Generic GTM is dead → Go to my featured section for actionable GTM insights and elevate your marketing game 🔥| Co-Founder of TACK | Creating the category of People-first GTM 👥| 13+ Years in B2B Marketing 📈

I help B2B companies build go-to-market strategies that prioritize real connection because relationships, not just reach, drive growth.

After 14 years in B2B marketing, I’ve led field marketing, demand gen, community, and influencer programs. I know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s changed.

Too many companies still treat buyers like leads. That’s not how modern GTM works.

I’ve helped 35+ B2B brands shift from transactional tactics to connection-driven growth, building scalable strategies, launching communities, running 30+ webinars, and rolling out on-demand models that replaced bloated in-house teams.

Today, I work directly with brands, founders, and marketers to build go-to-market engines that scale—without the spam.

What I do:
→ Build integrated campaign strategies that drive pipeline
→ Coach creators and brands on influencer marketing
→ Design community-led and field programs that actually work
→ Speak on GTM, content, and creator-led growth
→ Act as a fractional marketing leader or advisor

📚 Author of B2B Influencer Marketing: Work With Creators to Generate Authentic and Effective Marketing (Kogan Page, 2025)

👋 Let’s work together: DM me or visit https://linktr.ee/NickBMarketing

Nick Bennett

I used to run monthly field marketing meetups.

80-100 field marketers would join virtually. We'd talk wins, losses, ideas. Same topic came up every single time.

Tracking.

Everyone had a CRM. Everyone had spreadsheets. Nobody had a simple way to show leadership what actually worked.

Event season is coming. I was lying in bed thinking about this problem again.

So I built something.

It's called Event Impact Tracker. Free. No login. Data stays in your browser.

Here's what it does:

→ Pipeline-first metrics (not badge scans)
→ Auto-calculates ROI and grades events A-F
→ Compares your results against industry benchmarks
→ Exports to PDF or CSV for leadership reports

I built this V1 in about 30 minutes laying in bed watching TV on Lovable last night. It's not perfect. But it solves the problem I kept hearing about for years.

Your CFO doesn't care about booth traffic. They care about pipeline and revenue. This helps you show them that.

No catch. No email capture. Just use it.

https://lnkd.in/eDQ7JirG

If you're heading into event season and need a better way to prove ROI, this might help.

Shoot me feedback! I want to improve this thing, and I'm also semi addicted now.

15+ Year B2B Marketing Leader Turned Founder | ABM, Field Marketing & Events, Influencer Marketing & More | DM Me to Learn More

A campaign that should've taken 2 weeks took me a few hours.

Not because I moved faster. Because there was nothing to wait on.

Most marketing teams aren't slow because they lack ideas. They're slow because they're waiting. Waiting on ops to pull a list. Waiting on copy approval. Waiting on sales to confirm follow-up. By the time everything aligns, the moment is gone.

The play was a cold pipeline re-engagement campaign.

We pulled accounts that showed intent over the past 6 months but never converted. Segmented by product interest and role. Launched a 3-touch email and LinkedIn sequence.

Total time from idea to live: one day.

What made it possible:

→ Segments already built in Common Room
→ Messaging templates ready to adapt
→ No dependency on ops for list pulls or triggers
→ Sales aligned on follow-up the same morning

Within the first week we had replies, meetings booked, and a handful of deals reopened.

The lesson isn't about moving faster. It's about removing the waiting before you need to move.

Segments defined ahead of time. Triggers ready to go. Ownership clear before the play even exists.

The fastest marketing teams don't sprint harder. They've already done the setup so execution is simple when the moment shows up.

What's slowing down your team's ability to act on ideas?

Most event marketers can't defend their budget.

Not because events don't work. Because they're reporting the wrong things.

Finance asks: What did we get from that $50K conference?

And the answer is usually badge scans and booth traffic. That's not ROI. That's activity.

Here's what an actual event report should include:

ICP Accounts Attended
How many Tier 1, 2, or 3 accounts had someone at the event? This tells you if you were even in front of the right people.

Contacts Added
Net-new contacts from attending accounts. Not total scans. New names in your CRM that didn't exist before.

Meetings Booked
Sales meetings scheduled as a direct result of the event. Not "good conversations." Actual meetings on the calendar.

Qualified Pipeline (New)
Net-new opportunities created post-event that meet your qualification criteria. Stage, ICP fit, value threshold. Real pipeline, not maybes.

Influenced Pipeline
Existing opportunities where the event helped move things forward. Deals that accelerated, re-engaged, or unstuck because of a conversation at the booth.

Closed-Won Revenue
Revenue from deals directly attributable or influenced by the event. The number finance actually cares about.

Then calculate two ROI metrics:

Pipeline ROI
(Qualified Pipeline + Influenced Pipeline) ÷ Total Event Cost
Use this to compare efficiency across events.

ARR ROI
Closed-Won ARR ÷ Total Event Cost
Use this for long-term performance.

One more metric worth tracking: Revenue Coverage in the Room. A directional estimate of potential new and expansion revenue based on who attended. Not a forecast. A planning tool.

When you report like this, the budget conversation changes completely.

You're not defending why events should exist. You're showing which ones deserve more investment.

What metrics do you use to prove event ROI?

P.S. let me know if there are metrics you want me to go deeper on here, too!

Everyone's chasing scale. Bigger booths. Bigger audiences. Bigger budgets.

Deals move faster in a room of 7 than a crowd of 700.

I'm joining a virtual panel on March 17th to talk about what's actually working in B2B events right now.

The session: "Events That Actually Convert: What B2B Marketing Leaders Are Doubling Down on in 2026"

Hosted by ConvergeX Connections with a small group of North American marketing leaders who are done with vanity metrics and ready to talk real ROI.

We'll cover what's working, what's been cut, and the experiments shaping event strategy this year.

I'll be sharing my take on micro events. Highly curated. 7-10 people max.

Why I'm doubling down on them:

→ Decision-makers actually show up
→ Conversations go deeper than badge scans
→ Deals move faster because you're not competing for attention

This is a peer conversation, not a webinar. They're keeping it small and curated to make sure the discussion stays tactical.

If you're a B2B marketing leader building your 2026 event roadmap, you can request a spot here: https://lnkd.in/ecF3E-fm

Spots are almost gone, only a few seats are left. Drop a comment if you're applying. Would love to see some familiar faces in the room.

Event ROI doesn’t break at the booth.

It breaks on Monday.

Because by Monday, the context is gone.

The rep remembers:

- the company name
- a vague pain point
- and that the conversation “felt good”

So the follow-up turns into: “Great meeting you at the event…”

Which is basically saying: “I have nothing specific to say.”

Here’s the simplest post-event operating system I’ve found that actually produces pipeline.

The 48-hour event follow-up OS

1) Before anyone leaves the venue, capture context (15 minutes)

Do a debrief while it’s still fresh.

3 Rules:
1.) everyone stays
2.) no laptops
3.) no “we’ll do it later”

For each priority conversation, capture 5 things:

- What problem did they actually say out loud?
- What’s broken in their current process?
- What do they care about personally? (risk, time, reputation, budget)
- Who else is involved? (names and roles)
- What’s the next step they agreed to?

If you don’t have those 5, you don’t have a lead. You have a badge scan.

2) Turn that context into something delegatable (30 minutes)

This is the move most teams miss.

Have reps record a 30–60 second voice note per priority account. Raw. Ugly. Specific.

Now anyone can write the follow-up. Because the “why” is preserved.

3) 24 hours later: send the follow-up that proves you were listening

One email. Short. No fluff.

Structure:

1 line: what you heard
1 line: what you’re sending (resource / recap / next step)
1 line: the ask (calendar link or two times)

If the follow-up doesn’t reference their world, it’s spam.

4) 48 hours later: score the event like an operator, not a marketer
Don’t report “leads.”

Report:
1.) ICP accounts engaged
2.) meetings booked within 14 days
3.) influenced pipeline
4.) one thing to change next time

That’s it.

Everything else is whatever.

What’s your team’s biggest follow-up failure mode today: no context capture, no ownership, or no SLA?

School vacation week starts Monday.

Here's what I think will happen vs. what will actually happen.

Expectation: I'll knock out that strategic project I've been putting off.
Reality: I'll negotiate screen time limits like a hostage negotiator by 9am.

Expectation: The kids will play quietly while I take calls.
Reality: Someone will scream "SHE HIT ME" during my most important meeting of the week.

Expectation: I'll maintain my normal work schedule.
Reality: I'll be answering Slack messages from the bathroom because it's the only room with a lock.

Expectation: We'll do fun family activities in the evenings.
Reality: Everyone will be too tired and annoyed with each other by 5pm.

Expectation: I'll meal prep healthy lunches.
Reality: Goldfish crackers count as a food group now.

A realistic survival guide for the week:

Step 1: Lower your expectations.
Step 2: Lower them again.
Step 3: Accept that "productivity" means everyone is still alive by Friday.

Here's the thing though. I'm taking the end of next week off. And it still feels weird to say that.

When you work for yourself, stepping away is harder than it sounds. There's always something. A client email. A project to tweak. A "quick" thing that turns into two hours.

But this is exactly why I went out on my own. The flexibility to be present when it matters.

So I'm logging off. Mostly.

To all the parents balancing work and a house full of chaos next week: I see you. We're all just trying to make it to the weekend.

Good luck out there.

Your outbound isn't a messaging problem. It's a deliverability problem.

I watched a team spend three months optimizing subject lines, rewriting sequences, and testing new CTAs. Open rates stayed flat. Reply rates kept dropping.

Turned out 40% of their emails were landing in spam. They had no idea.

Here's the thing. You can have the best copy in the world. If your emails aren't hitting the inbox, none of it matters.

Most operators never check this stuff until something breaks. By then you've already burned your domain.

Here's what to actually monitor:

1. Sender Reputation

Check Google Postmaster Tools weekly. If your domain reputation drops to "Low" or "Bad," you're already in trouble. Aim to stay in "High" consistently.

Microsoft SNDS gives you similar visibility for Outlook. If you're selling to enterprise, this matters.

2. Authentication Stack

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC aren't optional anymore. They're table stakes.

But "set up" isn't the same as "configured correctly." Most teams have partial implementations that still leak trust signals.

Run a check monthly. If any of these are failing or misconfigured, inbox placement tanks.

3. Domain Age and Warm-Up

New domains need 2-4 weeks of warm-up before you scale. Sending 500 cold emails from a fresh domain is a fast track to spam.

Volume ramp matters too. Start with 10-20 emails per day. Increase gradually. Jumping from 50 to 500 overnight triggers filters.

If you're running multiple campaigns, use subdomains for outbound. Protect your primary domain reputation.

4. Inbox Placement Testing

Open rates lie. Tracking pixels fire even in spam folders sometimes.

Run seed list tests before launching campaigns. Know where your emails actually land across Gmail, Outlook, and corporate domains.

This is where Warmy comes in.

It automates warm-up, monitors inbox placement, validates your authentication setup, and flags issues before they tank your campaigns.

I've been using it to stress-test deliverability for outbound programs. The visibility alone is worth it.

If you want to boost your deliverability, drop a comment and I'll send you the link.

If your outbound has been underperforming and you've already optimized the obvious stuff, check your deliverability first.

It might be the invisible thing killing your pipeline.

https://lnkd.in/eDAEH22K

Most teams run ABM like a campaign.

Launch it. Measure it. Move on to the next one.

That's why most ABM programs fail.

ABM isn't a campaign. It's an operating system.

Here's the difference:

Campaign mindset: Pick some accounts, run ads, send emails, hope something sticks.

Operating system mindset: Build a repeatable engine with prioritization, signals, feedback loops, and clear rules for when to invest and when to cut.

The operating system has five parts:

1. Account Tiering

Not all accounts deserve the same effort. Build T1, T2, and T3 tiers based on revenue potential and strategic fit. Your T1 accounts get intensive, personalized engagement. T3 gets scaled plays. Stop treating every account the same.

2. Buying Group Mapping

Enterprise deals aren't won by reaching one contact. Map 6-10 stakeholders per account across functions. Operations, IT, Finance, whoever touches the decision. Multi-thread or lose.

3. Signal-Led Prioritization

Stop guessing who's ready. Track event engagement, website activity, content consumption, and sales intel. Prioritize accounts showing real signals, not just the ones sales "feels good about."

4. Channel Orchestration

Your channels should work together, not in silos. Events, content, paid, SDR outreach, sales follow-up. All coordinated around the same accounts at the same moments. Timing matters more than volume.

5. Investment Rules

This is where most teams fail. You need clear criteria for when to increase spend and when to cut it.

Invest more when:
→ Sales has real insight into the account
→ Multiple stakeholders are engaging
→ There's a clear path to pipeline

Cut when:
→ No meaningful engagement signals
→ No sales alignment or account knowledge
→ Activity isn't translating to opportunities

The teams that win at ABM aren't running better campaigns.

They're running a system that compounds over time.

Are you running campaigns or building a system?

Most teams start event marketing when they land at the airport.

By then you've already lost.

The companies generating real pipeline from events aren't doing anything fancy at the booth. They're winning in the 2-3 weeks before anyone shows up.

Here's the pre-event playbook that actually moves deals.

Step 1: Build your hit list early

Pull your target accounts attending the event. Cross-reference with open opportunities, churned accounts worth revisiting, and prospects who've engaged with your content recently.

You're not trying to meet everyone. You're trying to meet the right 15-20 people.

Step 2: Earn the meeting before you ask for it

Cold outreach saying let's grab coffee at the conference gets ignored. Everyone sends that.

Instead:
→ Reference something specific. Their recent funding round. A post they wrote. A challenge their company is likely facing.
→ Offer something useful upfront. A relevant resource. An intro to someone they should meet. A coffee voucher with no strings attached.
→ Make it easy. Suggest a specific time and place. Remove friction.

The goal is to feel like a warm intro not a cold pitch.

Step 3: Create a reason to be remembered

Most booths blend together. Same swag. Same pitch. Same forgettable experience.

Think about what would make someone talk about your booth at dinner that night.

→ Interactive elements that require participation
→ Giveaways tied to engagement not just badge scans
→ Conversations that feel like advice not demos

Step 4: Coordinate your team

Nothing kills event ROI faster than three reps talking to the same prospect while missing a decision maker two booths away.

→ Assign target accounts to specific people
→ Share context on each account before the event
→ Daily syncs to adjust based on who you've actually talked to

The event itself is just the middle of the funnel. The work before is what determines whether you leave with pipeline or just a pile of badge scans.

What's your pre-event outreach look like?

Most marketers build lists the old way.

One tool for companies. Another for contacts. A third for emails. Maybe a fourth for phone numbers.

By the time you've pieced it together, half the data is stale and you've wasted hours.

I've been testing FullEnrich Search and it changes the workflow completely.

Here's the exact play I ran last week:

I had 32 target accounts attending an upcoming conference. Needed to find every VP and Director of Marketing with verified emails before our pre-event outreach.

Step 1: Uploaded my account list as a CSV

Step 2: Applied contact filters
→ Title contains "VP" or "Director"
→ Department: Marketing
→ Seniority: Senior, VP, Director

Step 3: Hit search

143 contacts across all 32 accounts. 95% coverage.

Step 4: One-click enrichment

Verified emails and mobile numbers added instantly. No switching tools. No manual cleanup.

Total time: 12 minutes.

Old workflow would've been 2-3 hours across ZoomInfo, Apollo, and a separate enrichment tool. Plus the inevitable data gaps.

The difference is the waterfall. FullEnrich pulls from 20+ sources so you're not limited to one database's coverage. Contacts that don't exist in Tool A get found in Tool B or C.

If you're building ABM lists, event prospect lists, or campaign segments, run a free search and compare it to your current stack.

FullEnrich just made list building a lot faster.

https://lnkd.in/e9g7Dfq9

#FullEnrichPartner

Badge scans. Booth traffic. "Great conversations."

None of that is ROI.

And if that's what your event report looks like, you're about to lose budget.

Here's the framework I use when I want the CFO to stop debating and start funding.

The 3-Layer Event ROI Framework

Layer 1: Strategic Fit
Was the right audience even there?

→ ICP accounts in the room
→ Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 breakdown
→ Which roles showed up (champion, decision maker, blocker)

If you can't answer this, everything below is noise.

Layer 2: Execution
Did we create next steps that sales can actually run?

→ Meetings booked (strict definition: on the calendar, owned by a rep, scheduled within 14 days, with a named next step)
→ "Follow up next week" is not a meeting
→ Net-new contacts from ICP accounts
→ Matched contacts already in CRM that were re-activated

Those are different outcomes. Report them separately.

Layer 3: Economic Impact
Did this create or move money?

→ New qualified pipeline: opps opened post-event that hit your bar (stage, fit, value)
→ Influenced pipeline: opps that existed pre-event where the event created movement (stage progression, timeline pulled forward, buying group expansion, deal re-engaged)
→ Closed-won revenue (when it matures)

This is where most event ROI is hiding. If you're not reporting influenced pipeline, you're undercounting events and overcounting everything else.

Two ratios that change the budget conversation:

Pipeline ROI = (New qualified + Influenced pipeline) ÷ Total event cost
ARR ROI = Closed-won ARR ÷ Total event cost

Event season is coming. Steal this before your next report.

$150 gift to a CMO. $60 notebook for procurement. Both delivered the same day.

That's not random acts of gifting. That's a Buying Committee Play.

And when it's coordinated with what each stakeholder sees on your website and in their inbox, it can pull deals forward. I've seen it cut 23 days off cycles and push win rates to 68%.

On March 18, I'm running a hands-on workshop at "Websites That Think" where we build this play from scratch.

What we'll cover:

→ The 3 buying group stages and the signals that tell you when to act (and why stage 1 is usually the wrong time to send anything)
→ The Champion Activation Play: why a $40-60 book timed to arrive the day before a demo can drive 90-95% show rates vs ~65% average
→ How to build role-specific website experiences so your CMO, Marketing Ops, and CFO don't see the same generic page
→ The full Buying Committee Play: what to send, to who, what it costs (~$410 for 4 people), and the triggers that kick it off
→ How to measure what's working: leading indicators that show pipeline movement before the deal closes

Before the workshop, there's a panel with Oana Manolache (Sequel.io), Adam Kaiser (6sense), Matt Hammel (AirOps), Amanda Kahlow (1mind), and Guy Yalif (Webflow) on how AI powers intent-aware website experiences and what shifts when buyers arrive from LLMs like ChatGPT.

If you run ABM or field programs and want a repeatable system for moving buying groups faster, this is for you.

Save your seat: https://lnkd.in/emMK7KSQ

Websites that Think Webinar

3 years ago I wrote a post about driving G2 reviews.

500k views. 1,500+ likes. 500+ comments. Over 200 DMs. Remember that? Was wild!

All I did was share what worked.

I've run this playbook multiple times since then. Just ran it again. 100 reviews in 3 days. Pushed us to 1,031 total reviews. We're averaging 85 net new reviews per quarter.

Word of mouth is our #2 source of inbound at Reachdesk.

This stuff compounds.

Here's the playbook:

1. Build your list with intent

Use your CRM to filter by customers who actually use the product, not one-off senders. The goal isn't to cherry-pick positive reviews. It's to get feedback from people with enough experience to give you something useful.

2. Write the email like a human

No corporate speak. Keep it simple: thank them, ask for the review, offer a gift when it's live.

3. Make confirmation easy

Instead of screenshots, I added a form where they drop their review link. Less friction. Easier to verify.

4. Send real gifts

Not gift cards. Actual things. The Amazon integration within Reachdesk lets me send stuff that feels personal, not transactional.

Conversion rate this time: ~40%.

But collecting reviews is only half the job.

Most teams let reviews sit on G2. That's a waste.

Here's how to activate them:

→ Tag by use case. Sales, marketing, CS, events. Now you have proof for every vertical conversation.
→ Mine for language. Customers describe your value better than you will. Use their words in ads, decks, and outbound.
→ Route feedback to product. Complaints are free research.
→ Identify champions. Detailed reviewers are case study and reference candidates.
→ Build a proof bank by objection. Sales should have reviews organized by the concerns they answer.

Reviews on G2 are social proof. Reviews organized and activated are a sales weapon.

Word of mouth being our #2 inbound source isn't just G2. It's the team doing great work across CS, product, and marketing. But reviews are one piece of the flywheel that compounds when you stay consistent.

The biggest mistake I made going fractional wasn't pricing.

It was saying yes too fast.

When you're solo, every "maybe" feels like revenue. So you take the call. You scope it live. You promise speed. You think you'll "figure it out."

And then 3 weeks later you're stuck in:

→ vague goals
→ 6 stakeholders
→ 0 decisions
→ "can you just…" requests at 9:47pm

So I built a filter.

Not a vibe check. A decision check.

Here are the 3 things I look for before I take on a fractional client.

1) A real owner (not a sponsor)

I don't mean "the CEO likes marketing." I mean a single person who:

→ owns the outcome
→ shows up every week
→ can say yes/no without a committee
→ will actually ship with you

If they can't point to an owner in the first conversation, here's what happens:

You become the owner.

You're chasing feedback. You're herding calendars. You're translating marketing into English for six different people.

Fractional doesn't fail because you didn't do enough.

It fails because no one inside the company is accountable for decisions.

Question I ask:
"Who is the person that will make the call when there are tradeoffs?"

If they hesitate, that's the answer.

2) A decision they're trying to make (not a hope)

"Grow awareness" is not a decision. "Do more demand gen" is not a decision.

A decision has a fork in the road.

Examples:

→ "We're choosing one ICP and building the Q2 plan around it."
→ "We're picking one primary channel for 90 days and committing."
→ "We're fixing activation or we're fixing pipeline, not both."
→ "We're repositioning the offer and changing the site copy."

If there's no decision, the engagement turns into activity: posts, decks, tweaks, random campaigns, busywork.

And you can't create leverage from busywork.

Question I ask:
"What's the decision you want to be able to confidently make 30 days from now?"

If they can't answer, you'll end up writing strategy that no one uses.

3) Protection for your time (constraints that make fractional work)

Fractional works when everyone respects the constraint.

Because your leverage is not "being available." It's making the right calls with limited time.

So I look for evidence they can operate like adults:

→ one Slack channel, not 12
→ weekly working session on the calendar
→ async updates in one place
→ a turnaround SLA (ex: feedback within 48 hours)
→ no "urgent" requests unless revenue is on fire

If they want full-time responsiveness on a part-time engagement, they don't want fractional.

They want an employee they can't afford.

Question I ask:
"How do you want to handle requests between meetings: async doc, Slack, or a weekly queue?"

If they say "we're pretty ad hoc," what they mean is: "You'll be on call."

I still lose deals because of this.

Good.

The goal isn't to be booked. The goal is to be booked on terms that let you do great work.

If you're solo/fractional right now, which part breaks most often: ownership, decisions, or time protection?

Most teams pick gifts by guessing.

Scroll through a catalog. Hope it lands. Cross fingers it feels personal enough.

That's not strategy. That's wishful thinking.

Personalized gifting works. We know this. The problem has always been the tradeoff: do it right and it takes forever, or do it fast and it feels generic.

Gifty removes that tradeoff.

It's an AI assistant built into Reachdesk that handles the research, matches gifts to role, region, budget, and goal, and drafts a note that actually sounds like you thought about it.

What used to take 15-20 minutes per send now takes a few.

That changes the math on when gifting makes sense.

You can use it for the high-value T1 plays you're already doing. But now you can also use it for the moments you'd normally skip because they weren't worth the time. The no-show follow-up. The deal that went dark. The post-event touch that usually gets deprioritized.

More personalized sends. Same bandwidth.

That's the unlock.

DM me if you want to see it in action.

Most teams pick gifts by guessing.

Scroll through a catalog. Hope it lands. Move on.

We're changing that at Reachdesk.

Coming soon.

DM me if you want a sneak peek 👀

Most teams use AI to write the email.

Wrong use case.

Use it to QA the email.

The fastest way to kill conversion is a mismatch you can't see anymore:

→ Email promise says one thing
→ Landing page delivers another
→ CTA is a vibe
→ You ship it anyway

Here's the exact prompt I use before I send anything to a list. Takes 5 minutes. Catches the dumb stuff that costs you pipeline.

👇 Copy this

GTM PREFLIGHT PROMPT

You are a B2B conversion editor. Your job: find mismatch, friction, and marketing fluff before I ship. Be direct. Be specific. Quote the exact line that triggered each issue.

PASTE YOUR ASSETS BELOW:
- ICP description:
- Offer (what they get, terms, price):
- Email draft:
- Landing page copy:

RULES:
- Assume the buyer is senior, skeptical, and skimming
- No generic feedback. Every suggestion includes the exact replacement copy
- If something works, say nothing. Only flag problems.

OUTPUT:

1. PROMISE ALIGNMENT
What does the email promise? What does the landing page promise? Score alignment 1-10. If under 8, write one revised email sentence that matches the page.

2. FIRST 10-SECOND OBJECTIONS
List the 5 reasons a skeptical VP would bounce before scrolling. For each: the triggering line → the objection → one rewrite.

3. FLUFF DETECTOR
Flag up to 4 lines that sound like marketing. Rewrite each to sound like an operator wrote it.

4. CTA CHECK
Is the current CTA a clear next step or a vague ask? Rewrite the CTA 3 ways. Each should name a specific action and timeframe (e.g., 'Book 15 min this week', not 'Let's chat soon').

5. TRUST KILLERS
Flag anything that feels exaggerated or salesy. Give the safer version.

6. PRIORITY FIXES
The 5 edits that will move conversion most, ranked.

---

If you try this, what did it catch that you would have shipped anyway?

Andrei Zinkevich

Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel marketing for B2B tech companies with high ACV and long sales cycle

We transform B2B Tech and Service-based companies from siloed sales and marketing to full-funnel account-based marketing and demand generation. 

We help your team develop an ABM strategy, launch pilot programs, operationalize and scale the programs without ramping up budget or depending on external agencies.

Here is how.

1. ABM STRATEGY.

We go together through a 3-week initial strategy sprint that includes: 

- Deep assessment of current marketing and sales processes
- Challenges both teams face and the root reasons behind them
- Revenue and channel analysis to identify focus markets and ICP for the ABM campaigns
- Custom ABM strategy development including detailed:
- Marketing and sales alignment with ICP, strategy and playbooks

2. LAUNCH PILOT ABM PROGRAM.

Within a single quarter, we’ll work with a pilot team to implement a minimal viable full-funnel program, without pausing existing processes. The pilot team usually consists of one marketer and one sales development rep.  

When we hit the target KPIs, we move to the operationalization and scaling stage.

3.DEVELOPING FULL-FUNNEL ABM FUNCTION.

At this stage we combine ABM with demand generation function to create a holistic model that creates awareness, generates demand and activates accounts that are already engaged across the full funnel.

SPRINTS INCLUDE:

-> Account-Based Marketing

-> LinkedIn demand generation and social selling

-> GTM strategy

-> Sales enablement

-> Demand generation and accounts warm-up

Why Work With FullFunnel.io?

1. 30+ years of niche experience

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

2. Knowledge transfer.

Your team gets consistent support and training, including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack, and process maps.

3. Revenue alignment.

We align marketing and sales teams around revenue, ideal customer profile, target accounts and lead scoring criteria which helps to consistently hit your revenue quota and operate as one Revenue Operations team.

OUR CASE STUDIES INCLUDE

- $300k from a pilot ABM campaign with a software development company

- 9 qualified sales opportunities and 3 new contracts, 10x ACV from an account-based demand generation campaign with AdTech development company

- 7 sales-qualified opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign in the Nordics region with a cloud solutions vendor

- 76% response rate, 36% accounts engaged, 5 opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign

Co-founder

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge. 

I live and breathe B2B marketing since 2006. 

Before launching Fullfunnel.io, I spent 8 years in the enterprise segment working for Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation.

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows. 

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc). 

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge. 

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

My favorite way to explain B2B marketing for long sales cycles is by showing demand generation from the buyer perspective:

I. I WANT TO LEARN.

Individual buyers are exploring topics, upskilling themselves, and discovering best practices and industry trends. They're not actively looking for solutions yet—they're in learning mode.

At this stage, buyers might:

- Discover good content from a brand and start following them
- Share good content with colleagues
- Consume educational materials like podcasts, webinars, or articles
- Build awareness of different approaches and vendors

This is the foundation stage where you get noticed, build trust, and awareness before a specific business need emerges.

II. WE WANT A SOLUTION.

The buying group has agreed on the top-priority challenge and the consequences of not solving it now. They start looking for different solutions.

The vendor that was able to clearly articulate that their solution (not a product) is the best fit for this type of challenge, wins an opportunity to be considered during the next round.

Here is an example.

Our enterprise pipeline declined in 2025 by 27%. Despite multiple attempts and efforts, neither marketing nor sales knows how to fix it. We need a solution.

At this point, Champions might consider multiple solutions:

- Invest in sales training
- Hire SDRs and AEs with a proven track record of selling to enterprise
- Launch an account-based marketing program
- Invest in outreach scripts...

The list is endless.

III. WE WANT A SOLUTION LIKE YOURS.

After evaluating multiple solutions by fit, resources and budget, the buying group makes a decision to select one of them. At this point, they start looking at different vendors and book discovery calls to learn more.

Example: We want to start an account-based marketing program.

Alternatives:

- Buy an ABM platform and launch a program based on the playbooks provided by that vendor
- Hire an ABM agency
- Buy an ABM course or workshop
- Hire an experienced consulting company

Guess what you should do as a vendor?

IV. WE WANT YOUR SOLUTION.

After selecting the best-fit solution, the buying committee presents it to stakeholders to get consensus and support for the vendor evaluation.

This is where you start seeing high-intent signals and generate opportunities.

Example: We want to hire you as our consultant partner to implement a pilot ABM program. What is the scope, budget, and resources needed?

You need to invest in fully personalized buyer enablement.

V. WE ARE READY TO BUY FROM YOU.

The buying committee has approved the budget and the resources, you're moving to the procurement and POC phase.

---

These stages represent a typical buyer journey. The first three stages could take 9-12 months and often define if you're getting into the consideration set. 

Most B2B companies ignore it and try to capture the demand from in-market accounts, and this is the exact reason why the pipeline dries up.

Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel B2B marketing for B2B SaaS with long sales cycles

"I have $20k budget. How many leads do you guarantee?"
Sorry, what is called "demand gen" today is a rotten, broken marketing playbook that costs CMOs their jobs.

Old school demand gen aka waterfall marketing indoctrinated B2B companies that there is a predictable revenue model:

-Design gated content
-Run ads and send cold marketing emails aka "nurturing"
-Capture MQLs
-Handover to sales
-Analyze MQL to SQL conversion rate
-Figure out which channel generates more MQLs at lower CAC
-Calculate how many MQLs do you need to hit revenue targets based on the current conversion rate
-Request budget

B2B companies and VCs loved the idea of predictable revenue so much, so they completely recreated GTM around the new broken model.

The core of the new model:

Marketing & sales control the buyer journey and can push buyers.

This immediately widened the definition of target addressable market (TAM) and made companies forget about ICP.

Faster. Predictable. Scalable.

And within this nonsense we started seeing how B2B CMOs tenure is plummeting to 16 months in 2025.

I once attended a meeting where Head of ABM at a well-known (63k+ employees) B2B company presented to head of demand gen of one vertical team the idea of a cross-functional program.

The first thing she heard:

I don't have time for this. I can give you $20k for air cover. How many leads do you guarantee?

We must stop it.

The only way to generate B2B revenue for enterprise products is shifting to revenue marketing.
---

I've invited Matt Heinz, who has been advocating for it for a long time, to join me and Vladimir this Wed on our Full-Funnel Summit.

Sign up here to learn:  https://lnkd.in/dnw37WvF

- How to handle revenue pressure and prove marketing impact on revenue within the long sales cycles

- What do B2B CMOs do differently to grow in 2026 while handling revenue pressure and requests to deploy AI and ABM?

- How to get buy-in from CEO and CFO to shift from demand gen and MQLs to revenue marketing?

- How to handle forecast and defend budget for long sales cycles?

- Which growth lever to pull in 2026 to enable growth if your team doesn’t have capacity and your budget was cut?

Account-based content strategy shouldn't be complex. Here is the breakdown:  
( sign up for deep dive here: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c).

1: MANY.

We target the entire ICP cluster, accepting the fact that most of them are not in the market now and there is no buying intent.

- Daily LinkedIn thought leadership: ABM, Full-Funnel Marketing, B2B demand generation.
- Weekly email newsletter
- Weekly live podcast
- Quarterly step-by-step webinars
- Annual Full-Funnel Summit

1:FEW.

The level of intent is medium, and these accounts could become a future pipeline. The goal is to generate demand and get into the consideration set.

- Cluster + Jobs-To-Be-Done Specific content (e.g. How to successfully replicate your pilot ABM program with the regional teams).

- Detailed industry case studies with our clients: video interviews + content summary, where we review specific ABM programs in detail.

1:1.

We want to accelerate the sales cycle and influence the purchase decisions of the accounts with the high intent:

- Fully personalized business cases and solutions for a specific account
- Arguments for multiple stakeholders (e.g. how sales will benefit from ABM, etc).

---
We'll share the deep dive at our virtual Full-Funnel Summit. 
Sign up for free here: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

There are 2 companies that dared to challenge the absurdity of B2B marketing with video content: Cognism feat. Todd Clouser (The Worst Marketer in The World) and Dapper - the demand agency feat. Tycho Luijten and Steven van Marle (see one of my favorite videos they created).

Two companies stood out because they were not afraid to:

- innovate
- differentiate
- challenge the status quo

Ask any B2B sales team about their challenges, and in most cases you'll hear:

Our target accounts don't know us.

Most B2B companies are invisible to their buyers.

Not because they lack budget. Not because their product is bad.

Because they sound exactly like everyone else. They play safe.

Same gated whitepaper "10 trends in our market in 2026". Same pictures from the conference. Same narrative according to the "tone of voice".

B2B shouldn't stay for Boring to Boring. 

Even if you are not going to produce video content, you can stand out with:

- Insights and data (e.g. Kerry Cunningham doing a constant research for 6sense)

- Infographics explaining complex B2B marketing (we and Pierre Herubel took that pass)

- Actionable templates (cudos to Jen Allen-Knuth , Nate Nasralla, Rob Kaminski)

It's just a choice.

I've invited Tycho to our Full-Funnel Summit to stress-test his framework in an enterprise B2B.

Join us to learn:

* How to become the first brand your buyer thinks of — even with a 2-person content team, zero video capability, and a CEO who wants you to "go broad"
* The actual process, resources, and costs behind viral B2B content — and how to prove ROI when your CFO calls brand "a nice-to-have"
* How to make "niche famous" work in enterprise with 18-month sales cycles and 500 target accounts

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

No B2B buyer ever said:

"Hey, I'm interested in being your MQL. 

Please, send me your automated email nurturing cadence and transfer my email and phone number to your Sales Rep.  I'd love to spend a few hours on a qualification call and then hang out with your Account Executive."

B2B buyers don't engage with marketing content, sign up for webinars or field events, because they are READY to buy.

They engage because the topic resonated with them, and they'd like to learn more.

We have a fundamental problem here.

Because of siloed sales and marketing, marketers are under the pressure to generate leads.

Nobody even questions the LEAD definition.

Hence, marketing collects any engament (sign-ups, downloads, email link clicks) and handovers it to sales. If, eventually, sales generate an opportunity, this opportunity is presented as marketing-influenced.

But in the most cases, it ends up with blaming each other at the next board meeting.

Stop thinking about conversions at each touchpoint. 

Start doing this: 

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR BUYERS.

- What do my best customers have in common? 
- What triggers their research? What attracts their attention? 
- Where do they learn? Hang out? Whom do they follow?
- What are their jobs-to-be-done and their daily challenges?
- What questions do they ask? 
- Which evaluation criteria do they use? 
- What do they value the most? 

2. BE PRESENT IN THE CHANNELS WHERE YOUR BUYERS ARE.

Clicks and downloads doesn't matter. Account awareness and nurturing matters.

Stop:

1. Dropping links to your website in every social post.
2. Create mediocre articles based on high-volume keywords
3. Producing low-quality PDFs to collect MQLs and transfer them to sales

Start:

Create top-notch content optimized for native consumption in the channel.

3. CONNECT AND ENGAGE WITH YOUR BUYERS.

In complex B2B the relationship is what drives the revenue aside from a strong brand and content.

Enable your marketing and sales to be active on target social platforms and communities to connect and engage with the target buyers, not pitching them.

4. DISTRIBUTE CONTENT.

Creating great content without making sure your target audience consumes it is a waste of time.

Develop a content distribution workflow through:

- Own assets: newsletter, social profiles, etc.
- Sharing in communities
- Paid and 1-1 distribution to target accounts

5. CAPTURE THE DEMAND.

Sales-ready buyers will reach out to you. Here's what to do with the rest:

- Remove friction from the buying process
- Do a progressive profiling to personalize further nurturing and activation.
- Add target accounts that hit an engagement threshold to ABM playbooks
- Deveop personalized warm-up and activation activities to generate sales opps

---
"LEADS" are the consequence of brand awareness, demand generation, joint marketing and sales nurturing, customer advocacy, and great product.

We'll dive deeper at our Full-funnel summit. 

Sign up for FREE here: https://lnkd.in/dnw37WvF

Most know me here as B2B marketer writing about ABM and B2B marketing for long sales cycles. Here is what almost nobody knows:

I've been playing footbalI (soccer) and been in love with it my entire life. 

After creating our dream marketing consulting company FullFunnel.io with Vladimir Blagojević, I want to fulfill another dream - launch a football academy.

Not someday. Actually build it in public.

So I'm writing it all down.

Here's the problem I want to solve:

A lot of parents whose kids are playing football chase the wrong things despite the best intentions.

They obsess over getting their kid into the "best" academy. They pay for extra training. They stress about playing time, rotation to the B team, comparing their 10-year-old to other kids.

Then their kid quits at 14-15.

Burned out. Frustrated. Done with football.

I've watched it happen dozens of times across Poland, Croatia, and Spain over the last 10 years with my two sons. I even got the UEFA C licence to start training kids, but combining this with Fullfunnel was impossible :)

The questions I keep hearing from parents:

"Should we switch to a bigger academy?" 
"How do I find a good individual coach?" 
"Why isn't my kid getting playing time?" 
"What skills should they work on?" "How do I know if the training is actually helping?"

These are the wrong questions.

The right question: How do I help my kid still love football at 18 and become a good athlete?

Because here's what nobody tells you:

- The club logo doesn't matter. Technical foundation built between 7-14 does.
- Status at 12 means nothing. The player at 18-19 is what matters.
- Progress is seasonal, not weekly. Comparing kids destroys development.
- Getting rotated to the B team? That's often where real development happens.

The "best" academy is the one with coaches who actually develop players, not the one with the biggest name.

My older son is 19, playing his first senior season after ACL recovery. My younger is 11, last year of 8v8.

Different journeys. Different challenges. Same principles.

I'm documenting everything in a newsletter called The Football Dad: https://lnkd.in/eBRKrYSf

Topics include:

- How to choose the right academy (spoiler: it's not about the name)
- What actually drives development vs. what looks impressive
- How to evaluate if training is working (seasonal progress, not weekly panic)
- How to support without pressure (so they don't quit at 15)
- How to find a good coach for individual trainings (my first post: https://lnkd.in/eMXexFCJ)

This isn't a career pivot 😁 My love to B2B marketing and football is equal 😁

It's just the other dream which I want to make true.

If you have kids playing football (or any sport), join me on my journey: 

https://lnkd.in/eBRKrYSf

Here is a 6A framework we use to orchestrate ABM playbooks:

Pre-requisites:

- Cross-functional ABM team (ABM lead, SME, BDR, content + revops)
- Confirmed responsibilities and time commitment
- Defined program goals (new logo, expansion, acceleration)
- Confirmed success criteria + program KPIs with leadership
- Selected cluster or vertical
- Cluster win/loss deal analysis

6 playbook pillars.

1. ACCOUNT QUALIFICATION: https://lnkd.in/diePETma

- Firmo and technographics
- Qualification criteria / signals
- Disqualification criteria
- Tier segmentation
- Buying committee structure

2. ACCOUNT SEGMENTATION: https://lnkd.in/dkYBZN7X

Segment all accounts by Tiers, Vendor Awareness, Relationship and Product-Need Evidence signals.

1. Cluster ICP accounts (Not aware of us & product need is unknown).
2. Future Pipeline accounts (Aware of us & product need is unknown).
3. Active Focus accounts (Aware of us and the product need is known).

4. ACCOUNT RESEARCH.

Define information you absolutely must know about an account to create a personalized offer:

- Strategic initiatives and priorities
- Challenges
- Jobs-to-be-done & KPis of target buyer persona
- Other account enrichment information

Split it into desk and 1-1 research.

4. ACCOUNT AWARENESS: https://lnkd.in/esXKq2xc

Define core activities and content to create awareness among buying committee members.

5. ACCOUNT DEVELOPMENT & NURTURING: https://lnkd.in/dFhrbBN6

Define key activities to engage buying committee members and build a relationship with them.

6. ACCOUNT ACTIVATION: 

Personalize your offer and define bridge activities to book discovery meetings.

The last 3 pillars (awareness, nurturing and activation) incorporate time-based and signal-based playbooks to enable continuous nurturing for 12-18 months.
----
I see a lot of ABM advice on LinkedIn:

- Buy an enrichment software (e.g.  Clay or Zoominfo)
- Run an automated account research
- Set up personalized outbound cadences
- Run LinkedIn ads to the same accounts

Technically, you can call it ABM, and no doubt it might work for low ACV product . But it works because the risk to purchase and try the product is miserable.

The problem though is that this playbook cracks like peanuts in the enterprise world and long sales cycles. 

According to HockeyStack, it takes 417 touchpoints and 5,493 impressions to generate >$100k deals. 

Important nuance: value-added touchpoints, not only "here is how we can help you -> book a demo".

Most ABM playbooks account for maybe 5-10% of necessary touchpoints. If you want to land enterprise deals, be ready to roll up your sleeves and do the necessary work.

P.S. This Friday we'll publish on our Substack a practical example of creating a playbook for one of our accounts. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dSje9cKc

LinkedIn and organic reach are down. Our pipeline quality is up 20x. Here’s what's happening and what works today:

- In Q3 2025, organic reach hit its lowest point ever (down 65% from peak feat Will McTighe)
- Company pages falling from 7% to just 2% visibility in feeds (feat. Iternum Digital)
- Typical reach for content published from personal profiles is: 167 views for people with <1k followers and 5372 views for people with 50k-100k followers.

All of these means one simple fact:

Publish on the company’s page and wait for clicks is not working anymore.

My best guess:

LinkedIn is fighting with AI slop and low-quality content by trying to increase relevancy.

90% of LinkedIn feed is AI-generated content and selling-first posts. The signal-to-noise ratio has never been worse.

We’ve experienced this ourselves at FullFunnel.io. Our LinkedIn reach dropped 5-7x compared to two years ago. But our pipeline quality improved 20x over the same period.

Why?

Again, my best guess is because we never tried to chase the reach and always focused on jobs-to-be-done of our target buyers.

We ran an analysis with Vladimir Blagojević to find what works today. 

Here are 6 content formats that cut through the noise and generate awareness today.

1. Entertainment-first video (feat. Tycho Luijten).

Why it works: 

Humor is massively underused on LinkedIn. People are on social media to laugh or to learn. If you only do the second, you’re competing with thousands of identical videos. Add entertainment, and you break the pattern entirely.

2. Infographics (feat. Pierre Herubel).

Why it works: 

Infographics have the highest dwell time, save rates and profile click-through rate. Basically, what LinkedIn wants.

3. Carousels (feat. Sara Stella Lattanzio).

Why it works:

Same reasons as for infographics, with the difference that in carousels you can add more text and visual examples + provide step-by-step playbooks.

4. Proprietary research.

Why it works:

Any piece of content can be created in seconds. What can’t be created by AI is the data nobody else has. Your proprietary data.

When you publish research from real interviews or client data, your research becomes cited and shared on social, communities, newsletters, and sales decks.

I'll share the links to our favorite examples below.

5. Practical templates (feat. Jen Allen-Knuth and Nate Nasralla).

Why it works:

Templates are immediately applicable. Buyers don’t just read them, they save them, use them, and share them with colleagues. You deliver value upfront.

6. “How leading companies do it” case studies (feat. Elric Legloire).

Everybody is interested in how leading companies became “leading” :) 

What do they do differently? 
How do they do it? 
What processes and tools do they use? 
How do they structure their teams?
---
The entire breakdown with visuals, ideation process and how to make the necessary shifts is here: 

https://lnkd.in/eY4r-bU9

The 7th virtual Full-Funnel Summit (March 24-26) is live — get your free ticket: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c. Here is the format and agenda:

→ 15 live keynotes (virtual, you can attend from anywhere)
→ Live Q&A and chat with the speakers. 
→ No vendor pitches. 
→ Recordings locked for registered attendees only.

Three tracks.

DAY 1: ABM TRACK: Why your ABM isn't generating pipeline (and what actually works in 2026)

With Leanne Chescoe, Davis Potter, Steve Armenti, Lauren Goodell, me and Vladimir Blagojević.

DAY 2: CMO TRACK: How to run marketing when leadership wants results yesterday and sales complaining about marketing leads.

With Tim Rutten, Ashley Lewin, Matt Heinz, Ashley Faus.

DAY 3: GTM TRACK: Getting attention, creating awereness and generating deman in the AI era.

With Shlomo Genchin, Tycho Luijten, Sara Stella Lattanzio, Diandra Escobar, Justin Rowe, Thibaut Souyris.

---
7 years ago we started this summit because we couldn't find a B2B marketing event that was honest about what actually works in complex, long-cycle enterprise sales.

Not the new shiny AI automation. Not the new narrative about generating meetings on autopilot.

But how to solve the real challenges every B2B marketing team faces today:

→ How to drive pipeline when your sales cycle is 12-18 months and leadership wants results this quarter 

→ How to prove marketing's contribution to revenue when early influence disappears in your CRM and last-touch attribution gets all the credit 

→ How to run ABM with a lean team and a limited budget 

→ How to get the attention of buyers who ignore cold outreach, unsubscribe from nurture sequences, and do 70% of their research before ever talking to sales
---

We keep it free because we believe this content should be accessible to every B2B marketing and sales team, not just the ones with a $5K event budget.

All we ask in return:

if this looks valuable to you, help us spread the word.

→ Grab your free ticket: https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c 

→ Tag one colleague in marketing, sales or RevOps who's dealing with any of the challenges above

See you at the summit.

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