In today’s Marketing Pulse, gain insight into how:

• More leads won’t fix revenue if you don’t identify where buyers lose confidence and improve lead-to-revenue conversion.

• ABM isn’t going away, but it’s shifting from platform-first to an intelligence layer that gives AI agents full context across the GTM stack.

• Events can’t be your least accountable spend—tie them to audience-first goals and CFO-aligned measurement to protect budget and prove impact.

These articles are penned by members of Forbes Communications Council, key marketing and communications leaders shaping the future of these fields.

Let’s dive in!

Stop Buying More Leads & Start Fixing Buyer Confidence Gaps

More pipeline won’t automatically translate into more revenue. The real growth lever is often improving lead-to-revenue conversion by understanding why prospects lose confidence and then systematically removing that friction.

Here are the key takeaways to apply right away:

🔍 Find the Real Drop-Off Cause: Funnel dashboards show where people leave; interviews reveal why they hesitate.

🗣️ Talk to the People Who Didn’t Buy: Lost deals, stalled trials, churned customers, and recent buyers expose the conviction breakers you can’t see in analytics.

✅ Answer Buyers’ Core Confidence Questions: Do you understand their world, have the expertise, meet the need, enable success, and deliver promised outcomes?

🧰 Build a Prioritized Conversion Backlog: Rank opportunities by revenue impact, effort, and confidence—then execute sequentially for momentum.

🧩 Favor Small, High-Leverage Fixes: Customer stories, ROI calculators, onboarding emails, competitive pages, and implementation webinars can move conversion fast.

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ABM Lives On—But the “Platform” Era Is Fading Fast

Account-based strategy is still the backbone of modern B2B GTM. What’s changing is how it gets delivered: away from monolithic ABM platforms and toward an intelligence layer that fuels humans and AI agents wherever work happens.

What to know as account-based marketing evolves:

🧭 Separate Methodology From Category: ABM fundamentals (ICP alignment, stage-based personalization, intent) aren’t going away—even as ABM platform shopping declines.

💸 Budget Pressure Is Forcing Clarity: If impact is hard to explain to a CFO, the line item gets questioned.

🧩 Point Tools Are Unbundling Platforms: Smaller AI and orchestration tools replicate pieces that used to be packaged together.

🗄️ Advanced Teams Want Intelligence To Move: They pull insights into CRM, data lakes, and engagement tools—rather than living in one dashboard.

🤖 Agentic GTM Raises the Stakes: Signals without full context create automation that’s fast…but wrong.

🧠 The New “Must-Have” Is An Intelligence Layer: Resolve all signals into one account view, make it bidirectional, and expose it via APIs/MCP/integrations.

🧰 Practical Next Steps: Fix data foundations, map where intelligence dies, connect systems, and don’t automate before you have context.

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Make Events Earn Their Budget: Accountability Or Bust

Events can eat up a quarter of the marketing budget—yet too often they’re measured with little more than a lead count. The fix isn’t ditching events; it’s treating them with the same rigor as every other channel, tied to company goals and finance-friendly measurement.

Here’s where to focus first:

🎯 Expose the Weak Links Early: Identify common measurement blockers, like unclear goals, logistics over outcomes, misaligned stakeholders, ROI complexity, and siloed tech.

🤝 Align With Sales + the CFO Upfront: Misalignment drives increased spend scrutiny (39%) and budget cuts (36%); events are often first on the chopping block.

📝 Put It In Writing: Lock goals and measurement with exec stakeholders before committing event dollars so marketing isn’t the default scapegoat.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Go Audience-First: A named CRM audience clarifies whether the event fits, and what “success” means (awareness vs. next steps with top prospects).

🔗 Build Attribution Into the Plan: Use CRM status tracking, badge scans tied to marketing automation, and dashboards for direct + influenced pipeline/revenue.

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Wrapping Up

If these articles sparked your interest, we have a network that you will absolutely love: Forbes Communications Council.

This exclusive, vetted community brings together the brightest minds in marketing and communications — founders, CEOs, CCOs, CMOs, and other senior leaders of marketing and communications teams.

Put yourself at the forefront of innovation with access to publishing opportunities on Forbes.com, a personalized, SEO-friendly Executive Profile, and the chance to network with other respected leaders in the field.

Join Forbes Communications Council today, and become part of a group driving transformation in marketing.