into sales. What sales teams care about is what is going to move the needle now. Marketing, of course, isn’t just sales enablement, but without this perspective, marketing may fall short of being productive.

The pressure on marketing is mounting. It’s more important than ever to know your customer, listen to your customer, and provide the right need at the right time to your customer.

2. Metrics Will Prevail.

It doesn’t end with being flexible and fast thinking. You must be able to showcase success. One of our predictions is that organizations that are metric-driven are going to excel faster.

In most businesses like SaaS or human capital, the equation is simple: you are building something and selling it—services or goods. However, this needs to align with how we market it. Metrics have changed quickly. Companies that are outcome driven are set up for success; being able to quickly show what a marketing tactic achieved in terms of pipeline is an example of a metric that matters, even if it wasn’t a top metric in the past.

While it’s important to have a metric foundation, don’t stop experimenting. All companies will have their tried-and-true tactics that are needed to keep the lights on. Set aside room in the budget to try new things because this is when breakthroughs happen. It’s important to try new things, perfect them and eventually add to your tried-and-true collection, knowing not all of them will be successful.

3. Don’t Underestimate your Buyer.

Marketers really have two customers—the customers and the sales team—and need to deliver wins for both. Agility and flexibility are important, but what you do with them is just as important. Talk to your clients and your customers and find out what they need right now, then deliver it. 

Buyers are savvier than ever before and more skeptical. Authenticity matters. One statistic says that 60-65% of the buyer journey happens before they even make a purchase. How you come to that table matters. Your customers already know a lot about you even before you meet. So, bring the slide deck but be prepared for the most effective part of the conversation to happen after the pitch.

Marketers are under more pressure than ever to deliver successful, engaging, thoughtful, and authentic plans and strategies. The economy will be the biggest factor for B2B marketers as the landscape continues to evolve and change. Stay engaged with your customer, keep metrics top of mind, and thrive under pressure.

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