By Sal LoSauro, Vice President of Business Development & Pipeline Evangelist
If you’re a CMO, VP of Marketing, Head of Demand Gen, or RevOps leader at a mid-market B2B company, chances are you’re feeling a familiar tension right now.
It’s the start of the new year. There’s real optimism — fresh plans, renewed focus, and the belief that this is the year things finally click. At the same time, there’s an undercurrent of worry (and maybe a little dread): growth expectations are still high, but budgets, headcount, and time are not.
Because we work day-in and day-out with B2B companies in the $20M–$500M range, we have a front-row seat to how this tension is playing out inside lean marketing teams. The challenges we hear aren’t theoretical. They show up in pipeline reviews, board decks, budget conversations with finance, and daily standups where teams are trying to hold everything together.
Across industries, tech stacks, and growth stages, five pain points come up again and again. The good news? We’re also seeing clear patterns in how the strongest teams are addressing them — and where others get stuck.
“Do More With Less” Isn’t a Phase — It’s the Operating Reality
For most mid-market marketing teams (often 2–10 people total), “do more with less” has stopped being a slogan and started being a permanent constraint.
Recent research backs this up:
- Pipeline360 reports that 48% of B2B marketing leaders cite budget, headcount, or resource cuts as their #1 challenge.
- Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey shows marketing budgets have flatlined, with 59% of CMOs saying they lack sufficient budget to execute their 2025 strategy.
What we see in practice is not a lack of effort — it’s thrash. Teams jump between campaigns, channels, tools, and priorities without a shared operating system. Work gets done, but momentum doesn’t compound.
What the strongest teams do differently:
They focus on marketing orchestration, not just execution. That means clarifying priorities, reducing unnecessary handoffs, and plugging capability gaps quickly (often through targeted staff augmentation) instead of waiting for headcount approvals that may never come.
The goal isn’t to “work harder.” It’s to build a repeatable, resilient marketing engine that survives constraint.
Proving Revenue Impact (in a Way the CFO Actually Believes)
“Show me the money” has become the loudest executive-level demand marketing leaders face.
Many teams can report on leads, MQLs, or engagement — but struggle to confidently answer:
- How much pipeline did marketing influence?
- Which programs actually accelerate deals?
- Where should we double down (or cut) to hit revenue targets?
According to MarketingProfs, senior marketers cite demonstrating the financial impact of marketing actions as one of their top challenges in 2025. Meanwhile, RevSure reports that nearly 90% of B2B teams face attribution challenges due to fragmented data and siloed systems.
In our work, this almost always traces back to process and instrumentation gaps, not effort.
What the strongest teams do differently:
They treat measurement as a revenue system, not a reporting exercise. That means:
- Auditing their tech stack and data flows
- Defining a clear attribution and KPI framework aligned to the sales process
- Instrumenting performance so reporting stands up in CFO conversations
When marketing can speak the same language as finance and sales, credibility follows — and budget conversations get easier.
Reaching the Right Buyers — and the Whole Buying Group — Consistently
As companies expand into new markets or segments, a common trap appears: activity scales faster than targeting clarity.
The result? Lots of motion, inconsistent results, and teams unsure whether poor performance is due to message, channel, or audience mismatch.
Research highlights how widespread this issue is:
- Anteriad found that 63% of marketers say reaching the right audience is a top challenge, with nearly half struggling to source quality data or choose the right channel mix.
- Pipeline360 also flags difficulty reaching the full buying group and understanding buyer preferences as persistent obstacles.
What the strongest teams do differently:
They slow down just enough to rebuild GTM foundations:
- Clear ICP and segmentation models
- Buying group definitions and role-based messaging
- An ABM or ABX roadmap that ensures coverage across the entire decision team
This isn’t about doing less — it’s about ensuring every dollar and hour spent is aimed at the right accounts and people.
Sales + Marketing Alignment That Actually Changes Outcomes
Nearly every marketing leader says alignment matters. Far fewer can point to alignment that meaningfully improves pipeline quality or close rates.
According to Pipeline360, 44% of B2B leaders still rank sales and marketing alignment as a top challenge. And Forrester’s 2025 predictions emphasize shifting focus from surface-level collaboration to revenue process alignment.
What we often see: lots of meetings, shared dashboards — and very little change in how pipeline is created, worked, or won.
What the strongest teams do differently:
They align around revenue motions, not org charts. That includes:
- Clear lifecycle definitions (MQL, SQL, SAL, opportunity)
- Defined handoffs and SLAs
- ABX plays that sales actually uses, not just nods at
When alignment is operational — not just philosophical — outcomes follow.
“We Should Be Using AI… But Right Now It’s Chaos”
AI and automation are everywhere — and for lean teams, the pressure to “use AI” can feel overwhelming.
Gartner notes CMOs are increasingly turning to AI to boost productivity and efficiency as budgets remain flat. At the same time, Pipeline360 reports that ineffective martech stacks and tool sprawl are holding teams back, with many compensating through contractors or agencies.
In practice, this shows up as:
- Too many tools, loosely integrated
- “Random acts of AI” that don’t compound
- Concerns about trust, compliance, and brand risk
What the strongest teams do differently:
They focus on martech rationalization and workflow design first, then layer AI on top — not the other way around. The goal is practical automation: content operations, campaign execution, and insight generation that reduce manual effort without sacrificing control.
AI works best when it’s embedded in a clear operating model.
The Throughline We’re Seeing
Across all five pain points, one pattern is consistent: the teams making progress aren’t chasing tactics — they’re building systems.
They invest in orchestration, clarity, and enablement so that constrained resources work harder together, not in isolation.
If you’re feeling any (or all) of these challenges, you’re not behind — you’re right where much of the mid-market is today. The opportunity lies in deciding which problems to solve structurally — so this year’s plans don’t unravel by Q2, and your team can stay focused on the work that actually drives pipeline.
Start with a GTM or Marketing Orchestration Diagnostic.
In a short, focused engagement, we help you pinpoint where execution is breaking down, benchmark your current state, and prioritize what will drive pipeline this year — not just more activity.
If you want to move from reacting to leading, contact us.
Image Credit: Freepik.com
The post The 5 Biggest Pain Points We’re Seeing Across Mid-Market B2B Marketing Teams (and How the Best Teams Are Fixing Them) appeared first on Heinz Marketing.
