Marketing's job is to create the environment sales needs to feel confident.
Jen Brown Director, Engaging Interactions
Interviewed by John Horsley
Published
Jen Brown is a B2B marketing leader with more than two decades across tech and SaaS, including GoTo, Sprinklr, Telium, and Webtrends. She now operates independently as a strategist and adviser, with current work focused on agentic AI and customer engagement. She sits on a customer-experience advisory board and brings deep practical experience in ABM and account-based experience (ABX), event programmes, and marketing-sales alignment. In this conversation she sets out the horizon planning principle that protects pipeline for the future; the 95-5 rule applied to B2B; the create the environment that gives sales confidence mission of B2B marketing; the audience-driven, not channel-driven discipline; the channel marketing is seductive warning; the account-based experience, not account-based marketing reframing; the crawl-walk-run-sprint two-year ABX cycle; the contact-to-account ratio metric she introduces to client organisations; the case for the MQL retiring (a quality marketing engagement signal instead); the events as crescendos, not islands principle; the put prospects in the room with customers discipline; the EQ over IQ career principle; and the closing advice: don't be afraid to be kind.
Horizon planning: the work that protects customers of the future
On the priority.
Marketers want to drive impact, grow the business, and be known as the growth-drivers. In this busy world they get caught up in the minutiae: trying to deliver revenue contribution this quarter and next. They're not allowed to focus on the horizon. The second you stop a marketer from focusing on the horizon, you're preventing your organisation from gaining your customers in the future.
By horizon I mean brand awareness and being a trusted adviser 12 to 18 months before any deal happens. In B2B SaaS, large deals take time. Rip and replace is no longer common; land and expand is. Any amazing sales professional sees a large account as ten accounts within. Our job as marketers: create the right environment for them to be confident in selling.
On the 95-5 rule.
A vicious circle rather than a virtuous one if marketing is asked to move the needle in the quarter. You can't, as a marketer. Create the environment that enables you to focus on the business of the future, that enables sales to close on the business of today.
Channel marketing is seductive, and that's the trap
On the trap.
If we make marketers focus on the here and now, we sacrifice pipeline generation in the future. Marketers have to create the environment that builds confidence in both buyer and seller simultaneously.
Making the change is hard because channel marketing is seductive. Easy to decide where to advertise. A plethora of ways to get the brand out. We lean into the science of marketing and don't balance with the art. So much easier to go to the nuts and bolts of the where and the when. We then skip the why and the who.
On the mindset order.
The order: mindset changing from the top (CEO and CMO down), then metrics, then team structures, then messaging. What usually happens: messaging changes first, but the organisation isn't behind it. Sales still uses different words in pitches. Customer experience isn't aligned. Advocacy isn't set up. Marketers are still chasing campaigns for a single product.
The contact-to-account ratio, and the case for retiring the MQL
On the metric.
A metric I introduce in client organisations: how many contacts in the account are you marketing to? If you're working with a multinational and you've only got 10 contacts in your CRM, you haven't scratched the surface.
The point: marketing to a community of people and giving them a sense of belonging with your brand, rather than one touchpoint a BDR acts on with one individual that may or may not help. One contact can sometimes do more harm than good: bring someone into the account who slows the sales cycle down.
On the MQL.
In B2B for mid-size companies and up, yes, the MQL should retire. When do you as a consumer only go through one channel? If consumers use multiple channels, how do you win big business over time with multiple buyers, multiple countries, and multiple levels?
Reframe instead: a quality marketing engagement that is a signal to determine the next best action for sales, BDRs, or marketing. Email marketing has a place, but the over-reliance on it is significant. Single-channel thinking contributes to why moving to account targeting feels so hard.
Events as crescendos, not islands
On the strategy.
Events are crescendos: a moment to make high brand impact, impart thought leadership, establish the team as trusted advisers in person. They should not be islands. Integrate them into lifecycle marketing.
The discipline: use data-capture at large trade shows to start the conversation, then invite them to more intimate events later in the year to accelerate the deal. Deliberately put prospects further down the sales process in the room with customers so customers can talk honestly about working with you. It takes a brave brand to do that.
On bandwidth.
A seasoned sales professional, even AI-enabled, can typically run only four to five customer-or-prospect engagements at once. Help them close that business or qualify out. Introduce them to the village (senior management, solutions consultants, product specialists) at an event.
EQ over IQ, and the kindness principle
On sales alignment.
Any marketing professional should invest time in establishing and maintaining the relationship with sales. Be a trusted adviser to sales the way you're trying to be one externally. They won't trust you with their deal if you haven't earned it.
Empathy works in both directions. EQ over IQ. Not what marketing does, but how they communicate it. Sales shouldn't be surprised. Don't create a marketing campaign without sales or customer-care opinion. Bring them in early. Share what you're planning. Give them an opportunity to critique. Welcome the feedback, pivot, and show them you changed it because of their feedback.
On the closing principle.
Don't be afraid to be kind. Worry about your EQ more than your IQ. Gathering knowledge is straightforward now. Focus on soft skills: understanding the other person's view, offering discernment, looking at different angles, understanding your own blind spots. Show up and be empathetic. You'll go far.
The question for the board
If 95% of buyers are out-of-market today, what share of marketing spend builds horizon trust versus chases the 5% already buying?
