Beyond MQLs: Reframing success in B2B marketing
Introduction
B2B marketing demands continual strategy updates and metric revisions to stay relevant. ‘Doing the work’ is no longer a one and done job (if it ever was). Just as we were beginning to settle into post-pandemic rhythms, new challenges and opportunities have surfaced. Marketing leaders must now reevaluate how they measure success and drive growth to stay competitive.
The shift beyond traditional Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) as the primary metric of success is not merely a trend but a necessary evolution in response to changing buyer behaviours, technological advancements, and the increasing complexity of B2B buyer cycles.
This transformation is occurring against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and shifting customer expectations.
It's in this context that we recently interviewed
34 senior marketing executives from leading B2B organisations
across the technology and professional services sectors.
Our aim was to uncover how they are reframing success in B2B marketing and moving beyond conventional metrics to drive meaningful business outcomes.
Emerging and intensifying challenges include:
The inability of MQLs to capture the full value of marketing efforts in complex, multi-stakeholder B2B sales processes
The need for deeper alignment between marketing and sales teams to drive revenue and business growth
The need to engage and influence largely anonymous buying groups
The rising importance of account-based marketing (ABM) strategies and the associated shift in measurement frameworks
The challenge of effectively leveraging data and technology, including AI and intent data, to create more personalised and impactful marketing campaigns
The growing emphasis on measuring marketing's contribution to revenue and overall business impact, rather than just lead generation
The increasing complexity of the B2B buyer journey and the need for more sophisticated attribution models
This Market View publication brings together fresh insights from our featured contributors, representing some of the most innovative and successful B2B organisations in the UK and beyond.
As you strive to demonstrate marketing's strategic value in driving business growth, we hope the candid commentary and experiences shared by our contributors will provide valuable inspiration and practical guidance.
We have summarised their collective wisdom into key takeaways and actionable insights, which you'll find throughout this report. These insights cover a range of critical areas, including:
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.