A Love Letter for 2023 Martech Trends

As we slowly move toward a new year, learn about the five martech trends marketers should watch for.

November 22, 2022

As another tumultuous year is slowly coming to an end, marketers are preparing for possible new and greater challenges in the year ahead. Chris Moody Head of GTM Thought Leadership at Demandbase discusses five key marketing technology trends organizations should look for in the year ahead.

After another tumultuous year in 2022, we are all preparing for the unpredictable challenges the year ahead may hold. Marketing budgets are not flowing freely. Travel budgets and expense reports are no longer uncapped. Unnecessary technology is not making it near the annual budget plan.

We have a fairly solid understanding of our constraints and must balance risk management with growth opportunities to hit our business objectives as efficiently as possible. After nearly two decades of marketing in tech organizations and several years of amazing conversations with sales and marketing leaders as an analyst at TOPO and Gartner, I would bet the bank on five trends rising to the forefront in 2023.

  1. Consolidation for both vendors and buying organizations will be even more widespread
  2. Flexibility will become a common technology requirement as go-to-market strategies rapidly evolve
  3. Sales will be more involved in technology decisions and their usage
  4. The need for transparency and visibility into AI, list building, and decision-making will become critical
  5. Technologies that don’t increase efficiency and reduce wasted spend are going to see high rates of churn

See More: How To Optimize Your Martech Stack With Niche Platforms

1. Consolidation for Both Vendors and Buying Organizations Will Be Even More Widespread

When describing hyper-aggressive tech vendors acquiring companies in adjacent categories, Gartner analysts coined the term alpha platforms. While relatively new in sales tech, this phenomenon is not new to martech. But there are two new implications for 2023.

Vendors will continue their pursuit of becoming alpha platforms by offering greater functionality across the marketing and sales tech stack in the ultimate hunt for efficient revenue creation and growth. While the intent is to create buying efficiencies and improved user experience, buyers should carefully determine if acquisitions are merely surface-level or if the technology actually works. Superficial features will not help you hit your business objectives — investigate thoroughly when buying.

]For buying organizations, tech consolidation is going to happen internally as well. Traditional marketing tech vendors are adding sales functionality and working down the funnel. Conversely, traditional sales tech vendors are adding marketing functionality and working back up the funnel. Everyone is working towards greater alignment, and we must be careful to avoid “sexy” products that do not actually work for your business. 

2. Flexibility Will Become a Common Technology Requirement as Go-To-Market Strategies Rapidly Evolve

There is no one size fits all go-to-market strategy.

Read that again.

It is true today, true tomorrow, and true next year. I have spent time with hundreds of high-growth organizations and have not yet found two identical GTM strategies. When we are forced to do more with less and show value, we do not have time to change our business and process to work with a new piece of technology.

If you are a marketing leader, here is a simple test: go to your sales leader and tell them that you are changing the funnel or how they get SQLs because you want to buy new technology. Let me know how that goes.

Ruthlessly seek out flexibility in technology to ensure that it actually works with your business. Time, money and people are precious, and one of those will be compromised if you choose the wrong vendor. This will be a “table stakes” requirement for marketing technology purchasing decisions in 2023.

3. Sales Will Be More Involved in Technology Decisions and Their Usage

In 2022, when we asked Opens a new window 200 high-level B2B leaders across sales and marketing about the key investments they planned to drive growth, a clear theme emerged — four of five top responses directly involved sales.

  • Improving sales and marketing alignment (61%)
  • Increasing marketing investments (49%)
  • Increasing win rates (47%)
  • Improving SDR/AE efficiency (30%)
  • Hiring more AEs (21%)

Marketing technology is colliding with sales, and sales technology is colliding with marketing. The lines are blurring more each year, and I would argue it is good. Account-based strategy requires deep collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer success. As ABM/ABX/ABS (pick your favorite acronym) adoption increases, we should hope to see alignment improving in most organizations.

Vendors will continue to offer functionality that bridges sales and marketing, leading to the inevitable shared budget and decision-making process with technology. Plan for it, strengthen relationships and adjust accordingly.

4. The Need for Transparency and Visibility Into AI, List Building, and Decision-Making Will Become Critical

Artificial intelligence is here to stay and exists in most of the tools we use personally and professionally. While I may be a marketing curmudgeon, I am not debating AI’s merit. However, if you have no visibility into how AI works inside the technology you use, it will become a problem for you.

I talk with over 20 marketing leaders in any given month and ask the same series of questions and one focused on AI, its effectiveness, and the perception throughout their organization. One marketing leader offered an extremely impactful statement about how one “easy button” AI tool that generated a target account list for ABM created an immense problem with her sales leader, as some of the accounts were not even close to their ideal customer profile (ICP).

“I don’t ever want sales to say, ‘who picked these accounts?’

Put yourself in that situation. You purchased what seemed to be a great technology, and it did not perform as you expected. Including bad accounts on the new target account list from the incredible, amazing tool you purchased actually led to you losing trust and confidence with sales. Losing trust with even one person can create significant alignment rifts. 

According to a recent study by Zenger FolkmanOpens a new window on trust between managers and direct reports, having just one direct report indicates trust needs to be improved, lowered the trust rating 32 percentile points, and employee engagement dropped by 14 percentile points. 

Can you afford for that to happen? No matter the brilliance of AI in marketing technology, confirm that you have transparency into how it works, how lists are built, and how decisions are made. 

5. Technologies That Do Not Increase Efficiency and Reduce Wasted Spend Are Going to See High Rates of Churn

Captain Obvious here to close out the five trends, but any tech not enabling you to do more with less and show positive return will likely be on the chopping block. I would expect to see more SMB churn than enterprise, like in 2008-09Opens a new window , but technology that makes it easier to perform without as much money or as many people will stay the course. Seat growth may slow, but vital marketing technology will become even more indispensable.

There are already indicators of this trend if you look at the cost and performance of branded vs. non-branded paid searches over the last 24 months. The broader you are, the tougher it is to show value. If you are doing any advertising, investigate to find who can offer the most targeted advertising solutions to reduce any wasted spend. 

See More: How Closed-Loop Attribution Is Shaping Marketing in the Tourism Industry

If there was a 5.5, I would bet the farm on martech vendors with incredible people in support, sales, thought leadership, and all customer-facing functions. We all want and need extensions of our teams, and tech supported by people helping us to be successful will always be stickier.

We will certainly get punched in the face a few times in 2023, but we should all have a better game plan to see even more success. Good luck and Godspeed. 

What do you think are some of the martech trends to look for? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .

Image Source: Shutterstock

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Chris Moody
Chris Moody

Head of GTM Thought Leadership, Demandbase

Chris Moody is Head of GTM Thought Leadership at Demandbase after almost two decades of marketing experience at orgs like Gartner, TOPO, GE, Oracle, Red Hat, Bandwidth and most recently building and leading a brand and go-to-market team at Stax. He is passionate about helping sales and marketing leaders and their organizations grow. Raleigh, NC is home toChris, his wife, three kids, and two dogs. When not working, Chris coaches multiple youth basketball and baseball teams and is a huge Duke basketball fan (hoops debates are welcomed).
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