AI Redefining Marketing Strategy Creates Big Implications For Leaders

The sales funnel—a linear journey termed AIDA, beginning from the wide mouth of the funnel (Awareness), moving to the mid-section (Interest and Decision), and finally reaching the narrow bottom (Action)—has been a cornerstone of marketing strategy for decades.

But in today’s fast-paced digital business environment, it may no longer suffice. “The sales funnel is well past its sell-by date,” reported Raconteur, concluding that the customer journey is no longer a straightforward, one-directional process: it now involves multiple touchpoints across multiple channels.

So, what could replace the sales funnel?

According to Raconteur, an alternative is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) bow tie model. Research published by Harvard Business Review agrees, concluding that traditional sales models, with their emphasis on customer acquisition and funnel metrics, prove inadequate for recurring revenue businesses like subscription models—as the customer life cycle resembles a bow tie rather than a funnel, wherein the majority of revenue occurs beyond the confines of the marketing funnel because customers churn, upgrade, downsize and renew.

“By jettisoning the traditional sales funnel model in favor of a more dynamic bow tie-shaped lifestyle, firms can better anticipate customer needs by understanding how customers interact with them,” said Jack Tillotson in an interview. The tenure-track assistant professor of marketing at Finland’s University of Vaasa added, “With a bow tie, you can analyze customers’ post-purchase behavior and better anticipate their future needs. That allows firms to build relationships with customers, providing on-time, relevant services.”

Enter artificial intelligence (AI).

By combining AI, big data, and predictive analytics, firms are now capable of understanding customer interactions at every level. This deep understanding is vital for ‘narrowcasting’ personalized communication and promotions that meet specific customer needs. It symbolizes a significant evolution in customer relationship management, shifting the focus from merely gaining new customers to encompassing the complete customer experience.

And this is likely why a study of 9,000 global customers noted a recent 1310% surge in companies using SaaS Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, explaining: “The number of companies using SaaS LLM APIs has grown 1310% between the end of November 2022 and the beginning of May 2023.” This “data-driven transformation,” as some have dubbed it, is fueled by the lack of expertise within organizations to effectively develop and train a robust AI solution, leading to the need for substantial time and scarce technical resources to build in-house systems, along with the formidable task of acquiring suitable data science talent and a lengthy timeline exceeding two years for implementing the initial solution, thereby creating challenges for most companies to leverage the benefits of AI.

According to Shaun Clark, co-founder and CEO of HighLevel—a white-label SaaS platform used by more than 40,000 marketing agencies —companies are increasingly leveraging AI to understand their customers better, create individualized experiences, and quickly scale customer relationships. “The best SaaS AI platforms are continually improving and growing. They use advanced predictive analytics and machine learning to analyze interactions across all touchpoints in real-time, allowing companies to deliver personalized experiences and improve customer service,” said Clark, by way of a representative, adding, “The most innovative organizations adopt generative AI platforms that can be brought seamlessly into their various workflows: customer service, sales, marketing, and beyond.”

He may be right.

Data concludes that 67% of B2B organizations already utilize AI in their marketing efforts, and over 70% plan to increase their use of AI in ways that increase automation and personalization. You may, for example, have already seen the viral LinkedIn post of July 16 showing Air—a conversational AI—capable of handling complete phone calls ranging from 5 to 40 minutes, emulating human-like conversations for sales and customer support purposes. Evidently, AI-driven automation can (and will increasingly) help firms anticipate customer demand, increase operational efficiency, optimize pricing strategies, streamline production processes, customize products according to customer needs, and better analyze customer data for insights into their preferences. The implications on leadership of such developments are threefold:

1. Understanding AI: The New Leadership Imperative and the Drive for Continuous Learnings

As the AI revolution continues to unfold, it falls to leaders of all stripes—from executives at the top of the corporate ladder to middle managers, team leaders, and individual contributors—to use their intuition to anticipate AI’s possible implications on the future of work. Evidently, the most innovative organizations adopt generative AI platforms that integrate seamlessly with their existing operations.

They then use these tools to automate mundane and repetitive tasks, freeing up their employees’ time for more strategic work. But it’s not just a matter of understanding the technology: To truly take advantage of AI, leaders must equip themselves with the skills necessary to navigate it, including a basic understanding of its algorithms and architectures.

2. Balancing the Scale: Ethical Considerations in AI Adoption for Leaders

Of course, with the great power of AI comes a great responsibility for its ethical and responsible use. Leaders must take it upon themselves to lead by example, demonstrating that their organizations understand the implications of AI and are committed to using it responsibly. Gartner’s research predicts that by 2027, 80% of enterprise marketers will establish functions to combat misinformation due to the rise in AI and user-generated content. These functions will likely be focused on automated data insights, brand monitoring, and sentiment analysis tools that can flag content to be assessed by humans.

“Consumers are beginning to recognize and appreciate content that reflects human qualities such as empathy, humor, and emotion and that demonstrates credibility of information sources,” Clark said. “Leaders who guide their organization’s marketing campaigns with this in mind will be among those who execute the most successful long-term strategies.” So, it is not just a matter of understanding the technology and its possibilities but also a responsibility to ensure that AI use cases are ethical in practice.

3. Preparing for the AI-Augmented Future: Redefining Roles and Upskilling in B2B Operations

With AI becoming more prevalent, leaders must be prepared to restructure their roles and enhance their teams’ skills for the AI-enhanced future, discerning areas where human value can still be added and creating a system that benefits from AI’s potential, yet retains space for human creativity, initiative, and engagement. This is why, according to Nicholas Read, author of two bestselling McGraw Hill books on sales and marketing leadership (Selling to the C-Suite and Target Opportunity Selling), “By upskilling their teams, leaders can ensure that they are prepared to make the most of AI in a way that is ethical and beneficial: finding opportunities for AI to replace human effort, creating space and time for humans to focus on higher-level tasks that require creativity and judgement.”

And so, the traditional sales funnel, once a trusted model, is rapidly giving way to more flexible, data-driven models in this digital age. It’s clear that we’re experiencing a paradigm shift in our approach to marketing strategy. Leaders should take notice and capitalize on the opportunities available to them by embracing this revolution. After all, the best way to predict the future is to create it.