B2B Marketing Has Plenty of Data. So Why Are We Still Guessing What Buyers Want?
Bhavesh Thakor, Chief Operating Officer, Demand AI
Last week, at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum Asia in Singapore, I had the opportunity to speak with marketers about the challenges they face in generating demand, engaging buyers and proving marketing’s impact on revenue.
One thing stood out: this isn’t an industry short of data, technology or activity. It’s an industry still trying to work out what its buyers want.
More than ever marketers have more dashboards, intent signals, automation tools and AI capabilities. Yet many are still making fundamental assumptions about what buyers are interested in, what questions they need answered and what will move them closer to a decision.
It’s time to rethink the approach.
More data doesn’t mean more understanding
Traditional intent data can tell us that an account is researching a particular topic. Lead-generation campaigns can tell us someone downloaded a white paper or registered for a webinar.
But what do we really know?
Why are they researching that topic? What problem are they trying to solve? What concerns might prevent them from buying? What would they need to understand before taking the next step?
Too often, we infer the answers from activity. Then we use AI to create more content, automate more outreach and process those signals faster.
But if the original signal is weak, doing more with it doesn’t necessarily make it more valuable. We need to stop confusing activity with intelligence.
Let buyers tell us what matters
At Demand AI, we’ve been exploring what happens when we give buyers the opportunity to ask questions while engaging with content.
Our B2B Buyer Curiosity Index draws on tens of thousands of spontaneous questions from buyers engaging with conversational AI content experiences across 14 markets. These aren’t survey responses or questions written by researchers. They’re questions real buyers chose to ask in the moment.
The findings are revealing.
C-suite buyers ask about ROI and cost roughly twice as often as individual contributors. Government buyers show a much stronger focus on security and risk than their counterparts in Retail.
These differences matter. Two people researching the same technology may have entirely different priorities. Treating them as though they need the same message is an opportunity missed.
When we can understand the questions buyers ask, we have a much stronger foundation for creating relevant content, improving follow-up and helping sales teams have more meaningful conversations.
A practical change in mindset
This doesn’t mean abandoning intent data or replacing human judgement with AI. It means being more thoughtful about the signals we trust and the decisions we make from them.
Start by collecting the questions your buyers ask in sales conversations, website searches, support interactions and content experiences. Look for patterns. Build content that answers those questions directly. Give sales teams the context behind a lead, rather than just a name and an asset download.
And make sure your content addresses the questions that matter commercially – particularly the evidence, costs, risks and returns buyers need to justify a decision internally.
These are practical changes marketers can begin making now.
My conversations in Singapore reinforced my belief that the next stage of B2B marketing won’t be won simply by producing more content or adopting more AI. It will be won by understanding buyers better.
At Demand AI, we’re building technology around that principle: using real interactions to move beyond inferred interest towards more meaningful buyer intelligence.
Because the most valuable insight isn’t necessarily what we think a buyer wants to know. It’s what they tell us themselves.
Find out more about how Demand AI can help you do that, and download our latest Buyer Curiosity Index research to understand the questions buyers are asking.