How AI in GTM Is Changing the Conventional B2B Journey

Happy Valentine’s Eve, folks. Hope everyone is ready for some serious chocolate consumption tomorrow. (I know I am.)?

Before the sugar rush hits, take a few minutes to check out what we’ve got for you this week:?

• How AI can upgrade your traditional GTM frameworks
• Results from a recent survey on your biggest challenges with email follow-ups
• Love letters from some of ZoomInfo’s biggest fans

AI Propels GTM Frameworks Beyond the Conventional B2B Buyer’s Journey

The sales and marketing go-to-market frameworks we’ve relied on for decades — staples like the funnel, the flywheel, and the buyer’s journey — are fast becoming obsolete … or are out the door already.

Current GTM frameworks can’t detect or reflect the real-time behaviors and intentions of AI-empowered buyers. That’s because they were never designed to handle the complexities of today’s buyer-first world.?

To succeed, B2B leaders must flip the power dynamic back, reclaiming control through smarter strategies driven by data, signals, and their own use of AI.?

Here’s why our GTM frameworks no longer work:?

GTM Funnel:?

• Sellers miss early opportunities: The funnel’s static rigidity fails to provide early insights, leaving sellers struggling to meet buyers where they are.?

• Buyers demand relevance and timing: Without a dynamic framework to adapt to real-time signals, sellers risk alienating people instead of converting them.

Flywheel Marketing:?

• Buyers move faster than the flywheel spins: The flywheel assumes a cyclical, predictable relationship between marketing, sales, and customer success that doesn’t fit buyers’ expectations of immediate relevance and action.?
• Flywheel marketing ignores buyer complexity: With multiple stakeholders influencing decisions, there’s no single “moment of delight” that triggers the next rotation of the wheel.?

B2B Buyer’s Journey:?

• B2B buyers don’t follow the rules: Buyers are guided by their own priorities, often bypassing standard journey touchpoints entirely
• The buyer’s journey is built for sellers, not buyers: The buyer’s journey was designed to help sellers guide prospects through a sales process, but it doesn’t reflect how empowered buyers operate today.?

So what’s the answer? Don’t abandon traditional go-to-market activities entirely — evolve them for today’s unpredictable, buyer-first landscape.?

This transformation hinges on go-to-market intelligence, which is the power trio of data, signals, and AI combined. Go-To-Market Intelligence enables sellers to:

• Harness data for precision: Pinpoint high-intent opportunities by analyzing real-time signals, such as website visits, content downloads, and email engagement paired with high-quality company, contact, firmographic, and technographic data.
• Leverage AI for personalization: Use AI-fueled insights, research, and analysis to tailor messaging to individual buyer needs, fostering trust, boosting engagement, and speeding up decision-making.
• Act on signals to stay relevant: Adapt instantly to shifting buyer priorities, ensuring every interaction is timely and meaningful.

By combining data, signals, and AI as GTM Intelligence, leaders can leave behind outdated linear strategies and embrace a smarter, more agile approach to buyer engagement.?

Find examples of GTM AI in action — and a framework to get you started — in this article.?

Survey Says…

We asked, you answered.

Our LinkedIn audience represents over 200,000 go-to-market professionals. We regularly survey them to get a pulse on selling strategies, purchasing behaviors, and general thoughts on all things tech.

Recently, we asked you about challenges related to email follow-ups. Unsurprisingly, standing out in the inbox is a major hurdle companies face, followed by personalization at scale, and creating strong subject lines.

Crafting an email is an art form, and it takes practice to nail it down. Luckily, we’ve got some tips to help your email rates skyrocket. Focus on these three elements:?

1. Short and sweet wins

People are busy and inboxes are jammed. Make your point, don’t use a lot of extra words that you think are adding flair, and don’t repeat yourself. Good advice for any kind of communication, really.

2. Aim for both focus and scale

You’re one person having an ongoing conversation. Make each email in your sequence similar in tone, voice, and approach even when the facts of the message change. Then read them back — does this scale out to a broader audience? Consider writing a full email campaign in one sitting, let each email focus on a different “pain hypothesis,” and scale that message to a specific persona or industry.

3. Mix it up

We find that it can take around 10 touchpoints across a variety of channels to win a deal. Use email sequences — but don’t forget to call after. Vary the content offers you provide. Try different timeslots and CTAs.

For a tried and tested email template that will get your prospects to respond, read this article.?

Mailbag

This one’s for our #1 ZoomInfo fans! Want to be featured? Post about ZoomInfo on social and be sure to tag us.

Robbie takes one to know one ??

Melani Patterson is a dream collaborator!

Hear more about Melani’s experience with Zoominfo:?

We couldn’t have said it better ??

Thanks for reading!

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