been. Sales cycles are longer and more individuals are involved in buying decisions, each with their own roles and priorities. They’ve also entered a new era where buyers are discovering and learning about companies through multiple online touchpoints, making content the centerpiece of their buying journey.

These changes require that successful B2B marketers be buyer-centric. To rise above the noise and drive engagement and consensus among the multiple people (personas) in an account, marketers must provide high-quality content, messaging, and interactions that support buyers’ needs and processes in the manner they desire. Achieving this, however, is dependent on having a truly deep understanding of your buyers.

The challenge marketers face is that existing technologies do not fully support this shift from being vendor-centric to buyer-centric because they’re solely focused on execution. While content production, account-based marketing, and personalization solutions exist, none of them can be used to their potential without first having Marketing-Sales alignment on the audience, how they buy, and how to effectively sell to them. That’s why many campaigns miss the mark, why so much content goes unused, and why opportunities are lost.