The old B2B playbook is dead
Share of effort by activity, old playbook against 2026.
WHAT'S OUT
- 45%Focus on lead gen
- 30%Send cold emails
- 20%Lead gen ads, book a demo
- 5%Lead magnets and nurture sequences
- 5%Company updates
WHAT'S IN, 2026
- 45%Demand and intent
- 25%Consistent content that builds awareness
- 15%Signal based warm outbound
- 10%Partnerships and personal brand collabs
- 5%Retargeting ads that amplify what works
Six initiatives that drive revenue
Each one turns people the company already has into distribution.
Partner led marketing
Turn partners into a distribution channel.
Employee led marketing
Activate internal advocates.
Video led marketing
Shift toward the fastest growing content format.
Founder led marketing
Build trust through leadership visibility.
Community and social listening
Show up where technical buyers already are.
LinkedIn GTM and dark funnel
Treat LinkedIn as an outbound growth engine.
Broken systems leak. Good systems compound.
Broken systems demand 10x effort for 0.1x output. Good systems flip it. This is the stack that makes the flip.
Claude
Think deeper. Get better answers.
Granola
Chat in any meeting. Extract what matters.
Viktor
Automate on Slack. Get things done.
Lovable
Custom apps and dashboards.
Wispr Flow
Voice to text dictation anywhere.
Textblaze
Snippets for repetitive typing.
How an agent layer runs the revenue workflow
Capture, act, record, surface. The agent layer does the busywork between them.
Capture
Client and partner email, meeting recordings and transcripts, Slack requests.
Agent layer
AgentZ and Viktor summarize, update the CRM, create tasks and escalate.
System of record
Attio for deals, partners and notes. Linear for SE tasks and SLA clocks.
Surface in Slack
Daily brief at 07:30, SLA nudges, overdue escalations, Monday pipeline digest.
A PMM lead's job in 2026
As AI gives you more levers, the expected skill set expands with it.
Know what is trending in AI
Tools, video led content and Claude automations.
Turn founder vision into plans
Articulate strategy and tactics the team can run.
Own positioning
Stand out from the noise and build the brand.
Unify the language
Get the whole organization saying the same thing.
Translate the technical
Turn engineering speak into content buyers want.
Hire AI forward people
High agency and coachable.
Feed the team ideas
Inspiration on a steady cadence.
Find new ways to reach ICP
Reddit, internal champions and beyond.
Hit the numbers
MQLs, attribution, CPL, CAC and LTV.
Smooth the handoff
Marketing to sales, the hard part.
Build a personal brand
A LinkedIn presence that becomes an MQL funnel.
See across the org
Pattern recognition from every team.
