The Science of B2B

Introduction In 1975, Kodak built the world’s first digital camera. But their current revenue depended on film sales. Rather than threaten that model, they shelved the innovation — and missed the future. Most B2B marketing teams find themselves in a similar position today.  For over a decade, we’ve optimized marketing for efficiency and volume of […]

About the Report This companion report presents additional findings from our 2025 Marketing Measurement Benchmark. Because 8 out of 10 B2B organizations reported having an ABM program, the main report focused primarily on how companies measure the success of their account-based efforts. While this report concludes with additional ABM-related findings that complement the core themes […]

This companion report presents additional findings from our 2025 Marketing Measurement Benchmark. Below, we examine how marketing teams track performance, report results, and tie metrics to compensation based on whether they sell software, services, or physical products. The 600+ B2B marketers who participated in our study represented organizations selling a range of offerings. To better […]

This companion report presents additional findings from our 2025 Marketing Measurement Benchmark — breaking down how marketing teams track performance, report results, and tie metrics to compensation based on the average selling price (ASP) of their offerings. To understand how deal size influences marketing measurement, we grouped responses into ASP bands — ranging from lower-cost, […]

In the pre-internet era, enterprise buyers were tethered to sellers. If you wanted to understand a complex business solution — what it did, how it worked, what it cost — you had to talk to sales. Sellers controlled the information. Marketing’s job was to shape brand image and pique curiosity just enough to get buyers […]

How Buyers Use the Sales Cycle to Confirm, Not Discover Sometimes the most obvious things are wrong. For example, when we look out at the world through our eyes (or listen with our ears, or use any of our other senses), it feels like we are seeing the world as it is. But neuroscience tells […]

How Marketing Lost Its Way – and How AI Can Help Us Find It Again When human societies transitioned from foraging to farming, the results were transformative –larger, more stable populations, the rise of cities, and eventually, modern civilizations. But the shift came with costs that were more difficult to see — but chronic and […]

In 1974, Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda emerged from the Philippine jungle, nearly 30 years after World War II had ended. He had refused to believe the war was over, dismissing the leaflets and news broadcasts announcing Japan’s surrender as enemy propaganda. Onoda wasn’t mentally incapacitated when he emerged from the jungle. In fact, he was […]

Life History Theory 101 In nature, there are two very different reproductive strategies: evolutionary biologists refer to them fast and slow lifestyles. Fast-life animals, like rabbits, sea turtles, and insects, drop their offspring into the world en masse, investing little to nothing in nurturing them, on the gamble that enough will survive to reproduce and […]

“I gave you everything you ever wanted, / It wasn’t what you wanted.” — Lyric from “So Cruel”, U2 Starbucks made a rational, data-backed move: Customers wanted convenience – faster service and shorter lines. So, Starbucks rolled out remote ordering. It worked. But something else happened, quietly and destructively: People stopped coming in. They stopped […]

Why Your ROI Metrics Might Be Lying to You In B2B marketing, we love attribution. We crave proof that what we’re doing is working — especially when we can tie programs to pipeline and revenue. But what if the attribution model we’re using is fundamentally flawed? What if the demand tactic you’re high-fiving yourself over […]

During World War II, South Pacific islanders watched in awe as huge vessels full of foreigners appeared out of nowhere. Imagine: These strange beings arrive in a massive boat, cleared and flattened long thin strips of jungle, then waved and danced as massive, thundering birds descended from the sky, finally disgorging mountains of cargo—food, tools, […]