Measurement is shifting down the funnel
The days of marketing being measured on volume alone are fading. SQLs, pipeline, and revenue are now the scoreboards.
This shift changes how campaigns are planned, how budgets are defended, and how careers are made or ended. I spoke to one CMO who saw their comp move to SQLs, only to be out of a job within a year when the pressure mounted.
“Pipeline, revenue, and ROI have become our anchor point. If something doesn’t tie to those big rocks, we deprioritize it.”
For CMOs, this means building tighter alignment with sales and being ready to defend every marketing dollar against bottom-line outcomes, not just lead volume.
Marketing leadership is buried under an avalanche of tools, data, and systems
Even the CMOs who remain in their roles are dealing with unprecedented pressure. The avalanche of tools, scattered data sources, and disconnected systems make building a coherent funnel harder than it looks.
The complexity is no longer just a tech problem, it is an operational burden that slows decisions and blurs accountability.
“The tools at our disposal are a complete avalanche… data sources scattered, tools that don’t speak to one another… as we attempt to piece together the funnel.”
For CMOs, this means building tighter alignment with sales and being ready to defend every marketing dollar against bottom-line outcomes, not just lead volume.
The middle of the funnel is broken
Almost every leader I talk to admits to having a gap, or “deadzone” as CMO Ashley Emery likes to call it, between MQL and SQL. It frustrates sales, wastes top-of-funnel investment, and undermines trust between teams.
The trap is clear: when conversions stall, the instinct is to drive more leads. That only widens the gap between volume and quality.
“It’s The Land of the Lost between MQL and SQL… things come in, and then all of a sudden we’re like, where did it go?”
The CMOs closing this gap are ruthlessly prioritizing quality over volume and building continuous engagement strategies for leads that are not yet ready, without handing them off to die in the CRM.
AI adoption is high, but its use cases are not always clear
The conversation has shifted from “What is AI?” to “How do we actually use it?” The problem is that without a clear use case, AI becomes another layer of noise in an already chaotic stack.
The most forward-thinking leaders are narrowing focus to one or two high-impact use cases, often starting in lead qualification, personalization, or sales enablement.
“When I think of an AI agent, I think of staff—a digital teammate who takes over a function, not just a co-pilot that helps.”
The difference between hype and impact is starting small, proving value, and scaling with intention.
Signal-based marketing is becoming the bridge
Signals are emerging as the connective tissue between marketing volume and sales-ready pipeline. CMOs making real progress are tracking meaningful buyer behaviors: funding events, competitive research, and hiring trends, and they act on them in near-real time.
Ashley Emery’s team uses G2 intent data combined with internal scoring to identify high-propensity accounts before they raise their hands.
Gabe Larsen’s team tracks 47 different signals, from competitor engagement to job changes, to trigger relevant outreach.
The playbook is consistent:
- Identify the handful of signals that truly matter to your ICP
- Act on them quickly with a mix of AI automation and human touch
- Stop treating every lead the same
OUR FIX TO THE FUNNEL: MABBLY LNA
At Mabbly, we call this Signal Activated Growth. It is a mindset shift that uses AI to activate leads based on what is happening in their world, not just what is in your campaign calendar.
That is why we are building Mabbly LNA, our lead nurturing agent that plugs into your CRM, watches for meaningful behavior, and prompts personal outreach with humans in the loop.
The middle of the funnel is leaking. With shared outcomes, signal-based prioritization, and AI as a teammate, it can be fixed.
To the marketers in the trenches, juggling too much and fighting for relevance, we are building for you. We will share the frameworks, experiments, and breakthroughs as we go because this work is personal to me and to our team.
Fix the mid-
funnel gap
Discover how the LNA turns leads into pipeline.