Why 80% of B2B Marketing Programs Fail before They Even Launch | Ep. 226

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80% of B2B marketing programs failed because leadership wasn’t bought in, sales wasn’t bought in, success wasn’t measured clearly, the right people weren’t involved, and the team was targeting the wrong kinds of customers. On Scrappy ABM, host Mason Cosby breaks down why that happens and outlines eight core roles that any B2B marketing program needs if it’s going to be successful.

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Instead of strategy by committee and shared responsibility with no real owner, Mason calls for one strategist where the buck stops, clear sales partnership based on pipeline health, and marketing and marketing alignment across channel managers. He walks through how content, design, and revenue operations can either delay programs by months or serve as the functional glue that gets everything built and orchestrated in the technology. With executive sponsorship and dedicated project management, important work stops getting pushed aside by the next urgent fire, and programs actually launch instead of sitting half-finished when executives ask, “Where are the results?”

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📌 What We Cover

• Why 80% of B2B marketing programs failed because leadership wasn’t bought in, sales wasn’t bought in, measurement was unclear, the right people weren’t involved, and the team targeted the wrong kinds of customers.
• The strategist role versus strategy by committee, shared responsibility, and the need for one person where the buck stops and is fully held accountable.
• How great marketing teams work with sales by balancing short term and long term based on pipeline, and why sales buy-in on the front end is essential for a successful B2B marketing program.
• The tension between individual channel managers measured on their own channels and a larger integrated marketing and sales program, plus the need for marketing and marketing alignment.
• Why content is incredibly important, how lack of content capacity can delay an entire program by three to six months, and the need for the right content resources internally or externally.
• How design makes sure everything actually looks good, why good content matched with bad design gets ignored, and the risk of never getting ads, landing pages, or website updates created.
• Revenue operations as the centralized hub and functional glue that works across marketing, sales, and customer success, builds dashboards, orchestrates automation, assigns tasks, and ensures programs are triggered in the technology.
• The importance of an executive sponsor who can work across CEO, CRO, and CFO expectations, protect runway when ROI questions arise, and keep the program from getting cut.
• Project management as one of the most crucial roles, coordinating many people, setting deadlines, holding contributors accountable, and helping the business get off the hamster wheel of urgent over important.
• Why these are eight roles, not eight full-time employees, how one person can sit in multiple roles like strategy, content, and project management, and how gaps in ownership create massive delays and programs that never actually launch.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Canva – Referenced as a design option for creating visually engaging assets when there isn’t a dedicated designer.
• Scrappy ABM: Visit for more ABM tips and strategies
• Connect with Mason on LinkedIn for a conversation about ABM

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