The B2B Roundtable cover art

The B2B Roundtable

The B2B Roundtable

Written by: Brian Carroll
Listen for free

The B2B Roundtable is a podcast about what dashboards miss in B2B revenue systems. Most GTM teams manage what their dashboards can measure. But the numbers don’t always explain why growth is slowing, buyers disengage, or revenue isn’t keeping pace. Hosted by Brian Carroll, GTM advisor and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, the show features candid conversations with B2B leaders, operators, and thinkers about what’s really happening beneath the numbers, what they’ve learned, and what they changed. Learn more at https://www.markempa.comCopyright 2026 markempa Careers Economics Management Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales Personal Success
Episodes
  • Why GTM Alignment Breaks Down and How to Fix It with Martha Mathers

    Why GTM Alignment Breaks Down and How to Fix It with Martha Mathers
    Oct 6 2026
    About This Episode Everybody talks about GTM alignment. Sales, marketing, and customer success all working together around the customer. But actually making that happen changes how teams work together, and that’s where most alignment efforts quietly stall. In this episode, Brian talks with Martha Mathers about where GTM alignment breaks down and what it really takes to fix it. Martha starts with pipeline first and top of funnel second, because pipeline is the one thing sales, marketing, and success can all agree on. From there she walks through mapping the journey from the customer’s side, what happened when a new sales team at OPEXUS kept jumping straight to the demo, what thousands of sales conversations taught her, and why she listens first (and says as little as she can) when she steps into a new role. Here’s the thread running through the whole conversation: the problem you see when you walk in usually isn’t the whole problem. About Martha Mathers Martha Mathers is a B2B marketing and go-to-market leader who has led marketing at Bloomberg Industry Group, BigTime Software, and OPEXUS. Her experience spans marketing, sales, customer growth, and leading cross-functional GTM teams. What We Cover Why Martha starts with pipeline before top of funnelGetting sales, marketing, and customer success working around the customer journeyWhat changes when you think beyond the funnel and include expansionEnablement as the connective tissue across GTMWhat Martha learned from listening to thousands of sales conversationsUsing AI to learn from more data and conversations, not just create more contentWhy experience can get in the way when a leader walks in thinking they already know the answerHow much consensus it really takes to make change in a large companyMaking change a step at a time instead of trying to do everything at onceWhat marketers need to learn outside of marketing if they want to eventually lead the business A Few Things Worth Taking Away Pipeline gives sales, marketing, and success something they can agree on. Start there and work backward.Look at the journey from the customer’s side. That’s where the gaps between teams become easier to see.Listen to what customers and salespeople are actually saying. You may find that the story being told in the market isn’t the one marketing thinks it’s telling.Experience can create blind spots. Martha’s approach is to ask questions before assuming the answer that worked somewhere else will work here.Big companies take more consensus than you think. Knowing who needs to be involved is part of making the change.Change doesn’t have to happen all at once. Sometimes the better question is, “What is the change I can make this week?” A Few Lines That Stuck With Me “I’ve seen many leaders come in and assume by telling stories of everything they’ve done in the past, they will be able to fix the problem ahead of them.”“I listen first, ask a ton of questions, and share honestly as little as I can.”“Those are all different owners and different initiatives, but at the end of the day they all go back to the same account.”“We have a tendency to lead with the shiniest thing we can.”“I tend to value it, you know, more from an intelligence perspective than perhaps a content creation perspective.”“What is the change I can make this week?” Resources Mentioned Matt Heinz, whom Martha credits with the line “an MQL can’t buy you a beer”Gartner’s research on the B2B customer journey Chapters 00:00 Why GTM alignment breaks down00:56 Where GTM alignment gets disconnected02:33 Why pipeline should come before top of funnel03:45 Aligning GTM around the customer journey05:17 Expanding customer relationships after the sale06:49 Why enablement is the connective tissue of GTM10:30 What thousands of sales conversations can teach you13:26 How AI can improve GTM alignment and enablement15:53 The biggest mistake leaders make with GTM alignment19:36 Stakeholder consensus and leading GTM change23:34 How marketing leaders can prepare for the CEO role Transcript Brian Carroll (00:01) Welcome to the B2B Roundtable. I’m Brian Carroll, So everyone talks about GTM alignment. That’s from marketing, sales, customer success, all aligning around the customer. But actually making that happen changes how teams work together. And so the question I wanted to ask is: what really works? How do we actually make this happen in reality? And that’s why we have our guest today, Martha Mathers. Now, Martha has been the head of marketing at companies from Bloomberg Industry Group to Big Time Software to OPEXUS And I wanted to talk with her because she understands this. And something I saw her talk about recently in a panel discussion on YouTube is that for her, they started by focusing on the pipeline first and top of the funnel second. So, Martha, welcome. Martha Mathers (00:53) Thank you so much, Brian. I’m really excited to be here. Brian Carroll (00:56) ...
    Show More Show Less
    26 mins
  • Stop Automating the Past: How AI Is Changing the Way We Work with Liza Adams

    Stop Automating the Past: How AI Is Changing the Way We Work with Liza Adams
    Sep 14 2026
    About This Episode Most GTM teams are using AI to make existing work faster. But faster isn’t the same as different. And the teams that are actually pulling ahead aren’t automating the past — they’re reimagining the work itself. In this episode, Brian talks with Liza Adams about what separates teams that are getting faster with AI from teams that are actually changing how they work. Liza shares the story of Megan, a senior marketing leader who used AI agents to orchestrate across marketing, sales, and CS until her work outgrew her title entirely. That story illustrates the bigger idea behind the conversation: what happens when you reimagine the work first, then redesign the roles and the org around it. About Liza Adams Liza Adams is the founder of GrowthPath Partners, where she helps B2B GTM teams move beyond AI productivity into AI-driven transformation. She spent 25 years leading GTM teams at companies including Smartsheet and Juniper Networks, and has worked with AI and machine learning long before ChatGPT. She is passionate about elevating the strategic value of marketing and helping leaders use AI to become business leaders, not just functional leaders. What We Cover The AI adoption plateau and the three patterns that cause teams to stallWhy your belief about what AI can do is the cap of what your team will ever buildUsing AI as a sparring partner vs. a validation tool, and the research behind why it mattersThe difference between what’s hard for humans and what’s just historically hardHow AI doesn’t care about your org chart, your silos, or your titlesWhat CEOs are starting to want from CMOs and why most marketing leaders aren’t set up for itWhy reimagining the org chart starts with reimagining the work, not the other way around A Few Things Worth Taking Away AI for productivity should be the floor of our expectations, not the ceiling. If we only make old work go faster, we can project how it automates the human out. But if we use AI to do something different, we’re innovating, and when the business grows, humans are essential.People aren’t stupid. They just need to see what’s possible. Talking about AI capabilities is different from showing someone a workflow that pulses the market 24/7 and surfaces which customers are about to churn.Humans that use AI as a sparring partner outperform pure human teams and pure AI teams. But humans that use AI to validate their beliefs actually perform at a lower level than an all-AI team.In the RACI model, AI will never have the A. It will never be accountable. It will never lose the job for you, pay the fines for you, or go to jail for you.Don’t start with “what does the org of the future look like?” Start by reimagining the work. When you reimagine the work, the roles become clear. When the roles are clear, the org chart follows. A Few Lines That Stuck With Me “The cap of what our teams will ever build, do, and use AI for is limited by what they believe it can do.”“AI transformation can’t happen when we’re in a hamster wheel.”“AI will never lose the job for you, it will never pay the fines for you, and it will also never go to jail for you.”“It’s like hiring a bunch of actors before you even know what the script is.”“AI is making the mechanics a lot easier. I think our biggest challenge now is us.” Resources Mentioned AI Is Cannibalizing Human Intelligence. Here’s How to Stop It. by Vivienne Ming (Wall Street Journal)What Harvard Learned From 776 Professionals Using AI (Harvard/P&G research on AI and cross-functional collaboration) Chapters 00:00 Why Getting Faster With AI Isn’t Enough03:20 Why Teams Hit the AI Adoption Plateau07:43 AI as a Teammate, Not Just a Tool10:10 Using AI as a Sparring Partner12:35 What Work Is Only “Historically Hard”?18:12 AI Can Do the Work. Humans Own the Outcome.19:32 From Org Charts to Work Charts26:19 What CEOs Need From CMOs Now34:33 Reimagine the Work Before the Org Chart Transcript Brian Carroll (00:00): Well, I see this a lot in sales and marketing teams. People are using AI, some are using it really well. They built workflows, they built custom GPTs, they’re getting faster and better. But there’s a big difference between getting faster with AI and actually changing how your organization works. Welcome to the B2B roundtable. I’m Brian Carroll. And my guest today, Liza Adams. She’s the founder of GrowthPath Partners. And she spent 25 years leading GTM teams at companies like Smartsheet, Juniper Networks, and she’s worked with AI and machine learning long before ChatGPT. And now she helps teams figure out how AI can actually change the way they work. Something Liza recently said that stuck with me is you can’t reimagine the future by automating the past. Liza, welcome to the B2B roundtable. Liza Adams (00:50): Hi Brian. I’ve been looking forward to this all week long and it feels like every time you and I get together we’re always laughing. So I’m ...
    Show More Show Less
    38 mins
  • AI Scaled Activity. It Didn’t Scale Relevance with Craig Rosenberg

    AI Scaled Activity. It Didn’t Scale Relevance with Craig Rosenberg
    Aug 18 2026
    For years, B2B teams tried to make SDRs more efficient. More calls. More emails. More activity. Then AI arrived, and many teams tried to automate the same model. But what if the problem wasn’t needing a faster version of the old playbook? What if the real opportunity is to use AI to make people better at the things only humans can do? That’s the question behind my conversation with Craig Rosenberg. Craig has been gathering some of the best SDR and pipeline leaders in B2B through Scale Venture Partners’ Pipeline Council. What he’s seeing feels less like a completely new playbook and more like a return to fundamentals, with much better tools. AI can help us choose the right accounts, recognize signals, research buyers, practice conversations, and move faster. But the last mile still comes down to relevance, judgment, taste, trust, and human connection. About this episode Craig and I have known each other since the early days of B2B marketing and demand generation. I followed his Funnelholic blog back in 2008, and he reminded me during our conversation that my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, was one of the first B2B GTM books he read. Several things Craig had recently been sharing from Scale’s Pipeline Council brought us back together. One of the big questions they’re working through is simple: What does a high-performing SDR motion look like now that AI can do so much of the work SDRs used to do? The answer isn’t fewer humans everywhere. In fact, Craig is seeing AI companies hiring SDRs and experienced enterprise sellers as they move beyond product-led growth and into harder-to-reach markets. Craig and I discuss: Why automating the old activity-based SDR model didn’t solve the pipeline problemHow Glean uses AI to help SDRs get better at human conversationsWhy Craig believes the “last mile” of selling is still humanWhat unmistakably human outreach looks like when buyers are surrounded by AI-generated messagesWhy AI companies are hiring SDRs and experienced enterprise sellers againHow ICP and signals help teams focus on the accounts most likely to buyWhy selling AI is becoming harder and business process may become the new software moat About Craig Rosenberg Craig Rosenberg is Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners, where he helps build and lead Scale’s go-to-market platform for software companies. Before joining Scale, Craig was Distinguished Vice President in Gartner’s sales practice. He joined Gartner through its acquisition of TOPO, the research and advisory firm he co-founded. Long before that, many B2B marketers and sales leaders knew Craig as the Funnelholic, where he built a following writing and speaking about demand generation, sales development, and B2B go-to-market strategy. He also co-hosts The Transaction podcast with Matt Amundson. Connect with Craig Craig Rosenberg on LinkedIn Scale Venture Partners The Transaction podcast Chapters 00:00 What Top SDR Leaders Are Figuring Out 04:41 How Glean Uses AI to Make SDRs Better on the Phone 09:09 The Last Mile Is Human 12:46 Why AI Companies Are Hiring SDRs Again 15:33 What Does “Unmistakably Human” Look Like? 22:06 Why Enterprise Prospecting Shouldn’t Always Scale 23:36 ICP, Signals and Choosing the Right Accounts 25:25 Why Selling AI Is Getting Harder A few things worth taking away The old SDR model treated people like “human robots.” Automating the same activity-heavy motion with AI didn’t solve the underlying problem of relevance.The better teams are using AI to prepare humans, not replace them. At Glean, AI supports account selection, research, signals, and practice while SDRs focus on getting better at live conversations.The last mile is still human. AI can provide information and suggestions, but judgment, taste, relevance, trust, and relationship building still require people.Being unmistakably human sometimes means admitting what you don’t know. AI can help you understand a buyer’s situation, but it shouldn’t create expertise or experience you don’t actually have.AI companies are hiring SDRs and experienced sellers as they move beyond product-led growth into enterprise markets. As Craig put it, “The minute you want to talk to people that aren’t coming to you, you need people.”ICP matters more when data is abundant. Craig shared an example where ICP opportunities converted at 37% compared with 17% outside the ICP. Signals then help determine when to reach out and what may matter.AI is also changing software competition. As products become easier to build and replace, Craig believes companies need to expand from TAM to “Total Available Problem” and become deeply embedded in customer workflows and business processes. A few lines that stuck with me “The reality is the most important thing now is trust building, humanity and relationship building.” “It’s that last mile, which is the human.” “The minute you want to talk to people that aren’t coming to you, ...
    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet