The Moneyball of Go-To-Market (GTM)/AJ Gandhi, Omar Akhtar - Benchmarker, B2B Recession, Coachella ~ Spark of Ages Ep 47

The B2B SaaS market is experiencing a significant slowdown with growth rates dropping, while traditional marketing channels deliver diminishing returns in an increasingly saturated landscape.

• Marketing benchmarks show companies growing faster than 20% spend 10-15% of revenue on marketing, while slower-growing firms spend only 7-9%
• Digital channels like SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay per click), and email are seeing declining performance metrics despite increased spending
• Today's B2B buyer completes 80% of their journey independently, yet companies still allocate 70% of go-to-market resources to sales
• "What's old is new again" – smaller, intimate events and personalized interactions are outperforming scalable digital tactics
• Successful companies balance brand marketing (awareness) and demand generation (conversion) equally
• Effective positioning requires elevating problems to the executive level by articulating significant business impact
• AI isn't changing what we should measure but enables better personalization at scale across industries and personas
• The brand versus demand debate represents a false dichotomy – both work synergistically to drive growth

The rules of B2B marketing are being rewritten before our eyes. In this revealing conversation with marketing benchmark expert Omar Akhtar and go-to-market guru AJ Gandhi, we unpack the surprising reality that most B2B SaaS companies are facing: we're effectively in a recession. Growth rates have plummeted from over 30% to just 11-20%, while traditional digital channels deliver diminishing returns despite increased spending.

What's behind this troubling trend? Market saturation, poor tool integration, rapid commoditization, and fundamental shifts in buyer behavior all play a role.

The most compelling insight? Companies growing faster than 20% annually are investing 10-15% of revenue in marketing, with a balanced approach between brand awareness and demand generation.

Whether you're managing a marketing team, leading sales, or driving overall growth strategy, this episode offers critical benchmarks and tactical approaches for navigating today's challenging landscape.

AJ Gandhi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjaigandhi/

AJ Gandhi is a distinguished Go-To-Market (GTM) leader and executive community builder. He currently serves as a Board Member for Plum Acquisition Corp.  Additionally, he is a Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital and GTMfund.  AJ is also a co-founder of the GTM Leader Society.  Just recently, AJ served as Chief Growth Officer for Marlin Equity Partners and held significant roles at Salesforce, Ring Central, Bain & and McKinsey.  AJ is an alumnus of UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School.

Omar Akhtar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarbilalakhtar/

Omar Akhtar is the Founder and Principal Analyst at Benchmarker, leading research on marketing excellence for B2B tech. Previously, he was Head of Research at Altimeter, a Prophet Company, where he advised Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, and Netflix, on marketing, data, and content strategies. Omar got his undergraduate degree in economics from Ohio Wesleyan, and then got a Masters in Journalism from Columbia.

Website: https://www.position2.com/podcast/

Rajiv Parikh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajivparikh/

Sandeep Parikh: https://www.instagram.com/sandeepparikh/

Email us with any feedback for the show: sparkofages.podcast@position2.com