Rethinking the Funnel: How B2B Growth is Being Rewritten by AI

Rethinking the Funnel: How B2B Growth is Being Rewritten by AI

From Thrivecast by By ThriveStack AI

November 22, 2025 · 38 min

About this episode

John Neeson discusses the evolution of B2B demand generation and the impact of AI on the buyer's journey.

John Neeson — the mind behind the legendary B2B Demand Waterfall and Co-Founder of SiriusDecisions — joins Gururaj Pandurangi to trace the evolution of how companies create, measure, and grow demand. From pioneering the alignment between sales and marketing to forecasting how AI will reshape the buyer’s journey, John shares lessons that defined two decades of B2B go-to-market strategy. Key Insights * Origins of SiriusDecisions. John built Sirius to answer a simple CEO question: “I gave you $20M — what did I get back?” The firm transformed marketing from art into measurable science. * The evolution of the Demand Waterfall. What began as a simple lead definition matured into the classic, revenue, and demand-unit waterfalls — each mapping closer to real buying behavior. * From creating demand to activating it. Modern marketing’s challenge isn’t generating leads; it’s recognizing and activating intent across fragmented digital journeys. * Buyers are in control. Two decades ago, buyers met sales to learn. Today, they research independently and expect sellers to be context-ready from the first touch. * Product-led and sales-led models are merging. The best companies balance both —…

People in this episode

Host: Gururaj Pandurangi

Guest: John Neeson

Topics covered

  • B2B growth
  • AI in marketing
  • sales and marketing alignment
  • buyer behavior
  • demand generation
  • analytics

Keywords

  • B2B
  • demand waterfall
  • AI
  • sales
  • marketing
  • buyer journey
  • analytics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SiriusDecisions, ThriveStack AI

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