CEO to a new VP of Marketing: We expect you to generate marketing-sourced revenue and leads. Product: $150k+ deal size, 12-16 month sales cycle.
6 months later:
« You’re laid off. We don’t see enough marketing-sourced leads and revenue ».
Earlier this year I chatted with several VPs marketing who were hired to build marketing from scratch in sales-led organizations but were laid off because of lack of « marketing-sourced revenue ».
The reality is rotten.
VPs of marketing are supposed to generate a revenue faster than sales do and ALONE. Out of thin air.
Budgets are cut.
Teams are cut.
Brand awareness is not there, so sales can’t even get a reply to their outreach.
Outbound paid ads and organic pipeline drastically decreased while CAC increased, mostly because most of your market is problem-unaware and not buying.
Marketing, Sales, Client Success work in silos and don’t want to collaborate.
Marketing MUST prove that they can’t do more with AI under the new circumstances.
Stakeholders regularly share LinkedIn posts about new AI tool that automates and influences the entire buyer journey on autopilot.
Every marketing activity MUST demonstrate clear ROI. No attribution – no approval.
This is the sad reality of most B2B startups and scale-ups.
In the corporate world, it’s getting worse.
Nobody wants to initiate change management and shake the corporate inertia tree.
Every suggestion is followed up by the question: How many leads or accounts reaching Stage 2 do you GUARANTEE?
Unfortunately, a fish rots from the head down, and often is the root reason for GTM problems.
But leaving with this status quo is similar to staying on Titanic.
The only way to change is making sure LEADERSHIP accepts the problem and makes marketing a STRATEGIC function.
The necessary changes include:
– Revenue and sales pipeline velocity are the north stars for both marketing and sales.
– Building consistent, long-term marketing programs that compound over time and influence the entire buyer journey.
– Measuring marketing and sales impact through a blended attribution model—self-attribution, digital analytics, and customer interviews to see a full picture.
– ICP-led targeting: full-funnel approach to nurture buyers across the buyer journey
– Unified teams: Sales, Marketing, CS, and Ops align on revenue goals, pipeline and joint playbooks.
– Balanced budget allocation across brand, ABM, buyer enablement, and customer success & expansion.
– Rely on marketing intel, customer analysis and historical data to create GTM strategy
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In AI era, you are one click away from being copied. Garage startups make a clone of your product and spam all of your TAM in one month.
If you don’t have brand, if you don’t have a community – you’re doomed.
Startups die fast.
Corporates see a decreasing revenue slower, but Nokia also thought they’d be market leader forever.