E154: The end of B2B GTM as we know it

Joaquin Dominguez: welcome to another episode of Marketing Futures. Today we are exploring a big and timely question. this the end of B2B GTM as we know it? AI is now reshaping almost every part of GoToMarket.

Content, sales outreach, localization, data analysis, customer engagement, and way buyers discover and evaluate solutions. But while the hype is everywhere, the reality is more nuanced. And in this episode, we'll look at where AI is generally replacing human effort today, it still falls short and how B2B teams should think about competitive advantage as execution becomes easier to automate. We'll discuss whether the traditional B2B funnel is breaking down or simply being rebuilt and what marketing sales and revenue teams should still own as we look ahead to But before we get into the conversation, I'd love for our guests to introduce themselves.

Maybe Justin, perhaps we can start with you. Could you share a bit about your role at Bear Die and where AI is showing up in your work today? Justin Meredith: Yeah, my name is Justin Meredith. I'm ⁓ a marketing manager at BirdEye ⁓ ⁓ everything from our email marketing program, our sales ⁓ content.

I host our webinars. I ⁓ wear lot of ⁓ here. But ⁓ when it comes to how use AI, it's much in every aspect of my job right now. It's pretty crazy actually.

Joaquin Dominguez: That's true. you so much, Jason. Suvish, welcome. Suvish: Thank you, Jacqueline.

I'm Suveesh. I'm Suveesh Ujnathan. ⁓ head our marketing efforts across Europe for Zoho. I've been ⁓ around a while now, so have seen the transition that we are seeing from, let's say, an on-premise to SaaS model and the marketing that goes around it.

like... Justin mentioned, ⁓ think AI is today the talk of the town everywhere, Even in our teams. And ⁓ a company, there are different So we will, I think, cover many of this during our discussion. Joaquin Dominguez: Awesome.

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for those introductions. start with the practical reality of AI in B2B GTM today. There's a lot of theory around AI replacing work, but I'd like ⁓ ground this in real examples ⁓ AI is actually replacing human effort in B2B GTM today and where is it falling short?

Justin Meredith: like I mentioned, I've seen AI used in just about every aspect of what I do. And as a company with BirdEye, we're an AI-focused platform. There's a big push internally to leverage AI in just about everything we do to be more efficient. As it relates to the specific things that we do, we're working on really going from just using chat GPT to create content, a written content to figuring out how do we do more than just a task at a time, completing workflows.

And I think that's been the big movement in 2026 is the whole agent movement. I think there was a lot of talk about agents in 2025, but I don't think a whole lot of people really understood. how to do it. I think that was kind of the beginning of the movement.

But in 2026, I've seen a much larger push to use AI to complete multiple steps in a row of workflow instead of just one task at a time. I think AI has helped people become more efficient and to do a lot more things at scale. But what I've noticed is people are starting to connect these tasks. to do more things at once.

And I think that's where you'll see more of the replacement factor. That's kind of ⁓ I'm focused well is figuring out how can I really connect these things. so instead of just writing an email, for example, how can I, you know, right now I'm working on a platform, like I'm vibe coding something myself where I can write an email, but it's connected to my email marketing system so it can pull the content. that we're sending, analyze the results our each target segment, geography, industry that we're emailing to, and then optimize that email and then push it back into our email marketing system and send it and get the feedback.

And so it's gonna really be a fully closed loop system for our email marketing system versus just using chat GPT to write an email copy. Joaquin Dominguez: 100%. And, and yeah, and it's crazy that you can build the app today. You don't need to rely on a developer or someone with more experience, right?

That's, that's what about you? ⁓ Suvish: Yeah, I'll take what Chester just mentioned, it's compressing the AI is compressing the execution time ⁓ to almost near zero, So like he mentioned about building an app now two years before, in history, right? Just two years before this would have taken days or maybe weeks depending upon if you have an availability of developer and things like that. So when the execution timelines, it now become almost zero, what matters ⁓ is things that AI cannot do.

So I most of the marketing teams in ⁓ mid-size large today have access to the AI platforms. They have access ⁓ platforms to build connected with MCPs and then connected with their CRM systems or like email. system that Justin just mentioned. So ⁓ are seeing there are many of these ⁓ today in marketing where AI can help, which are repetitive in nature, whether it is ⁓ content production.

But from there also, you can probably think of having the first draft, some variations ⁓ from AI because it learns from your past email content, et cetera. ⁓ would still need Justin Meredith: Mm. Suvish: human in the loop there before it is sent out. At ⁓ targeting, important.

So we all in marketing, whoever is doing digital marketing, there's lot of audience segmentation, predictive bidding, all that stuff. Wherever is involved, ⁓ AI help in reducing timeline, reducing the dependency. Justin Meredith: Yeah. Suvish: outbound sales, example, prospecting, we are seeing this quite a bit.

The account-based marketing thing, we can ⁓ shrink down to few hours because you can do the ⁓ research the company and sort of out the campaigns, ⁓ or personalized things like that. What we are is this because the timelines have shrunk, certain That is now more important than ever. For example, with AI, especially where I am in Europe, compliance plays a big role. So the trust factor plays a big role.

So as marketing teams, if you are working across different regions, one to understand how we structure the systems, keeping the guardrails in place. So even when you have new players, new team members, They understand where the boundaries are, what is the best way to put things out so that your brand is negatively impacted. Joaquin Dominguez: Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point, especially distinction between AI helping with execution and AI being able to understand the context, the nuance, the compliance, behavior.

Let's to the DTM model, okay? Because for years, B2B teams have worked around some versions of the funnel. You mentioned Suvish, like ABM, that... relies on the basic funnel, which is create awareness, capture demand, nurture the leads, then you hand them to cells and you progress them through pipeline.

But AI search, self-serve buying, automation, and changing buyer expectations are starting to challenge that model, in my opinion. the traditional B2B funnel breaking down or is it simply being rebuilt? How do you think both about the funnel now? Suvish: I think if I ⁓ extend from what I initially sort of alluded to, right?

So I think it's breaking down, but ⁓ I the certain fundamentals of the funnel remains. But what's happening ⁓ in last, let's say, couple of years, and maybe Justin, you can talk about further, is the customer today lot more informed. Right, so before they even come to, if it's suppose your business is digital and then you have a website and all of that, I think today every business has a website. The customer acquisition process has become more information driven, more knowledge driven than what it was in the past.

So today when a customer or a prospect comes to your website, they already have the entire information about your company, there are your products, what people are saying, all of that. I think there was a McKinsey report that I remember reading some time back. ⁓ 50 % or more consumers today already use AI-powered search. And ⁓ that ⁓ ⁓ different because the brands could put advertisement, whether it is Google Search, display advertisement, or any of that, and can get that immediate attention from the But today, that manufacturing of immediate need doesn't exist like before, because it depends upon if your chat GPTS perplexities, CLAUDES of the world they recommend your brand when people are asking for IT.

right? The AEO and the GEOs of the world. So then what matters is over the period of time, what has your brand done to build the trust have your customers spoken about it? So from that perspective, yes, the funnel has shifted.

I don't think it's broken, but it has shifted to make more trust-driven, value-driven than just pay money and put your brand out there and then get it into the funnel. So maybe Justin, what do you think about? Justin Meredith: Yeah, I completely agree. And it's interesting because so with BirdEye, we focus our base ⁓ primarily local businesses or multi-location businesses.

They're B2C. And this is something that we are talking about a lot with them is with AI search. you're a local search for, know, traditionally what people would do is like, where's the best pizza place near me? Suvish: Mm.

Justin Meredith: Now you have these AI models that have memory and preference of the user. So that person could say, I'm for ⁓ great pizza place, but the model, maybe it's Google with personalization or chat GPT with memory or cloud or whatever you use. It knows that you are a vegan or you have a gluten allergy and it's going to take those preferences into consideration when it gives you those recommendations. And so this is something that we've talked a lot about with these businesses.

And I think it's the same thing. Like you were saying here, it's like people will have so much more information now before they even get to your website, if they even go to your website, because they can get all the information elsewhere. with it being so trust driven, this is something that we talk about a lot is like we talk about reviews, third party websites. You know, it's really, I've always kind of felt like the whole concept of SEO and marketing has been converging.

And I think it's really important. whether it's B2B, B2C, however big or large, developing your brand narrative online putting information out there so that you can be picked up by these LLMs. People talk GEO or AEO as it relates to AI search, and it's just to see how this is evolving. exactly like you said, Suvish I don't think it's necessarily the end of GTM or traditional GTM.

I think the funnel is shifting. I think it's a lot harder now to get somebody to fill out a form on a website because most of the time, if wants to download a guide, there's a good chance they don't really need to because they can go get the same kind of information from an LLM. So it's a lot harder to get people to make those movements. And so I think the way that we track activity, in the way that you people is a little bit different.

And kind of going back to what you said earlier about ABM, from what experiencing, it's almost becoming CBM of contact-based marketing because you can get ⁓ way more with your outreach to the individual person. The biggest difficulty I found with this though is really on the data side. ⁓ If I were to give people advice on, you if they're trying to implement AI into their workflows, I would say hire a data person before you hire an AI person. the data to me is the biggest hurdle.

If you have messy data, if you have, you know, outdated contact information or anything like that, it ⁓ things a lot harder to automate. And something that, you know, I think every business has is they probably have a lot of data they don't know, they don't realize that could be used and they also don't really have the infrastructure in place to use it well. Suvish: Yeah. Joaquin Dominguez: And if we go to the basics, you mentioned earlier, Svish, like the buyer journey is not broken, but it's more information driven.

If we think back, like before the old digital revolution, before the like the of websites, if we think like the sales process was salesperson ⁓ having closing meetings, having presentations, And consumers were asking questions face to face, building trust. And then that information changed to websites and to digital campaigns where you can show that information. But at the end of the day, ⁓ I believe is the information is the same. The thing is consumers are consuming in a different way.

I really what ⁓ exactly, and really like what you mentioned just in there about building Justin Meredith: delivery method yeah. Joaquin Dominguez: building your brand narrative online because all these tools, AI, is picking information from different sources. But the basics are, in my opinion, are the same, right? Customer reviews, like what people are talking about you.

Like if you do kind of good marketing, you should appear in AI in the top result. If you are a company that is totally new, probably it's way harder, right? Suvish: Yep. Joaquin Dominguez: And of course you have all the data layer on top that you mentioned that you can do contact-based marketing using these tools.

so, but exactly. Justin Meredith: Yeah, the search is still happening, right? Instead of a person going through and looking through Google's blue links, and then they're surfing through different web pages to find this information, the AI is doing it for them. But the same things that the humans would care about is the same thing that the AI cares about when it comes to the public brand or the information you're putting out there.

It just like even like Savitra saying, like the timelines on the marketing operational side, Joaquin Dominguez: Uh-huh. Justin Meredith: is shrinking, but so is the timeline for the information gathering. Suvish: Yeah. And I think just to your point, you rightly mentioned, the ⁓ so hard today to get someone to fill the form.

But I think the positive side of that is those who fill the form, have filled after getting all the information. Right. So ⁓ it's ⁓ being an optimist, we would like to see it that way. And we are seeing it.

Right. So because if if if Mackenzie's ⁓ were to Justin Meredith: The intent. Yeah. Yeah.

Suvish: to be believed and 50 % of the folks are really going through all these LLMs before coming to a website. They have access to information that is fast to come by. And then when they are visiting these vendor websites, they have gone through the reviews and all of that. So the trust-based buying is all the important today than what it was in the past.

⁓ Justin Meredith: Yeah. And that 50 % to me even feels low. I mean, if you were to use Google, if you use Google, I mean, you're pretty much forced to use AI mode. It's they're really pushing it.

They've made a lot of, they've made a lot of big changes in the last six months ⁓ in that regard. And it's going to be the default, I'm sure. ⁓ mean, I would say within ⁓ Google search, they're moving in that direction very quickly. ⁓ I mean, I had a webinar last month.

Suvish: Yes. Yes. Yes. Justin Meredith: with ⁓ a few SEO experts and someone on the Gemini and search team.

And this is what we were talking about is this movement to especially on Google side of AI search. And ⁓ I I think right now, don't know if it's, if they've pushed this across for everybody, but if I go to my Google search bar right now, it doesn't say ⁓ search Google or URL. It says ask Google. And it's the people are looking for answers.

so I think that's ⁓ subtle change, but to me, it's a signal that they're changing the way that they're approaching search in general. Suvish: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's all question-based. Yeah. Joaquin Dominguez: Now I'd like to talk about competitive advantages because if every marketing team has access to the similar AI tools for content creation, campaign execution, data analysis, outbound, but content-based marketing that we discussed earlier, then execution itself may become less differentiated.

So execution becomes commoditized, what becomes the real source of competitive advantage? Is it brand, trust, first-party data, customer experience? I don't know, something else entirely. Suvish: Yeah, I you know, I think to simplify this, the tooling is no more the moat, right?

Everyone has access to the same tools, $30 subscription and you have asked the ⁓ of the tool. And so can tool that up, right? So you have good system thinker, system engineer in your team, connect multiple marketing tools and then have an MCP connected to it. Joaquin Dominguez: you Suvish: run it with the right LLM.

You have content, have SDR based research, you have ABM, all that stuff. ⁓ I think the ⁓ fundamentals, going back to our previous conversation, they compound over time. And that, I think, is non-negotiable. For example, brand equity.

And this is not something that one ⁓ that is generated AI it cannot manufacture brand equity. is built over the period of time, built over the period of time with the trust that the customers have placed on your brand. I think that's not just a sales activation, right? When you go beyond that, the trust, is that consistency that you have built at the customer's touch point, How your customer services, are you compliant with local laws?

It's not just the compliance that is on your paper, but are you really practicing it? I there are these fundamentals ⁓ which important and that is sort part of your narrative, which is non-negotiable, and this will, help in differentiating your brand versus the other brand next door. So as a marketeer, we need to have this story over the period of time and create that differentiation in the age of AI. ⁓ Joaquin Dominguez: and Suvish, I'm really keen to if you could tell us your perspective from Soho because your company has a very distinctive operating model and long-term approach to market building I would love to hear a little bit about story if possible Suvish: Yeah, I it's been this year, we saw a 30th year in the market.

And almost everything that we do, we look at a long term sort of with long term leds, So for example, GDPR, The European data protection law. Now that came into existence back in 2018, if I'm not wrong. And this was about protecting the privacy of users. within the European region.

Now Zoho has been practicing this since the beginning, 1996. We have got free versions of our product. Almost all our products have free edition, which is basically you can use a Zoho CRM or a Zoho Mail for a certain number of users for free forever. But we never had any ad on any of these free products.

And but the industry standard is when something is free, you are the product, right? But in our case, we never had that. Now that has helped us to, it's a very simple philosophy, but it has helped ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ that trust with the customer base ⁓ we have. So over the period of time, they see that, okay, this company is worth partnering.

They stay, they expand. we have then customers who are using probably one product, today they may be using 20 of our products. Now, all of these products ⁓ are within, we never acquired the 100 plus products that we have, any of those. So then matters is each of these are built by the same team, same company, built on similar technology platform.

That's again another long-term approach. So long-term approach in... ⁓ market and long-term approach in product execution as well. Our CEO, I think recently said this and ⁓ I that quote because he mentioned, in AI you have a lot of the companies today trying to automate ⁓ customer support.

I think that's the first thing that the companies are trying to do. For Cloud now is a classic example, right? So the payment company. Two years ago when AI came in, they ⁓ announced it big on the public that we are cutting down people, are automating everything, all of that.

And you find out that it's not easy. Customer support ⁓ is a cost center. It is the product. Right?

And today the news is they're all bringing people because it was not giving the satisfaction. So In all these things, have to look at, I think Scott Brinker mentioned it in his recent State of Marketing report, there is factory and there is laboratory. So there's factory that will keep the production line going, which is your campaigns, emails, data, blah, blah. And then there is laboratory where you are thinking about future, future revenue streams, future...

way of doing marketing, GTM and all of that. So we have to, I think, toggle between the short term and the long term, So short term to put the food on the plate, long term that will continue to bring food on the plate over the years. Yeah. Joaquin Dominguez: Yeah, that's a great perspective from Soho.

And Justin, I'd be interested in your view from a digital marketing and demand generation perspective, what becomes a source of competitive advantage in this context. Justin Meredith: Yeah. Yeah. Real quick to your point, Suvish, that it's so interesting that the first thing people thought about automating was customer service.

it's also really interesting because it is one of the first things that people thought about. But nine out of 10, if you go to a customer service platform for a chat bot, it's terrible. ⁓ To me, the most surprising thing. It's like, this feels like something you should be able to automate.

Suvish: Yes. Justin Meredith: But I think people also forget that when it, especially customer service is like, where are humans the most important when it comes to the relationship with the customer? it's that customer service side is being able to provide that human connection. That's a great opportunity to build that relationship with customers.

And if you're automating that interaction, you're losing out on a lot. And like you said, people will end up going back to it. Like ⁓ think there's a bit, an area where businesses need to think about Where can I automate in terms of where are we losing, ⁓ effectiveness, but not the cost of losing that relationship building with your customers. but going back to the question execution, ⁓ I think to me in, in of these, have you said, and you kind of just like slipped it in, ⁓ but he was talking about like, if you have a good, engineer or data systems engineer.

And I think that is the key is. It's still a skill thing. Everybody has all these tools, but have to know how to use them. Imagine if I was in a race and I was in an F1 car and was going up against Lando Norris or Max Verstappen in F1.

I guarantee you if I had a much better car than either of them, they would still crush me in a race because they're better at using that tool and they're better at ⁓ working that system. And so to me, the competitive edge isn't so much that everybody has a tool, but it's who can use those tools to the best of their ability. can't tell you how many times I've had people come to me and say, you know, Justin, can't get chat GPT to work. I don't understand why, but all the hype is like, I'm like, okay, well show me what you're doing.

And they give me and they show me what they're doing. And it's like a terrible prompt or they're not using the connections. not, you know, they're not using the tool the way that it could be used. And so they're not getting the output that it could be used.

And so to me, it's a skill thing. And then going back to what I said earlier about data, it's an infrastructure thing. Because if you don't have good data, you're not going to get good outputs. And so to me, that's kind of where I see the differentiation is how can you these tools to execute better?

everybody have an F1 car, but the really skilled drivers are going to be the ones who win the race. Joaquin Dominguez: you much for joining today this has been a great discussion on how AI is changing B2B go-to-market ⁓ not just level of tool and tactics but at level of strategy differentiation, organizational for everyone listening, the takeaway I believe is that AI may automate more of the work but it doesn't remove the need for judgment, for trust, for creativity, for understanding your customers and strong GTM strategy at the end of the day.

think ⁓ many ways those things become even more important today. Well, thank you so much for listening to B2B Marketing Futures. Until next time, thank you so much.