This is Part 3 of the Revenue-Ready Marketing Playbook, a 4-part series for mid-market CEOs who want marketing to move the needle.

In many boardrooms, the prevailing sentiment is “Marketing is a black box – effective in parts, but unclear which parts.” That kind of uncertainty is surprisingly common. For many growth-stage businesses, marketing still feels like a gamble. You spend, you hope, you wonder if it worked.

Some leaders treat marketing like a vending machine where you drop in a budget and expect pipeline to fall out. Others think of it as a creative project: subjective, occasionally brilliant, but not built for accountability. Both mindsets miss the mark.

Predictable outcomes don’t come from faster spend. They come from clarity about what marketing is for, what success looks like, and how it aligns with the business cycle.

Marketing Plays Two Games. And Both Matter

This comes from research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and the LinkedIn B2B Institute, and it has big implications.

Out-of-Market Buyers

– Not buying today, but will in 3, 6, 12+ months

– Need education, inspiration, belief-building

– Brand, thought leadership, category education

In-Market Buyers

– Actively evaluating or ready to engage

– Need frictionless conversion paths

– Paid media, outbound, retargeting, sales enablement

The research primarily looked at B2B categories with longer sales cycles and high-consideration purchases and found that the majority of buyers, 95%, aren’t actively shopping, but they will be at some point. It suggests that only around 5% of your total addressable market is actively in-market.

Now, if you’re in a business with shorter sales cycles, like professional services, home services, or transactional SaaS, you might think this doesn’t apply. But even in fast-moving categories, timing is everything. Your next customer might need you tomorrow, in three months, or not at all yet.

The principle still holds: if they don’t know or trust your brand before they need you, you probably won’t be the one they choose when they do. In these scenarios, the role of Marketing is to build familiarity, credibility, and preference before someone’s ready to raise their hand.

The best Marketing doesn’t choose one or the other. It balances both, because that’s how you get compounding demand and predictable outcomes.

So, what does “Predictable Outcomes” mean?

It’s about building a system that:

– Aligns to shared pipeline targets

– Owns specific buyer journey stages

– Builds both short-term performance and long-term preference

– Runs on regular feedback, not gut feel

Marketing Maturity Playbook

The magic isn’t in the tactics, it’s in alignment.

Predictable Outcomes Come from Partnership

I once worked on a business intelligence platform that was competing with, and losing share in a highly competitive market crowded with point solutions that offered narrow, tactical features.

We clarified our value proposition and built sharply tailored campaigns mapped to roles in the buying committee. Importantly, we worked together with sales to track deal progression tied to specific content and plays.

This changed the impact of marketing from a “generator of leads” to a growth enabler, moving the right buyers faster through the cycle.

That’s what predictability looks like: when positioning, campaigns, and sales plays move in rhythm. Predictable outcomes come from clear roles, shared metrics, and a willingness to invest in both today’s pipeline and tomorrow’s momentum.

Marketing can absolutely drive measurable, repeatable results. But not if it’s only judged by this quarter’s output. That’s not how it works. And the best CEOs know that.

Tired of “black box” marketing? We help growth-minded CEOs build marketing functions that deliver results you can forecast. Predictable revenue starts with a smarter operating model.

*This is Part 3 of the Revenue-Ready Marketing Playbook, a 4-part series for mid-market CEOs who want marketing to move the needle.

**Up next: How a shared playbook across Sales and Marketing unlocks value**

FAQs

Q: How can marketing align with sales to drive predictable outcomes?

A: By establishing clear definitions of qualified pipeline, owning specific buyer journey stages, and allocating budget strategically across demand creation and demand capture.

Conclusion

In conclusion, building a revenue-ready marketing playbook requires a strategic approach that balances out-of-market and in-market buyers. By aligning marketing efforts with sales, tracking outcomes based on pipeline movement, and investing in both short-term performance and long-term preference, businesses can achieve predictable outcomes and sustainable growth.