Communication in B2B today focuses on an ecosystem of decision-makers.
In a previous Bloovi article, we already pointed it out: the traditional sales and marketing funnel no longer works. For many Flemish B2B companies, this is a daily challenge. When your target audience consists of engineers, CEOs, HR managers, and finance directors - each with their own priorities and communication preferences - your marketing and communication need to become a strategic discipline. Yet in many organizations today, marketing is still too much of an ad hoc exercise made up of loose pieces. In the meantime, there’s always someone working on a new marketing initiative. Lots of activity, but little cohesion.
An ecosystem is not a funnel
Where marketing was still relatively linear ten years ago, that logic has largely disappeared today. The classic idea of communicating at the top of the funnel and guiding people step by step downward no longer holds. B2B marketing now operates in what is better described as an ecosystem of decision-makers - and that makes everything more complex on multiple levels at once.
Take an IT company that offers both training and software solutions. The decision-makers at their clients are rarely just one person. It involves multiple stakeholders, each with their own role, interests, and decision-making authority. Think of an IT manager assessing technical feasibility, a CFO focused on budget and ROI, an HR manager concerned with adoption and training, and a CEO or business unit manager expecting strategic impact.
This means that sales today no longer sells to “a company,” but to a buying group. Research has shown for years that in B2B, an average of five to ten people are involved in a purchasing decision. Each of them needs to be convinced, but for different reasons. The IT manager wants to know if the solution integrates with existing systems. The CFO wants certainty about cost structure and payback. HR wants to know how quickly employees can start using it. The CEO wants to understand how it contributes to growth, efficiency, or competitive advantage.
In such a context, marketing cannot rely on a single generic message. It must tell multiple stories, tailored to the different profiles within the same organization. This requires segmentation at the functional level, not just by sector or company size. A whitepaper on technological architecture speaks a different language than a business case with financial justification. A webinar on implementation differs fundamentally from an inspiring keynote on digital transformation.
In practice, this works as follows. Marketing first maps out the decision-making landscape: who is at the table, who influences whom, who has veto power? Then targeted content and communication flows are created for each stakeholder profile. For technical profiles, you produce in-depth content, demos, and use cases. For management, you develop strategic insights, ROI calculations, and reference cases. For end-users, you showcase simplicity, ease of use, and concrete benefits in their daily work.
Sales aligns with this by no longer engaging with a single contact person, but by actively building relationships with multiple stakeholders within the same organization. This can mean that one deal requires several meetings and presentations. Often, sales acts as a facilitator, helping the different internal parties within the client organization reach a decision. Instead of simply convincing, sales guides the internal decision-making process.
This also requires closer collaboration between marketing and sales. Marketing must know which stakeholders are involved in a specific opportunity so that targeted content can be delivered. Sales must provide feedback on objections, internal dynamics, and political sensitivities within accounts. Only in this way can an integrated approach emerge, where marketing does not merely generate leads but effectively contributes to closing deals.
Targets today are not achieved by shouting louder but by navigating intelligently through a complex network of people and interests. Those who succeed in reaching each stakeholder at the right time with the right message not only increase the chances of conversion but also build sustainable, strategic customer relationships.
When marketing and sales each go their own way, oversight is lost. Even the marketing manager loses control. What emerges is not a strategy, but fragmentation.
When multiple decision-makers each have their own context, marketing cannot rely on a single generic message.
Branding is becoming central again
Paradoxically, part of the solution lies in that very fragmentation. Precisely because everything is so fragmented, we see branding becoming increasingly important again. For us, branding is not just a color or tagline, it’s a strategic compass for building trust.
When your audience can encounter you across dozens of touchpoints - from LinkedIn ads to podcasts, from whitepapers to trade shows - consistency suddenly becomes crucial. People want to understand what your company or product stands for, and that message must be recognizable in every communication and across all channels. This ensures your brand and company remain identifiable.
This clashes with how marketing budgets have often been approached in recent years. Since COVID-19, and with geopolitical tensions, energy prices, and inflation, budgets have been under pressure. This tends to trigger a predictable reflex: focusing on the short term, measurable ROI, and campaigns that deliver quick results.
In practice, ad hoc marketing is rarely a conscious choice. It often results from having to serve many channels and many audiences simultaneously. That fragmentation is built into the system, and our goal is to extract marketing from that chaos.
A consistent message must be recognizable in every communication and across all channels. This keeps your brand and company identifiable.
Three steps to regain clarity
How do you make that ecosystem manageable again? In our approach, we consistently work with the following three steps:
- Build on a strong brand story. It needs to be top-notch. This goes beyond a nice logo or catchy slogan. It’s about a clear narrative and sharp positioning that remain consistent across all communications.
- Map all ad hoc marketing actions. First, we take stock of ongoing marketing efforts. In many companies, this can be confronting. Often, there are initiatives running that no one actively manages, campaigns existing side by side, and choices that once made sense but no longer align with anything. We make this visible in a positive way to regain direction.
- Tailor your story to decision-makers. Who ultimately makes the decision, and what do they need to reach it? Only when this is clear can you start building a supported plan.
We realize that this third step requires a mental shift: from thinking in channels to thinking in people. LinkedIn is a good example: you start with one core message and then translate it for different profiles - the engineer, the CEO, the HR manager - each with their own “what’s in it for me.”
It sounds simple, but this is precisely where much B2B marketing goes off track. You cannot deliver one message in one way and expect it to be equally relevant for everyone. What must happen is that all these translations continue to point toward the same horizon.
Sales and Marketing: Finally One Team?
A persistent pain point is the relationship between sales and marketing. During the planning phase, the two too often do not function as a true team.
This is not surprising. Sales focuses on quarterly targets because revenue has to be delivered. Marketing often measures softer metrics, such as brand awareness, engagement, and lead quality. And when pressure rises, sales tends to pull harder on marketing, with all the consequences: strategic collaboration is lost.
Yet we see that success is only possible if sales and marketing sit together from day one, to create a single plan and go to market in an integrated way. Ideally, both disciplines are also involved at the executive table, together with the CEO or founder.
Sales and marketing each have their own pulse on the market. Through digital channels and face-to-face interactions, they continuously pick up signals from customers and prospects. These insights are essential for any long-term plan.
Sales and marketing must go to market with a single, integrated plan.
The need for financial awareness
In more and more organizations, marketing is evolving into a clearly data-driven discipline, with a strong focus on measurability and financial accountability. Campaigns are no longer evaluated solely on creativity but on their impact on pipeline, revenue, and margin. This means marketers must understand how their efforts contribute to cash flow, customer value, and long-term growth.
This evolution requires strong financial awareness, both in marketing and sales. Concepts like customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, gross margin, and payback period should no longer be abstract terms but tools guiding daily decisions. Sales must be able to assess which deals are strategically profitable, and marketing must know which channels truly create value rather than just generate reach.
There is still significant growth potential for both disciplines. Those who speak the language of finance and can demonstrate how marketing and sales efforts contribute to profitability automatically gain more credibility. And that is precisely the lever to move beyond execution and claim a full seat at the executive table.
No one has the magic box
B2B marketing in 2025 seems more complex than ever: fragmented audiences, more channels, AI, budget pressures, tension between sales and marketing… you name it. These are all pieces of a puzzle that don’t always fit together naturally. We are in the midst of a transition, and no one today holds a secret magic box, despite what some LinkedIn “gurus” might make you believe.
What does work is going back to basics: a strong brand as a foundation, a clear overview of what you do and why, understanding who your decision-makers are and what drives them, and perhaps most importantly, sales and marketing joining forces with a single, shared plan.
So, no one has the ultimate secret. But those who focus on direction, rhythm, and relevance get further than just putting out fires. The traditional funnel is dead. What you need is a system that endures, even when everything changes.
