Attending the Forrester B2B Summit in Austin felt familiar, maybe a little predictable, yet still enlightening by renewed buzz of live event experience, filled with insights and familiar GTM leaders who spoke about evolving landscape of B2B marketing and sales. Here are my top seven takeaways from the event:
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Intent Data is Underutilized: Although many vendors at the summit presented their intent data solutions, it seems that few companies are fully leveraging this data across their go-to-market (GTM) strategies. While intent data is prevalent, its application within go-to-market strategies remains limited. "Over 85% of companies using intent data have seen benefits, yet many still only apply it to a few use cases," reflecting a significant gap between availability and strategic usage (Forrester).
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Orchestrating the Selling Journey: The complexity of modern B2B buying journeys is increasing, making the orchestration of these processes a significant challenge yet a critical necessity for achieving scalable and predictable results. This not only applies to managing buyer journeys but equally to how sales, marketing, and customer success (CS) teams coordinate their internal processes. "The buying process has reached a critical inflection point, demanding a reinvention to address the needs of a new generation of buyers," indicating the urgent need for adaptation and better foresight in sales tactics (Forrester).
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Combatting Collaboration Drag: A recurring theme at the summit was the 'collaboration drag'—an issue silently sapping productivity within teams. Recognizing and addressing this drag is becoming crucial as more organizations strive for efficiency and impact. silent productivity killers within organizations, stressing the need for streamlined operations and better interdepartmental communications (Forrester)
This always been a serious matter that at times was brushed of with sales-vs-marketing meme's. But today teams must get on the same page to execute joint GTM strategy effectively and rather efficiently given most functions now are under staffed and under budgeted. Technology of course can play a critical role to help however unlike other points listed here - this needs to be solved by us. These hard discussions and rules of engagements will be determined by us, not automation or AI, and we will soon see companies that strive or fail because of how well they constructed their internal communication, accountabilities, and workflows.
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The Importance of Integrations: A staggering 70% of companies are now leveraging multiple intent data providers, underscoring the importance of integration across various data sources and platforms to maximize the effectiveness of these insights. Many organizations still struggle with siloed operations and redundant efforts across sales, marketing, and CS, underscoring the need for a unified approach to manage multi-threaded buyer conversations and drive consensus faster. Its no wonder we see more and more companies approach review of their current tech stack with an eye for 'consolidation' and the market movers are responding to that by transforming their tools to provide more all-in-one solutions. Which leads us to the next interesting discovery..
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Data-Driven Revenue Teams: The summit emphasized the importance of capturing and analyzing every interaction and signal within the revenue cycle. Identifying decision-makers remains a top challenge, emphasizing the need for robust data strategies that enhance targeting precision. By centralizing data, teams can gain actionable insights, visualize the buying process, and recommend strategic next steps, enhancing decision-making at every stage of the customer journey.
- The Importance of Integrations: A staggering 70% of companies are now leveraging multiple intent data providers, underscoring the importance of integration across various data sources and platforms to maximize the effectiveness of these insights. Many organizations still struggle with siloed operations and redundant efforts across sales, marketing, and CS, underscoring the need for a unified approach to manage multi-threaded buyer conversations and drive consensus faster. Its no wonder we see more and more companies approach review of their current tech stack with an eye for 'consolidation' and the market movers are responding to that by transforming their tools to provide more all-in-one solutions. Which leads us to the next interesting discovery..
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Introduction to Revenue Orchestration Platforms (ROPs): A major highlight was the discussion around Revenue Orchestration Platforms. These platforms integrate various tools—ranging from conversational AI and sales engagement to forecasting—into a cohesive system that guides and supports revenue teams through complex buyer journeys. Analysts like Anthony McPartlin and Seth Marrs from Forrester highlighted how ROPs enable better performance management and provide insights that help align team actions with strategic goals. The evolution from Sales Engagement to Sales Orchestration theme is more then just a push for a new category - it also signals a transformative shift in B2B sales and needs of the reps, leaders and executives to build, execute, and forecast their productivity from a system of action (enter Outreach, Gong, Salesloft and Clari). These platforms are becoming essential, not just for streamlining processes but for redefining how organizations achieve their revenue goals. They now can blend AI-driven insights with sales reps expertise to optimize engagement, proving that the future of sales is not just about mass-volume automation but a strategic orchestration.
To finish this up, cant come to a better conclusion then Forrester Seth Myers' statement that well summarized on how we can all look at these changes and what we can do about them
"1 year from now, the difference between those who are better and those who remain unchanged will be in their ability to implement.
The idea is where success starts. It's up to you to execute well enough to finish."
