Last year, we hosted four Pipeline Summit events where we gathered the best and brightest minds in B2B marketing to discuss the one thing that keeps every CMO up at night: 

Pipeline generation. 

Maintaining a healthy pipeline is no small feat in the best of times and 2023 brought its own set of economic challenges and rapid technology development. Between AI launches, shrinking budgets, and growing pipeline targets, there was a lot to keep up with last year. 

Our CMO, Maura Rivera, and VP of Demand Generation, Sarah McConnell, sat down to talk through all of the major takeaways from over 50 thought leadership sessions and add in some of their own predictions for what trends will stay and what will go in 2024.

Watch the full webinar below ⬇️

Do more with less is out, do less but better is in

If there are four words every marketer never wants to hear again, they’re “Do more with less.” 

This mentality started picking up steam in late 2022 as the economy started to tighten up and Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo and former CMO of Demandbase, put our feelings into words at our Spring ‘23 Pipeline Summit.

Watch Jon’s full conversation with Maura, 5x is the New 3x, here ➡️

Mai Green, SVP of Brand Engagement at Salesforce took it a step further by giving us something new to replace “do more with less” with, “do less but better.” 

Watch Mai’s full playbook, The Power of Brand Engagement, here ➡️

Back to the basics

One of the trends we noticed in our most recent event in November was the notion that it’s time to get back to what we know best as marketers and return to the fundamentals after a year of zigging and zagging to keep up with so much change. 

Shannon Duffy, CMO at Asana, honed in on what this really means–that it’s our job as marketers to craft an impactful message and stick to it.
‍
Watch Shannon’s full CMO Roundtable, CMO.ai here ➡️

Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice, sat down with us in the Spring to discuss the tumultuous times we all could feel coming on, sharing that these are the kinds of moments as marketers that really make or break your strategies, and that “it’s a fun time to be in hard times.” 

Watch Sarah’s State of Marketing session here ➡️

The power of data-driven marketing

One thing that’s for sure is that marketers have to know their numbers when it comes to selling their strategies. Gone are the days of all art no science, but now the marketers that know how to carefully blend both rise to the top. 

Emma Chalwin, CMO at Workday, discussed the increasing shift towards data-driven marketing and how AI will pave a path forward for better insights and more real-time analytics that support marketing efforts in ways we could only dream of before.

Watch Emma’s State of AI session here ➡️

The role of AI in B2B Marketing

After a year of AI everywhere, we’re coming into a time where the flash and buzzwords are wearing off, and we’re starting to understand exactly how marketers can find value in AI. One mentality that remains true is that AI is additive to a marketer’s tool kit, not something that can replace a team. 

Udi Ledergor, Chief Evangelist at Gong, put it perfectly: AI is your friend, not your enemy. 

Watch Udi’s State of B2B Marketing session here ➡️

With that in mind, AI is only friendly if it works for you, not against you. If the product is cumbersome to use or has a steep learning curve, it might not actually be worth the time it takes to onboard your team. 

Matt Millen, Co-founder and President at Regie.ai, shared his views on the most important thing to consider when evaluating an AI tool–does it make your job easier or harder? It’s simple, but overlooked as we all strive to learn this new tech. 

Watch Matt’s session, Generative AI: Designing Products Around the Human Element, here ▶️

Another key lesson for marketers and product teams to remember when bringing AI tools to market is that something that Ashley Kramer, CMSO of GitLab, highlighted. 

Valuable AI technology isn’t always the first tool to market, but the best. It’s not about rushing to beat your competition, but taking the time to develop thoughtful, valuable products that busy execs actually find useful.

Watch Ashley’s conversation, When Engineering & Marketing Collide, here ▶️

Events are back and better than ever

It was true in 2023 and we know it’ll be true in 2024–there’s still so much appetite for events of all scales in the B2B world. CMOs are back to dedicating significant resources to events.

EJ Oelling, VP of ABX at 6Sense, and Matt Heinz of Heinz Marketing had a great conversation about the reason events are so impactful in the first place, setting the tone for event marketers in 2024 to get back to the foundational elements of events and remember their purpose. 

Watch Matt and EJ’s Pipeline Power Hour session on Event Orchestration here ➡️

Kyle Lacy, CMO at Jellyfish, stressed the value of smaller, more intimate events in a B2B setting, something our VP of Demand Gen agrees with as someone who attends several events of all sizes a year. The conversations that happen at the smaller level are powerful tools for accelerating deals and understanding your buyers more. 

Watch Kyle’s conversation, Uncuttable: What Today’s CMOs Are Going All In On, here ▶️

But, the flashiest, most exciting, grand event in the world means nothing if your follow up strategy isn’t fully baked. Karin Flores, SVP of Events at Okta, shared the importance of a robust post-event follow-up strategy, including our new favorite phrase, the “digital backpack.” 

Watch Karin’s full interview at Pipeline Summit Live! at Dreamforce here ▶️

The future of Pipeline Generation

While the prediction game has proved to be a tad risky in recent years (Who amongst us saw ChatGPT’s launch coming?) our team thinks there are a few things we can be pretty certain will be impactful in 2024. 

Budgets opening back up for focused experimentation

We’re all hoping for a little bit of budget this year to open back up for some experimentation. Sarah’s tip? Know your numbers. We’re in a climate now that finance teams are heavily involved in budget decision making and they need to see the ROI from any cash you’re asking for. 

AI’s role in marketing crystalizing

AI will start to become weaved throughout the entire techstack, and most SaaS companies are going to have AI-powered features. Free AI products have their limitations and this year will be the time where we start to see the right tools rise to the top and find where AI helps more marketers than just content marketers, particularly in the demand gen area. 

Tech consolidation will be a big focus for CMOs

2023 really taught us what tech is above the line and what’s below the line. This year will be a heavy cutting and consolidating year as budgets remain flat, and it’s important to take a deep look at your tech stack and understand what’s really moving the needle and what’s not. 

Pipeline generation is still going to be #1

Nothing will change here–pipeline generation is still going to be intensely important for B2B businesses and as the year continues we’ll see more evolution in pipe gen strategy. 

Stay up to date on where B2B marketer’s heads are at at our Spring ‘24 Pipeline Summit, happening on April 11th! 

Click here to get on the list.