As 2025 approaches, B2B marketers face a critical challenge: proving their strategic worth in the go-to-market (GTM) ecosystem. With economic pressures mounting and executive patience wearing thin, marketers must answer a fundamental question from the C-suite: What value does marketing truly deliver?
The answer could make or break not only budgets but the credibility of marketing itself.
C-Suite Demands Clarity in Uncertain Times
The coming years are poised to expose vulnerabilities across business functions, particularly in GTM strategies. In 2025, risk will dominate executive agendas, with economic uncertainty, market volatility, and technological disruption creating a perfect storm. For marketing, this translates to heightened scrutiny.
Executives are questioning why substantial sums are funnelled into marketing without clear evidence of returns. Compounding the issue, many are rethinking the cost of sales teams in an era where AI is transforming the landscape. As cash remains a finite resource, every department must justify its share with measurable impact.
Dave Stouse, a seasoned GTM strategist, highlights the stakes:
“The C-suite isn’t just impatient with ‘unknowns’; they’re done with guesswork. They want clear, actionable answers about marketing’s role and impact. And if you can’t provide those answers, you’ll be funded as cheaply as possible.”
The Risk of Failing to Prove Value
Marketing teams that can’t articulate their value risk being sidelined. When budgets are slashed, the message is clear: you’re necessary, but not strategic. At best, you’ll be treated as a service function, funded at the minimum level to maintain operations.
This harsh reality underscores the need for marketers to marry their creative expertise with business acumen. It’s no longer enough to know your craft—you must understand how marketing contributes to the company’s internal rate of return (IRR) and overall performance.
Consider this: if a CFO can guarantee a 4.5% IRR by holding onto investable cash, marketing must demonstrate returns significantly above that threshold. Anything less is a losing argument.
Causal Analytics: The Path to Credibility
So, how can marketers meet these expectations? Enter causal analytics. Unlike traditional marketing metrics, causal analytics quantifies the direct and synergistic contributions of marketing to business outcomes. This science-backed methodology reveals how marketing enhances sales, recruitment, investor relations, and other business functions.
For instance, in a midmarket B2B company, marketing can make sales teams eight times more effective and five times more resource-efficient. That means marketing enables $8 million in sales for just 20–25% of what sales alone would cost.
But the impact doesn’t stop there. Marketing’s influence extends across the organisation, amplifying talent acquisition, procurement, and stakeholder trust. As Stouse explains:
“Marketing isn’t just a cost centre—it’s a multiplier. A strong marketing function accelerates outcomes across the business, making it one of the most cost-effective investments a company can make.”
Shifting to Business-First Marketing
For too long, marketing has operated without fully integrating into the business ecosystem. That’s no longer sustainable. In 2025, marketers must align their strategies with broader business goals, forecast returns, and provide detailed investment plans.
The shift is already underway, with CFOs favouring budget proposals backed by robust business cases. These plans must outline how marketing investments will deliver short-, medium-, and long-term returns. Anything less risks a 50% budget cut—a clear signal that marketing’s value remains unproven.
Why 2025 Will Be a Turning Point
The first half of 2025 will be a trial by fire for many B2B GTM teams. Under intense scrutiny, only those who can demonstrate their value will emerge stronger. By 2026, however, those who rise to the challenge will find themselves in a position of unprecedented influence.
Stouse offers a final call to action:
“Marketers have the tools to succeed. The question is whether they’re willing to use them. It’s time to answer the C-suite’s questions, de-risk GTM, and show the real power of marketing. The future of B2B marketing depends on it.”
What’s Next for Marketers?
As we enter 2025, B2B marketers must embrace data-driven methodologies and align their efforts with the business’s overarching goals. By combining marketing acumen with business insight, they can not only justify their budgets but also solidify their role as strategic partners within the organisation.
The era of ambiguity is over. It’s time for marketing to step up, sell its value, and secure its place at the heart of the GTM ecosystem.
Source: https://martech.org/its-time-for-b2b-marketing-to-understand-its-gtm-role/
