The rules of B2B revenue generation have fundamentally changed. From rising acquisition costs to increasing complexity of buying committees, revenue leaders face unprecedented challenges in driving growth.
In this collection of insights from our Revenue Makers podcast, top executives share their strategies for driving efficiency, using available tools, and building sustainable growth in any market.
Don’t Fall into This B2B Trap…

Latané Conant draws a parallel between consumer inflation and a troubling trend in B2B sales. “It’s like going to Trader Joe’s and suddenly spending $250 instead of $100 on the same items,” she says. As CRO of 6sense, she coined the term “B2B inflation” — where teams now need significantly more resources to achieve the same results, like:
- 20% more touches in cadences
- 30% more contacts to secure meetings
- Larger buying committees to close deals
The B2B landscape has fundamentally shifted, with new stakeholders wielding unprecedented influence. Latane says procurement officers, CFOs, and CIOs are more involved, expanding buying committees beyond traditional decision makers.
To combat these challenges, she advocates a more strategic approach to resource allocation: using data to focus on in-market accounts that match your ICP rather than pursuing every opportunity. At 6sense, this has led to significant improvements — including a 30% increase in BDR productivity.
AI is a key tool in mitigating the effects of B2B inflation. Latané shares that 6sense scaled their content production across new verticals and products using generative AI, while using Email Agents to recover approximately 10% of potentially lost pipeline. Throughout all these changes, Latané promotes maintaining a “scrappy” mentality regardless of company size, making strong business cases for investments and setting “BHAGs” (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals) to drive creative problem-solving.
The $2 Trillion Problem That Will Ruin Your Business

Pavilion Founder and CEO Sam Jacobs cites recent research from BCG, saying that sales and marketing teams are collectively leaving $2 trillion on the table annually through productivity shortfalls, lost opportunities, inefficient prospecting, and revenue leakage in the funnel.
He explains that this stems from fundamental shifts in B2B buying behavior. “Five years ago, it took 200 to 400 touches to create an opportunity,” he says. “Today that number has grown to 1,000 to 1,400.”
Why? The bombardment of sales engagement platforms enabling mass messaging has deadened buyer responsiveness.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The average Customer Acquisition Cost payback period for public SaaS companies has more than doubled to 48 months — and with three times as many software organizations competing for attention and capital becoming scarcer, the “growth at all costs” era has given way to a new imperative: efficient growth.
Sam offers pragmatic advice for navigating this new reality:
- Build a leaner sales team focused on fewer, higher quality accounts
- Use in-person experiences and community building as differentiators
- Document customer journeys across the entire lifecycle
The future, Sam predicts, belongs to smaller, more efficient teams powered by AI, with an increasing role for specialized contractors rather than in-house departments. “There’s no magic formula to growing at the same rates you used to,” he concludes. “You have to be willing to accept lower growth in favor of efficiency.”
Ideas are Easy, Execution is Everything

In 2022, Reachdesk CRO and co-founder Alex Olley convinced his board to make a radical shift in their GTM strategy, committing to “stop fishing in the ocean with nets and start spearing fish in small pools.”
After years of traditional territory-based selling, Alex made the decision to zero in on in-market accounts — with BDRs focusing on 30 to 50 high-intent prospects rather than working through lists of 500-600 accounts. The impact? More than double the win rates and dramatically faster deal cycles.
But the path wasn’t necessarily smooth. The key lesson learned: Map out your workflow before implementing new systems, and get frontline sales managers bought in early. The mindset shift required sellers to embrace a new way of thinking, moving from passive lead recipients to active participants in the in-market strategy.
Leaders considering a similar transformation should consider:
- Smaller territories
- More focused efforts
- Willingness to challenge conventional wisdom about who your buyers are
Everything You Want to Know About ABM Digital But Were Afraid to Ask


“Hope is not a strategy,” jokes host Adam Kaiser about the misconceptions surrounding ABM and paid media. While companies often think they can simply run display ads to target accounts and watch the leads roll in, Adam and fellow Revenue Makers host Saima Rashid explore how true ABM success requires a more sophisticated approach.
The foundation starts with a well-defined ICP, but don’t try to boil the ocean. Instead, Adam recommends layering your approach: Combine ICP targeting with intent signals, website behavior, and technology use to create highly focused campaigns.
Three key strategies emerge from the discussion for modern B2B paid media:
- Early-stage Awareness: Use programmatic display for “billboard effect” to establish presence.
- Mid-funnel Engagement: Retarget with specific content based on shown interests and intent.
- Late-stage Support: Provide air cover during active deals with relevant thought leadership and customer stories.
At 6sense, campaigns that combine ICP targeting with intent stage and specific keyword research consistently outperform broader approaches. And more than half (60-70%) of demo requests have a paid search interaction somewhere in their journey, highlighting the importance of coordinated multi-channel efforts.
The Simplicity Mantra: Why Simple is Hard in Marketing

Gurvinder Sahni, CMO of Persistent Systems quotes Steve Jobs to explain his philosophy on marketing leadership, saying, “Simple can be harder than complex.” He reveals how he’s transformed marketing at the technology services company by focusing on what matters most: delivering on promises to customers.
He provides three crucial tips for marketing leaders looking to simplify:
- Beware of the “MarTech trap” of assuming new tools alone will solve problems
- Embrace AI early and thoroughly, using it to augment existing teams
- Make complex offerings simple and relatable for your audience
Gurvinder also recommends leaders start with clear business objectives and work backward to find the simplest path forward. He believes that the future of marketing is a virtuous cycle where brand and growth feed each other — and keeping it simple, though hard, is the key to success.
Reading Through the Revenue Operations Manual


When LinkedIn released its list of fastest-growing job titles in 2024, Revenue Operations claimed the top spot. In a timely conversation, Sean Lane and Laura Adint, co-authors of The Revenue Operations Manual, break down what makes the modern RevOps teams successful and why the function has evolved beyond “sales ops with a fancy name.”
They present four essential pillars for building world-class RevOps:
- Build Your Knowledge: Understand the company and product, and identify quick wins
- Build Your Business: Establish operating rhythms, and align your tech stack with the customer journey
- Build Your Partnerships: Develop relationships beyond sales/marketing
- Build Your Team: Focus on “adaptively excellent” doers who can thrive in any situation
The most successful RevOps teams differentiate themselves by looking around corners and considering the ripple effects of every decision. Top performers take into account how marketing impacts sales, how sales impacts customer success, and so on.
Most importantly, RevOps must earn their strategic seat at the table through consistent value delivery. Success comes from backing recommendations with data and bringing a unique perspective that connects dots across the organization.