AI isn’t taking your job, it’s saving it — when done right. We take a look at the overpopulated MarTech ecosystem and why it may pay for B2B marketers to think more B2C.

Is the growing MarTech stack a help or a hindrance? It’s a powerful question — and one that marketers have been increasingly grappling with in recent times.

For companies, the allure and promise of new technologies such as AI are driving a swift uptake in MarTech. Sometimes — possibly too often — to the detriment of brands. For vendors and B2B marketers, this is paving the way for a new opportunity to drive sales through demonstrable success and a meaningful connection.

Read More: The Future of AI: Are Jobs Under Threat?

Bringing B2C into Business

There’s a big difference between B2C and B2B marketing; the former sells people dreams while the latter sells people the tools and tech they need to be better at their jobs. In B2C you are selling to one, maybe two people who are usually aligned in their purchase decision making. Whereas in B2B, you have to persuade 6.8 decision makers with varying ideas and business goals that your product or service is the one they really need.

In B2B, your customer wants to know: Is this going to make me successful? Will it make me hated in my company? Am I going to lose my job over it? Only when you can answer all of those questions positively can you make the sale.

You have to convince the CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, CMO and whoever else is controlling the money, that you’ll be a help rather than a hindrance not just to their Marketing and Sales teams, but the entire business. And only by delivering on those promises will you turn them into a customer for life. The caveat to all this though, is that just like B2C, in B2B you’re still selling to people and now more than ever before companies are understanding the importance of creating an emotional connection to secure that sale.

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Standing out from the Crowd

In a sea of 7,000+ other MarTech solutions, standing out counts for a lot. It’s no longer enough to rely on your platform’s product description to secure a sale. You also need to win the hearts and minds — and trust — of your customers.

This huge number of solutions, which continues to grow by about 30-40% each year, is a real problem for the industry. Although Scott Brinker’s MarTech Landscape was meant to be helpful, it’s become cluttered and confusing.

The result? Today’s CMOs risk cobbling together various solutions into a MarTech stack full of different types of tech that aren’t compatible with each other and sometimes aren’t even used. Many companies then face the added challenge of having to hire extra people in order to extract data from these tools. But change is coming.

Read More: The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Is Your Job Under Threat?

Spending Smarter for Success

CMOs might be looking to spend more, but they’re also looking to spend right — they don’t intend on spending money on tech that can’t prove it helps the business. And that’s a move we’re seeing a lot — companies that want to fully understand their huge MarTech stack and cull those inefficient and ineffective tools and solutions.

The good news is that the amount of money in the kitty is growing, with companies now investing more on MarTech than people in the marketing department.

With bigger and smarter spending plans on MarTech stacks, those solutions that aren’t able to secure a sale on their own will be forced to collaborate and join forces with other niche solutions in order to offer something of real and tangible value. Growth is great but we don’t need another 2000+ MarTech solutions this year; we need an ecosystem with less duplication and fewer tools that work better together. Let’s target growth in outcomes, not stack size.

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