“I want them demo-ing the software because when they see the software, they buy it.”

That line was said many years ago, but I can still see the CMO saying this to the marketing team.

He was speaking about the alignment between sales and marketing the business needed to grow. The entire marketing motion in our software organization was aimed at getting prospects on the phone with the sales team.

Everything we did as a team was designed to get prospects to trade their contact information for content – and then assign a BDR or SDR to follow up, follow up and follow up until they get a demo appointment.

And it worked. That company checked every block on an entrepreneur’s dream list. It was VC-backed, eventually went an IPO and years later sold as a publicly traded company – still headed by the original founder.

All-tricks-no-treat B2B marketing

The problem is that the approach doesn’t work today. Back then, it was novel. It was the linchpin to “inbound marketing” in B2B technology.

Today it’s old and tiring. People don’t want to play that game anymore. It’s basically a trick – and because buyers say most of the content the business creates is mediocre – there’s no treat. No wonder trust is at an all-time low.

We live in a time where buyers want to do their own research independently – and actively avoid sales calls until they are ready.

For example, one study published in 2024 found:

Although it varies with product complexity and market maturity, today’s buyers might be anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out for a salesperson.

Yet this isn’t new.

Forrester Research has been saying that since at least 2013:

Buyers have nearly made a decision by the time they talk to sales. “Today’s buyers might be anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out to the vendor.

So, while buyer behavior has changed, much of B2B marketing is the same.

Education is the best B2B marketing playbook

The study on gated content I covered recently demonstrates this: prospects don’t even look at the content they’ve registered to download for 39 hours on average.

Further, the majority (66%) aren’t ready to buy for a year. And there are a gazillion surveys and studies that all point to similar conclusions.

Calling up suspects – because someone who downloads gated content is not a “prospect” repeatedly and sending a deluge of follow-up emails trying to set an appointment is a waste of time, effort and budget. The entire approach to B2B marketing needs to change.

Marketing has to be about education.

It has to help prospective customers see the problem your product or service solves.

It has to give them reason to believe that you have the industry expertise to analyze the problem.

Finally, it has to give them the confidence that your solution will solve their problem according to their expectations.

None of this means that gated content or contact information isn’t useful.

Indeed, first-party data is more important than ever. You need it for nurturing, remarketing and, of course, attribution. What I’m saying is that how we use those tools needs to change and that change means leading with education.

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