The 95% You're Ignoring Could Transform Your Lead Flow

Chasing today's leads could be killing tomorrow’s growth

Author

Tyler Morian
June 19, 2025

This week: why AI agents might be your marketing team's future, how to stop ignoring 95% of your market, and creating content that survives the AI revolution. Plus, the only metrics that matter, building your SaaS distribution moat, and overcoming "founder brain" to actually sell your product. Giddyup!

Strategic B2B Marketing: The 95:5 Rule

The tension between brand building and performance marketing comes into focus with the "95:5 rule": only 5% of your B2B audience is in-market to buy right now. Are you spending too much chasing this tiny segment while ignoring the 95% who aren't ready yet?

Focusing solely on lead generation targets the active 5%, but neglects building preference with the future buyers. Long-term growth requires investing in brand and thought leadership so when prospects are ready, you're their first call. This balanced approach needs a modern GTM strategy, using competitive intelligence and a well-defined revenue architecture, as Georgiana Laudi advocates.

BIG IDEA: Stop choosing between brand and performance. Build brand with the 95% not buying today to make converting the 5% buying tomorrow cheaper.

WHY IT MATTERS: Over-investing in bottom-funnel tactics leads to diminishing returns. Engaging the out-of-market majority builds brand equity that lowers future acquisition costs.

  • Kushan Shekhar notes for B2B, relevance trumps mere visibility, reinforcing the need for targeted content.

  • Dipak P. observes many SaaS companies neglect basic channels like SEO, revealing an over-focus on paid performance.

Measuring What Matters: Beyond Vanity Metrics

Is your team celebrating MQL spikes while sales pipeline remains flat? You're tracking the wrong things. The B2B marketing conversation is moving beyond vanity metrics toward true business health indicators.

Traditional metrics like MQLs create a false sense of security, showing activity without actual revenue progress. The shift is toward pipeline velocity, customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, and net revenue retention. These directly connect marketing to the bottom line. Even metrics like NPS are being questioned by Brian Balfour if they can't tie to business outcomes. A Wynter survey found 52% of B2B marketing leaders don't measure brand impact at all—revealing a gap between priorities and measurement.

BIG IDEA: Stop reporting on activity and start reporting on impact. If a metric doesn't connect to pipeline, revenue, or retention, it's vanity.

WHY IT MATTERS: Your team's focus determines results. Shifting from MQLs to revenue-aligned metrics connects marketing directly to business success and drives smarter decisions.

  • Wynter research shows in 70% of B2B SaaS companies, the CMO/VP of Marketing owns brand measurement.

  • Rania Alabsi emphasizes focusing on vanity metrics like impressions is a mistake; the real focus should be conversion rates and ROI.

The Future of SaaS Distribution

The go-to-market playbooks that scaled SaaS over the last decade are breaking. According to Brian Balfour, we've entered an era where traditional channels like paid search and content marketing are saturated and yielding diminishing returns.

The new playbook? Building proprietary distribution channels through partnerships, communities, or media arms. TK Kader notes simply "adding more fuel" to a single channel no longer works. Meanwhile, Jason Lemkin of SaaStr believes AI creates a new kind of moat, while platform fragmentation makes owning your distribution—rather than renting it—more critical than ever.

BIG IDEA: The era of easy, scalable growth from a single distribution channel is over. The future lies in building a portfolio of proprietary channels you own.

WHY IT MATTERS: Relying on Google and Meta is increasingly risky and expensive. Your ability to build unique distribution advantages will determine your long-term, defensible growth.

  • swyx points out the conflict in AI where distribution (data) is king, creating complex dynamics between model providers and apps.

  • Jimmy Kim suggests AI content commoditization makes distribution—getting your message to the right people—the ultimate differentiator.

Founder & Leadership Insights

Technical founders often struggle with what Rob Walling calls "founder brain"—believing a great product will sell itself. This mindset leads to underinvestment in marketing and sales, which can be fatal for early-stage companies.

How can leaders bridge this gap? Start small and learn. Adam Goyette shares that signing a few small deals provides crucial feedback to refine your messaging and build a repeatable sales process. Another critical decision: when and who to hire for sales. A common mistake is hiring an expensive VP of Sales too early, when a sales consultant or junior rep might better help you figure out the playbook first.

BIG IDEA: Your product won't sell itself. A founder's primary job is finding a repeatable go-to-market motion before scaling it.

WHY IT MATTERS: Many promising tech companies fail not because of bad products, but because they never figure out how to sell them. By embracing sales and marketing as core competencies, you dramatically increase your odds of finding product-market fit.

  • Chetan G points out that in competitive markets, a "good-enough" product with great distribution beats a great product with no distribution.

  • Josh Lessard adds founders need to obsess over customer problems, not just their solution—fundamental for effective marketing.

Content Strategy in the AI Era

With Google's AI Overviews transforming search, the old SEO playbook is obsolete. Peep Laja of Wynter notes, "Google's playing a different game now," where simply ranking for keywords isn't enough. The focus shifts from driving clicks to becoming the source that AI models cite.

A modern strategy must adapt to this reality. A "slow blogging" approach—one high-intent article monthly with effective promotion—can outperform weekly content dumps. Quality and resonance matter more than volume. This connects to the B2B creator economy, where partnering with credible influencers helps build trust and distribute your message authentically.

BIG IDEA: Shift from "How do we rank?" to "How do we become the cited source?"

WHY IT MATTERS: In a world of AI-generated answers, your authority and distributed presence are your new moat. The game is no longer attracting traffic but building influence.

  • Davey notes the market saturation with "soulless" AI content creates opportunity for brands investing in human-driven content.

  • Samuel Schmitt says great content marketing feels more like a media company than marketing, creating what audiences genuinely want.

The Evolving Role of AI in B2B Marketing

Are autonomous AI agents the future of marketing, or just the latest hype cycle? Marc Benioff claims Salesforce's new AI agents will automate campaign creation, email sequences, and lead scoring, freeing marketers for strategic work. Dharmesh Shah envisions AI handling everything from research to execution.

But there's a disconnect between vision and reality. Rob K. highlights that AI still produces generic, soulless content that fails to connect with audiences. While AI can scale output, genuine connection and strategic differentiation remain human endeavors.

BIG IDEA: The next frontier for AI in marketing isn't just creating content, but automating complex workflows and operational tasks.

WHY IT MATTERS: As AI tools advance, your advantage shifts from doing the work to directing the work. CMOs who master "AI orchestration" will build more efficient marketing engines.

  • ClientlessCopy argues AI copywriting is commoditized, but human-generated unique ideas remain irreplaceable.

  • Zack Tokar notes most AI content merely rehashes existing information, creating opportunity for original human thought.

Sound Bites

Quick insights from videos and podcasts:

Until next week!