Katie Sadler, founder of SDLR Consulting and former CMO at CLARA Analytics, urges teams to stop fighting over attribution between marketing and sales and agree on what works first.
Sadler says AI speeds up an older problem, marketers being busy without deciding what message they want to send, and advises splitting workflows into AI-led and human-led steps.
For early-stage companies of 50 to 100 people, Sadler says ROI, customer acquisition cost and MQL-to-SQL targets are often irrelevant, so she tracks solid pipeline deals and closed revenue instead.
Early B2B marketing should align teams before chasing attribution metrics
Katie Sadler argues that B2B companies with complex sales grow by aligning their teams around what works. Firms of 50 to 100 people keep go-to-market knowledge in silos, then lose energy to attribution fights and AI-polished busywork. Connecting what sales hears with the product and executive view, then scaling what wins, matters more than new tools or sophisticated metrics.
Takeaways
Stop fighting over attribution and scale what works. At the 50- to 100-person companies Sadler works with, ROI, customer acquisition cost and MQL-to-SQL targets are often irrelevant. Marketing and sales should agree on what is working, scale it up, and only add complexity after that.
Measure solid pipeline deals and closed revenue. For her own business Sadler tracks the number of good solid deals in the pipeline and the number and revenue size of deals that close. Deal health also counts, because the customer relationship after a deal closes matters.
Good marketing means aligning siloed teams, not tools. Sadler sees go-to-market knowledge held by individuals and never connected. She starts by mapping existing systems and what sales hears from the market, compares that with the executive view of product and ideal customer, then aligns strategy, roadmap, audience and customer success.
AI accelerates busywork without clarifying the message. Sadler says AI creates an illusion of flawless output and speeds up an old problem of marketers staying busy without deciding what they want to say. Figuera adds that overused AI lets audiences see through campaigns and cannot replace human taste.
Split workflows into AI-led and human-led steps. An agentic AI course taught Sadler to break go-to-market workflows into distinct steps and assign each one to AI or to a person. She uses Claude to think through ideas and ChatGPT to refine her positioning.
Insurtech buyers need education and in-person trust. At Digisure, target buyers had little insurance experience and feared they could not get coverage, sometimes their largest expense. Figuera calls insurance a traditional industry where meeting face to face builds trust, and Sadler notes better processes can save millions.
Trade shows pay off only with a plan. Sadler warns that spending a small budget entirely on trade shows can leave marketers feeling unheard, so prioritize events most relevant to prospects. At InsurTech Connect, the largest US insurtech event, prospects found her pitch matched what they wanted solved.
Tap a name to go there · tap a line to see why they are linked