B2B buying will never be the same. But first, let’s rewind for a second.
It’s 1996. You’re sitting on the sofa and your favorite show is playing. You’ve waited all week to see what happens next. Just when the moment builds and the story is finally reaching its peak, the screen cuts to commercial. A car commercial blares from the speakers.
You groan. You wait. You feel cheated -- Almost taken advantage of. Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs a car but I don’t want to keep being interrupted anymore. That is, after all, why I started Will Be Live. Since then we’ve helped some of the largest brands build trust with their audience and tune out of narratives that interrupt.
Every time a brand oversteps, interrupts, or disrespects my attention, I whisper: “How dare you.”
A pay wall in front of an interesting title of an article I’ve clicked on? “How dare you.”
A LinkedIn connection request comes in. The profile looks legit. CRO. Mutuals. You accept.
Not even 30 seconds later: “Hey Nima, saw you're in the B2B space. Let me tell you how our solution can 10x your pipeline…” No context. No warmth. No effort. “How dare you.”
A webinar that seemed genuinely interesting that gets pulled into my feed. I click. I’m curious. A form loads. Name, title, email, company size, budget. I think, “Fine. Worth it.”
40 minutes of fluff later…I’m no smarter. Just tracked.
You guessed it. “How. Dare. You!”
The truth is, this isn't a new problem.
For years, brands obsessed over timing. The perfect slot. The right headline. A prime-time ad or front-page placement that maximized distribution.
But attention is now an interesting thing for the modern audience member. We’re not just distracted, we’re actively shielding ourselves from the constant barrage of ads. The brands that sneak past our defenses are those that have disarmed us by value: by educating, by entertaining, by respecting our time.
B2C figured this out first. The best campaigns stopped trying to steal attention and started earning it. They didn’t shout louder. They blended in, beautifully.
A lyric that lingers. A punchline you quote. A moment you didn’t know was branded - until the thought of having your favorite carbonated drink comes up while watching the game and you yell Wazzaaaaap the next time you see your friend.
What separates these campaigns isn’t budget or media muscle although equally important. It’s entertainment. Relevance. Respect. They don’t just show up where people look. They meet them where they already are.
That’s not interrupting. That’s resonance.
But in B2B? We’ve stayed slow. Safe. And worse of all…forgettable.
Not because the content lacks intelligence, even though I’m still recovering from a 40-minute webinar that offered 4 minutes of actual value, but because it often interrupts the individual on the other side with content that not only interrupts, it doesn't resonate.
Who says B2B has to be boring?
Spec sheets used to be all you needed to close deals in B2B. For years, companies built products, found gaps, set pricing, and muscled their way into market share. Paid ads, sales rep volume, and message repetition became the engine. It wasn’t subtle. It was loud and it interrupted. Audiences didn’t have the luxury of choice or tools to help make the most informed decision. Even to this day, I speak with leaders of large orgnaizations that swear by the “do what works and don’t question authority” model.
It usually goes something like this:
“We have a proven model for sales -- Leave a hundred voicemails pitching your offer. Send a thousand intro emails. Hit your number of “connects”. Convert those connects into meetings and you’re bound to close a deal.”
Marketing follows suite: spend ad budget, increase impressions, chase clicks, and call it “reach”.
In a world where it takes 10-15 touch points for brand recall, where 95% of B2B buyers aren't actively shopping when we reach them, and where information flows freely instead of behind gates -- what exactly are we accomplishing?
"That's the model," they insist. "Stick to it.
Palm. To. The. Face.
In that world, sales and marketing worked side by side to speak at customers. That model doesn’t work anymore. Not because people don’t buy but because audiences will no longer tolerate being interrupted. And if you're still interrupting, still shouting, still trying to hit your “connects”, you shouldn’t be surprised at lower quarterly earnings.
Buyers now have more choice, better access to making an informed decision, and don’t want a narrative pushed on them. They want one they can believe in because they’ve lived it. You don’t get to claim your identity anymore. You prove it with relevance, consistency, and earned trust.
Every B2B CMO knows the moment. A campaign feels like a win. Strong momentum. Real energy. All the right signals that an initiative has had the intended impact. Then the CRM delivers a flat line. No leads. No credit. No “proof”. The data was pulled two weeks after the push. But the B2B sales cycle isn't built for quick snapshots. It runs long. Sometimes months. Sometimes years. Often with ten to fifteen decision-makers involved.
So we do what feels “safe”. We force clean stories onto chaotic buying behavior. We reduce gut feelings to spreadsheets and call it “multi-touch attribution” when in actuality, it's attribution theater. Impressions get counted as if they signal real intent. We defend million-dollar event budgets with badge scans. We chase clicks that never meant anything. We're not tracking conviction. We're tracking convenience.
And worst of all, when the story is incomplete, it becomes political. Sales wants credit for “closing the deal.” Marketing wants recognition for “creating the demand.” RevOps is stuck in the middle, trying to assign value to activities that the buyer never saw as separate to begin with. We end up debating first touch vs. last touch, instead of asking the real question:
What made them believe?
Belief doesn’t form at a booth. It starts in the shadows. In an event where a speaker mentions your company, in DMs on a WhatsApp group message, in side quests after a podcast episode someone forwarded with a “This made me think of you...”.
Just as Gil Scott-Heron documented cultural shifts through his powerful poetry and music in the 70s and 80s, B2B marketing is experiencing its own profound revolution. Today's marketing technology stack excels at tracking clicks and conversions, but fails to measure the most powerful driver of buying decisions: belief systems.
“This change in belief happens in the moments that won't ever be able to be captured on film. It will be something you see and suddenly realize, “im on the wrong page” or “I’m on the right page but on the wrong note” and I have to get in sync with everyone else to understand what’s happening in this country.”
Companies spend millions of dollars on content that makes noise yet doesn’t resonate, paid advertising that feeds the wrong story, and “proven” tactics that leave CROs wondering why their CAC and churn is so high, revenue velocity is slowing down and why they are being squeezed on margins.
The challenge for several mid market to enterprise level organizations is to truly shift from MQLs to trust-compounding requires systems level adaptation. Without that, middle management will default to the familiar.
Let's talk about AI for a second.
Impressive, right? It delivers ranked lists of buyers ready to buy. It flags expansion opportunities in your sleep. It coaches your reps in real-time and spits out personalized collateral faster than you can say "pipeline."
Guess what? Your competitors have it too.
The same tools. The same capabilities. The same playbooks. Everyone's deploying the same tech stack, running the same automations, reading the same thought leadership.
So what separates the winners?
Not technology. Not automation. Not even data.
It's human connection. Pure and simple.
When everyone can automate, trust becomes your only unfair advantage.
Here's something else we've discovered: Corporate titles don't buy things. Humans do. Living, breathing, complicated humans with interests and quirks and insecurities.
Our research shows it takes between 10-15 distinct touch points -- some active, some passive - before you even enter someone's consideration set when they hit a problem. Ten to fifteen. You think your sales deck and follow-up email are cutting it?
That realization sparked our "Moments" offering.
"This is no longer Account Based Marketing, it's People Based Marketing." -- Fortune 500 Client
We're not just researching accounts anymore. We're understanding humans. We're digging past the corporate facade to the people buying and selling.
We give our clients forensic-level insights into how prospects actually behave. What content they consume. Who they listen to. What they care about both inside and outside of work. Digital footprints. Psychographic profiles. Competitive positioning.
Then we do something rare in B2B circles.
We strategically pair marketing initiatives with sales professionals to create meaningful collisions—ones that matter to the audience first, not us.
Picture this: discovering a prospect posted a Metallica guitar cover on YouTube years ago, then connecting them with a rep who grew up worshipping James Hetfield.
That's not a sales call. It's tribal recognition.
"Wait, you play too? I've been working on Master of Puppets for months..."
When executed thoughtfully, you cultivate something algorithms can never replicate: the irreplaceable warmth of authentic human connection.
These micro-moments of belonging? They drive macro business outcomes.
That's not interrupting. That's resonance.
When attribution fails to measure trust, creating authentic human connections becomes your most powerful and unmeasurable competitive advantage.
Now, will AI upend B2B buying? Were seeing a shift but the jury's still out.
But I'll tell you who's about to feel the earthquake first: regulated industries clinging to form-based content like it's 2015. Banks. Insurance. Manufacturing. Healthcare. etc.
The ones who've always said, "But our compliance team won't let us..."
They're about to learn that walls don't work when everyone else is building bridges.
Here's the thing about distribution in 2025 though -- it still matters. A lot. But the gates have been blown wide open.
Remember when only the biggest players could afford to be everywhere? When enterprise budgets crushed mid-market competitors through sheer media weight?
Not anymore.
Today's CMO doesn't need a Fortune 500 budget to sound like one. Commenting, smart short form videos and Thought Leader Ads are just a few ways that executives from companies of any size speak directly to decision-makers. A challenger brand with an authentic story can now compete for attention against incumbents spending 10x more.
You read that right. The democratization of influence means the scrappy VP of Marketing at a $50M company can get the same share of voice as the CMO of a $5B enterprise.
This isn't just changing visibility. It's rewriting the entire ROI equation.
Your voice can now travel farther, faster, and more precisely than ever before - without needing to mortgage your future to make noise.
The barriers haven't just lowered. They've collapsed.
Consider this:
Notice a pattern?
People follow people, not logos. They connect with faces, not faceless entities. They trust humans, not corporate handles.
I can hear the skeptics already. "But Nima! I'm not Tim Cook. I don't even have 10,000 followers!"
Yeah - that's not the point.
The point is this: B2B buying isn't the rational, spreadsheet-driven process we pretend it is. It's messy, emotional, and deeply human.
I can't tell you the amount of instances that we've created a piece of content for a client that hit minimal impressions but helped close a deal. It was targeted to the people that mattered most.
Think about it. Long sales cycles. Multiple stakeholders. Buying committees that evaluate every option, interpret every marketing signal, and form opinions about you and your solution without ever speaking to you directly.
Most of those critical touch points? They're completely invisible to your CRM.
Those random LinkedIn comments, casual DMs filled with value, and unexpected Twitter exchanges? In 2025, they're not just pleasant surprises -- they're your competitive edge.
While AI optimizes formal sales channels, these loose connections create pathways through corporate walls that algorithms can't map and attribution models can't capture.
Master connectors in regulated industries understand this: when formal content is strangled by compliance, informal relationships become priceless currency.
Every interaction outside the buying committee builds an invisible influence network. Stack enough of these micro-moments, and suddenly you're not another vendor -- you're a known entity with champions scattered throughout the organization.
The blueprint is simple: → Identify weak ties at target accounts (alumni, former colleagues, industry peers) → Connect authentically without pitching → Let these bridges carry your influence where direct approaches can't go
This is how mid-market brands outmaneuver enterprise giants in 2025. This is how you thrive in regulated industries where formal content moves at glacial speed.
Let me show you what this looks like when it all comes together. When someone with every credential imaginable discovers the missing ingredient that transforms good content into a movement.
Meet Henri Arslanian.
In the wild west of crypto, Henri stood out as the voice of reason. Three best-selling books. TEDx speaker. Over half a million LinkedIn followers. The kind of thought leader most brands would kill to have as their spokesperson.
In a world of crypto cowboys and misinformation merchants, Henri was the north star for institutional investors looking for actual insight.
But despite his massive audience, something was off.
His viewership was slipping 3% month over month. His visibility wasn't expanding; it was shrinking. And while his authority remained rock solid, his relevance (that magical spark that makes new audiences care and keeps loyal ones coming back) was fading.
The issue wasn't volume. Henri had plenty of reach. The issue was resonance.
His content had become like a perfectly tailored suit that no one remembered. Informative but predictable. People respected him, but they didn't feel compelled to act, share, or engage.
So we tackled this together in two ways:
First, we right-sized the ship.
We refreshed his content pillars to align with the emotional motivations of his audience (curiosity, trust, belonging) while preserving his voice of authority.
Then, we activated new attention channels. We expanded beyond LinkedIn into high-intimacy formats like short-form educational videos(1)(2) and messages that allowed Henri to show not just what he knows -- but who he is.
The transformation wasn't just about where Henri published. It was about rewiring his entire brand presence. We evolved who he spoke to, how he spoke to them, and turned his commentary into true thought leadership assets.
The result? His audience didn't just come back -- they leaned in.
Thousands of followers later, we spotted an opportunity few experts ever seize: the bridge between B2B authority and B2C relevance. Henri had always been passionate about financial literacy, and now we had the chance to channel that credibility into something generational.
That moment was the launch of "Decoding Crypto" - a children's book aimed at educating kids about the future of money.
In partnership with acclaimed children's author Michael Dotsikas, Henri set out to answer a critical question: How do we prepare the next generation for a financial world they haven't been taught to understand?
This wasn't just another product launch. It was a movement.
We designed a multi-channel cascade that transformed Henri's social media channels through a social media takeover:
Sent interactive AR unboxing experiences to influencers across finance and education(3):
and rolled out AI-powered storytelling clips that weren't just promos -- they were narratives (4) (5).
The book launch didn't just hit metrics -- it hit hearts. We saw spikes in user-generated content, major engagement lift across platforms, and a 48-hour period where Decoding Crypto became Amazon's #1 new release and a top-5 bestseller.
More importantly, we turned Henri's following into a movement. The same trust he'd built with professionals became a bridge to their families. Henri didn't just regain traction, he deepened trust. In a digital economy shaped by shrinking attention spans and the power of the "quiet majority", that trust became his unfair advantage.
This ignited something far beyond audience growth -- it transformed Henri's entire business model. Where he once had a platform, he now had an ecosystem of revenue streams with magnetic pull across multiple channels.
Here’s what that looks like:
Recognize this pattern?
This is not just a phenomenon happening in the creator economy. It’s the future of B2B.
And for B2B brands watching from the sidelines, Henri’s turnaround carried a powerful lesson:
When buyers stop listening to your words, they start listening to your signals. And the strongest signal of all is emotional resonance.
So where does this leave us?
In a world where AI can generate perfect sales emails, where marketing automation runs 24/7, and where everyone has access to the same playbooks, we're witnessing a profound return to the fundamentals:
Human connection isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's your only sustainable advantage.
The B2B brands that will dominate in 2025 won't win with bigger tech stacks or more sophisticated automations. They'll win because they understand the invisible architecture of trust that algorithms can't map and dashboards can't measure.
Look around. The winners are building emotional bridges while competitors are still building funnels. They're creating resonance while others are creating noise. They're measuring conviction, not just clicks.
This isn't about interrupting with better timing or prettier packaging. It's about meeting your audience where they already are – not just physically, but emotionally.
This isn't a marketing trend that will fade next quarter.
This is a fundamental recalibration of how business relationships form in a digital world.
My question to you is embarrassingly simple:
In a landscape where everyone has identical tools, are you creating interruptions or resonance?
The difference determines whether your next prospect whispers "How dare you" or leans forward and says "Tell me more."
Which will it be?
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