Demand and frontline marketing leaders must confront a hard truth: Growth is no longer constrained by funding, but by focus. The strongest plans prioritize durable growth by anchoring investment in buyer preference, visibility in AI‑mediated channels, and disciplined AI and human execution. Leaders who rationalize programs, make explicit trade-offs, and rethink engagement models will outperform those using AI to scale the same old activities. This report helps marketers decide where to invest, what to cut, and how to align demand and account-based marketing (ABM) budgets to sustain growth in a buying environment disrupted by AI.

B2B buyers are increasingly decisive, exhibiting strong vendor preferences early in the purchase process. According to Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2025 , 68% have a front-runner in mind at the start of the buyer’s journey and select this preferred vendor 80% of the time. Overall, the preferred vendor wins 55% of the time. Buyer preferences vary by purchase type, however: the preferred vendor wins 58% of repeat/renewal purchases, 50% of add-on/additional purchases, and 46% of net new purchases. This data shows B2B buyers decide whom they want to work with well before a formal purchase process begins. This behavior is universal and relatively persistent across purchase types.

B2B buyers are increasingly independent, empowered, and decisive and form strong vendor preferences before they embark on a formal purchase process. To balance the near-term imperative of engaging with active buying group members with the longer-term goal of building preference in a market or segment, marketing leaders must unify brand and demand. Marketing teams that create campaigns and programs designed to build preference will drive greater efficiency and accelerate growth.

B2B brand and demand teams have long operated independently of one another. But at a time when buying decisions are made before a formal purchase process even begins, that separation is a major obstacle to growth.

In our evaluation of B2B revenue marketing platform providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps you select the right one for your needs.

This report introduces a new framework for adaptive program planning by marrying the Forrester Marketing Program Planning Framework with the Revenue Technology Model. Each step, from strategy to measurement, is recast to reflect how frontline marketing teams must now operate: using intelligent technology to target, monitor signals, predict behavior, and personalize at scale, while human marketers provide strategic direction, creative oversight, experience, rules, constraints, and brand governance. This framework evolves into a continuously optimized system that blends machine intelligence with human judgment to deliver more relevant, responsive, and adaptive programs.

A well-crafted ideal customer profile (ICP) helps B2B organizations focus their efforts on the best-fit accounts that have a strong propensity to buy, align teams across departments, and drive more consistent outcomes throughout the customer lifecycle. It supports prioritization in product development, precision in marketing, sales efficiency, and improved customer retention by unifying teams around a shared understanding of who their best-fit customers are. This report explores how organizations can use an ICP to activate targeted strategies and accelerate growth across every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Traditional acquisition and nurture programs, as well as previous versions of the Demand Waterfall®, have ignored the reality of buyers working as a group to make a unified decision. As organizations embrace buying groups, they must switch the focus of their waterfall and demand programs from individuals to opportunities with multiple buying group members. Demand programs help to identify new opportunities, find and influence the buying group members connected to them, and support them in their purchase decision. In this report, we outline how program plays support demand program objectives to activate, validate, and accelerate opportunities in the Forrester B2B Revenue Waterfall™.

The Forrester B2B Revenue Waterfall™ and demand programs complement and rely on each other. In the B2B Revenue Waterfall, each stage reflects how well the organization knows and is connected to the opportunities in its revenue plan. The waterfall needs demand programs to help discover, attract, and engage buying group members as opportunities progress. Demand programs need the waterfall to understand the status of each opportunity and, therefore, which buyers to engage and how. In this report, we examine how the B2B Revenue Waterfall and demand programs combine to track and manage revenue engine performance.

Validate program plays are midfunnel efforts designed to progress opportunities after initial interest is shown. They align with the engaged, prioritized, and qualified stages of the Forrester B2B Revenue Waterfall™ and form a cohesive demand strategy with activate and accelerate programs. Validate programs focus on identifying key buying group members, understanding their roles, and orchestrating role-based engagement to drive consensus and readiness. This report provides guidance for orchestrating adaptive validate programs and outlines the core responsibilities of marketing and revenue development representatives (RDRs), who closely partner with demand marketing.