People, Budgets, and Growth! What’s Really Moving in B2B?

Guest article by Vikramsinh Ghatge

B2B marketing does not have an idea problem. It has a noise problem. AI tools, ad tactics, growth hacks. Every hour there is a new one. The volume is deafening.

Cut through the noise and three signals stand out. They are not hype and they are not futurism. They are the things shaping boardroom debates, investor calls, and GTM strategies right now.

In Edition #56 of Vik’s M.I.X., here is what we are breaking down:

1. Why employees and creators together are becoming the strongest trust engine

2. How budget pressure is forcing CMOs to treat every rupee like a bet

3. Why SaaS growth now depends more on retention and expansion than chasing logos

Let’s dive in.

People drive trust, not platforms

Buyers no longer believe polished brand ads. They scroll past them the same way you skip a pre-roll on YouTube. What they do trust are people. Employees who share insights from inside the company. Creators who have built credibility in their space. That is where influence lives today.

The numbers prove it. LinkedIn data shows employee posts perform more than twice as well as company posts. Sprout Social found that almost three-quarters of people feel more connected to a brand when its employees share content.

Smart companies are putting this into practice.

• HubSpot Academy is powered by employees and external educators who build authority before sales ever shows up.

• Canva built an entire creator program that turned everyday designers into distributors, fueling B2B adoption without heavy ad spend.

• Gong leans on employee-led content and podcasts that consistently outperform polished campaigns.

This is not about vanity engagement. It shows up in pipeline quality. When a buyer comes through a trusted voice, intent is warmer and the sales cycle shorter.

Takeaway: Build advocacy on two tracks. Employees bring credibility from the inside. Creators bring reach from the outside. Together, they give you a trust moat that no algorithm can take away.

Budgets under the microscope

Every CMO I know is feeling the squeeze. Budgets are flat. Boards are tougher than ever. The conversation is no longer about what we spent, it is about what we got back.

Paid media costs more each quarter but returns are flattening. Forrester says ROI on paid is compressing as CPMs rise. Gartner reports that average marketing budgets are stuck at 7.7 percent of revenue, down from nearly 10 percent just a few years ago. More than half of CMOs now operate with less than 6 percent.

The best leaders are adapting by treating budgets like portfolios instead of pie charts. They divide spend into three buckets:

• Musts: the non-negotiables that keep the pipeline alive

• Experiments: lean, measurable tests to uncover the next edge

• Bets: bold brand plays that can defend themselves with data

This shift is not theory. P&G cut 200 million dollars in digital ads and saw no dip in sales. Unilever rebalanced its spend into hybrid models that combined efficiency with brand building. In SaaS, leaders are trimming agency spend, bringing more work in-house, and demanding ROI clarity from every channel.

The result is cultural. CMOs who show boards they treat budgets like investment portfolios keep credibility. Those who cannot lose influence.

Takeaway: Do not pitch for budgets. Pitch a portfolio. Show where the musts are, where you are testing, and where you are betting. That is how you change the conversation.

Vikramsinh Ghatge

Growth in SaaS is being rewritten

For years, product-led growth was the golden child of SaaS. Free-to-paid, land-and-expand, viral loops. For a while, it worked. Today, it is not enough.

Boards and investors want efficiency, not just momentum. That means SaaS growth is now measured less by how many new logos you add and more by how much value you keep and expand from your existing base.

Usage-based pricing is leading the way. OpenView found that nearly half of SaaS companies now offer it. Those that do scale faster, around 30 percent growth at scale compared to 21 percent for traditional models, and they retain customers longer. Snowflake has built its model entirely on usage and regularly posts net retention above 150 percent.

Expansion revenue is another proof point. Salesforce reported close to one billion dollars in ARR from Data Cloud and AI products last year, much of it from upselling existing accounts. Atlassian, once the poster child of PLG, now leans heavily on expansion and enterprise bundles to sustain growth.

Investors are focused on one number: net retention rate. Above 120 percent and you are rewarded. Below 100 percent and you struggle, no matter how many logos you add.

For marketers, this flips the playbook. Less obsession with top-of-funnel lead volume. More energy on lifecycle campaigns, adoption programs, and customer success alignment. Growth marketing is no longer just acquisition. It is customer marketing.

Takeaway: Stack your priorities in the new order. Retention first. Expansion next. Acquisition last. Boards and investors already see it this way.

Closing

Three signals worth paying attention to.

Trust now comes from people, not campaigns. Budgets are portfolios, not entitlement. Growth comes from the customers you keep and expand, not just the ones you add.

These are not abstract trends. They are shaping how B2B companies are building, buying, and branding in 2025.

The noise will always be there. The winners will be the ones who focus on the signals that matter.