Recent trends in B2B demand gen marketing have made me reflect deeply on my journey as a growth marketing leader. Over the past decade-plus, I’ve witnessed massive shifts in how we approach demand generation, and today, the space is poised for even more transformative changes—with a mix of excitement and a little trepidation.
As I look around, there’s mounting evidence that yesterday’s proven performance marketing tactics are losing ground. If we don’t evolve, we risk falling behind—and the competitor in me isn’t willing to cede any ground.
B2B Demand Gen is Changing
Let’s set the stage before we dive into why: the big secret is that demand gen in the digital era has been fairly straightforward, even if it appears complex from the outside. The formula has been simple: invest in digital, generate inbound leads, test, scale, and repeat. Although I’m massively simplifying it here, that has been the basic formula. For years, this predictable cycle fueled incredible growth across industries—and it was instrumental in giving marketing a seat at the table.
Personally, I’ve leveraged this approach to consistently generate over 60% of new business demand in past roles and create a meaningful lever for profitable growth.
But over the past few years, this formula has started to break down. Increased competition, more informed and complex buyer behavior, and shifts in the macro environment have demanded a smarter, more innovative approach. This changing landscape isn’t just a call to adapt; it’s an urgent rallying cry for the next evolution in demand gen.
The Problem in B2B Marketing
Now if you flip things and take a look at the buyer’s perspective over the years, this demand problem feels pretty obvious. We have been providing a pretty poor experience for buyers. There are typically two paths that we’ve created:
- Path 1: Handraisers who say “Yes, I want to talk to sales.” An AE or BDR then reaches out to schedule a demo, but the buyer doesn’t get one until several calls in.
- Path 2: Use content to engage your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). The “buyer” becomes an MQL or a content lead. Then, sales reaches—out even though the buyer hasn’t asked for a call or email.
This process has turned buyers into nameless, faceless “MQLs”. And while these MQLs have been the lifeblood of historical demand marketing strategies, how buyers want to buy is changing.
The MQL is Dying
The writing is on the wall: The MQL is in decline. And as much as demand marketers try to massage and optimize them, boost quality and volume, the reality is upon us. It’s time for a change.
Why?
- Content leads don’t equal gains: Over 80-90% of leads are typically content leads that convert at less than 2%, these are more outbound leads than they are inbound and a huge source of sales mal-content about the quality of marketing MQLs.
- Paid search is fundamentally changing: Paid search is the lifeblood of demand curation, but costs are increasing and results are harder to come by. According to eMarketer: Paid search ad spend grew 4.0% YoY but ad impressions declined by 15%. We are paying more $ for lower engagement. The problem is only getting worse. The CEO of Hubspot estimates that AI will reduce click volume by 25% in the next two years. I think that’s a really conservative estimate and AI is going to have massive impacts on existing demand programs and budgets.
- Buyers are more educated than ever before. Buyers are no longer entering the purchase process blindly, but rather armed with deep research and clarity regarding the options. Between vendor websites, referrals, review sites and analysts like Garter and Forrester, there is a wealth of information available to buyers before they decide they’re ready to talk to sales. In fact, according to 6sense, 70% of the buying journey is complete before even talking to sales so your ability to drive conversion outcomes with an MQL is massively dropping.
This all makes things way harder for marketers to compete. If we dig into the same methods and just optimize, it’s a rapid spiral to the bottom. What worked last year is not going to work next year—so we need to act now and pivot.
Shifting to Product Qualified Leads (PQLs)
Imagine a buyer’s journey that’s designed for the buyer. They tell you what they want to see—and when. Sales then transform into an experience built entirely around their needs—no guesswork involved.
And this is not just a dream; it’s a shift that’s more within reach than ever.
Here’s how it’s happening: forward-thinking marketers are moving from MQLs to PQLs (Product Qualified Leads), redefining their strategies with a Product-Led Growth (PLG) approach.
PLG flips the traditional model by letting the product lead—bringing real value to customers before they even commit. Think of it as high-impact first impressions, powered by free trials, freemium options, and self-service experiences. The product does the talking, and buyers experience the value upfront.
At Consensus, we leverage our interactive product tours and demo automation tools that give buyers access to our products in a PLG-lite experience. For us, this net result is a meaningful growth of PQLs that convert 6X more than traditional MQLs. A whopping 6X!
Strategies & Tactics to Create and Boost PQLs
The goal of a PQL-focused marketing funnel is to get your product into the hands of buyers faster. Using product tours and on-demand video demos as an inbound lead source for prospects is a massive opportunity and there is a groundswell of marketers embracing this.
How does it work? You direct web leads to a new CTA on your website. It could be one of many options:
- Product tour
- On-demand demo
- “See it in action”
This gives clickable, self-driving access to web visitors. You put their own demo into their hands making the consideration process easier and raising the readiness to buy when they do speak to a sales rep. What’s even cooler is that with AI you can really personalize experiences based on what prospects want to see.
At Consensus, this has been such a seamless experience, in addition to the 6X conversion of our PQLs vs content MQLs, we also have customers that see as much as 40% of their inbound demand coming from PQLs and the effort required to work and convert those leads has been 2x less. The advantages are endless for marketers looking for a new way of doing things to stay ahead of their competition. This also makes us heroes in the eyes of our sales and finance partners.
Now, I know I don’t have all the answers for the challenges ahead but I’m open to trying new ideas and challenging the status quo to innovate on our core model. I also have a fundamental belief in the power of the buyer experience and would welcome anyone who wants to collaborate on this journey.
We’ve got this, marketers!
