Trust & Influence in B2B

Latest Episodes:

Show them the money, not the magic | How marketing can prove the value the board's spreadsheet can't see | Boardroom Blindspots: Valuation (Part 1 of 3) Nov 11, 2026

Show notes

Boards value a business on the numbers they already trust: revenue, margin, the assets they can count. Yet more and more of what a company is worth sits in what the spreadsheet can't see, and marketing builds much of it. So why does its contribution so rarely register in the boardroom?

This is the first episode of Boardroom Blindspots, a three-part series made in partnership with Gravity Global. Joel Harrison is joined by Nick Eades, Chief Strategy Officer at PE-backed payments business Freemarket and a five-time CMO, and Chris Omotosho, UK Managing Director and Chief Client Officer at Gravity Global. Together they take on the most literal blindspot of all: how a company is valued, and why marketing's part in it so often goes unseen.

➡️ Nick's view is blunt. CFOs and investors "don't believe anything, they evidence everything", and what they want to see is a repeatable, profitable, scalable process for winning and keeping customers. Chris argues that marketers and agencies have largely created the problem by reporting inputs rather than outcomes. Both land on the same practical point: the CFO is often the one making marketing's case in board meetings the CMO never attends, so the job is to give them the evidence and the words. Along the way, they explain why "show me the money" beats a slide of MQLs, why £1.8 billion of Lloyds TSB's Scottish Widows deal was attributed to infrastructure, operations and brand, and the one question every CFO should ask their marketing leader.

What You'll Learn

Why marketing's contribution to company value is so often invisible at board level, and how much of that is marketing's own doing.
What CFOs and investors actually need to see: evidence of a repeatable, profitable process for acquiring and retaining customers.
How to separate leading indicators from the outcomes the board cares about, and why RevOps aligned to finance makes the most credible witness.
How to equip your CFO to defend marketing's value in the board meetings you're not in.
The one question CEOs and CFOs should be asking their marketing leader, and usually aren't.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction: the valuation blindspot

01:39 - Meet Nick Eades and Chris Omotosho

03:59 - Why marketing's value is a board-level blindspot

07:09 - The smaller C in CMO

09:38 - Does the title matter, or is the C earned?

13:40 - How marketing activity translates into valuation

15:56 - Evidence is everything: what CFOs and investors need

18:01 - Don't show them the magic: simplifying the dashboard

20:20 - Scottish Widows and the price of reputation

23:51 - Is the board blind, or is marketing invisible?

25:40 - Show me the money: leading indicators versus the so what

28:37 - Why marketing's results take longer to show

30:54 - Trust, confidence and the CMO's swagger

35:01 - What to say, and stop saying, to your CFO

38:44 - The question every CEO and CFO should ask marketing

40:21 - Talent, employees and taking your people with you

41:54 - Wrap-up

Follow Nick Eades

https://linkedin.com/in/nickeades/

https://freemarket.com/

Follow Chris Omotosho

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-omotosho-a5742b15/

https://www.gravityglobal.com/

Closing boilerplate

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach to thought leadership, whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬If you switched off all your marketing tomorrow, what's the first thing your CFO would notice? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web: LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/ Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/ Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

Hashtags

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BStrategy, #BoardroomBlindspots, #CMOLeadership, #CFO, #MarketingEffectiveness, #MarketingROI, #CompanyValuation, #PrivateEquity, #RevOps, #B2BGrowth, #GravityGlobal

From 'like' to 'unlike' with privacy on B2B social media | How to protect buyers and brand from this emerging trust crisis Nov 04, 2026

Show notes

Every social platform wants the same three things from B2B marketers: attention, engagement and data. Freely given, rarely questioned.

Luan Wise has spent 25 years teaching marketers how to earn attention on those platforms. A Chartered Marketer, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and now a PhD researcher, she has co-written Privacy in the Age of Social Media: Beyond the Like with cybersecurity academic Dr Manimuthu Arunmozhi. It asks whether we should be more careful about what we hand over in return.

Luan remains an optimist about what social media can do for good, and she is clear that she is not telling marketers to post less. Her argument is that impersonation, data exposure and platform trust are not just IT issues, because they land on marketing's desk. She tells the story of a fake, AI-generated LinkedIn profile that posted a scam link under one of her own posts, explains why the like button was the start of the monetisation of the platforms, and lists the everyday posts that expose businesses, from passwords on post-it notes to the tools you name in public. If your team publishes on social media, this conversation gives you a practical place to start.

What You'll Learn

Why a self-described optimist about social media co-wrote a book urging B2B marketers to be more careful.
How the like button evolved into today's AI-driven engagement machinery, and what that shift means for brands.
Why LinkedIn impersonation and fake profile scams are a marketing problem, not just an IT one.
Which everyday posts expose your business, and the digital hygiene habits marketing and comms teams should adopt.
Why trust has become the currency for platforms and for the brands that use them.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction: the privacy problem behind B2B social media

02:06 - Luan Wise: what she does day to day

03:25 - From optimist to cautious: why write this book?

06:17 - The TEDx talk that led to the book

08:00 - Co-writing with a cybersecurity academic

09:48 - How the like button became a data machine

11:41 - From likes to AI-driven algorithms

14:19 - Fake profiles: when impersonation becomes a marketing problem

17:51 - The everyday posts that expose your business

20:06 - Trust as the new currency

21:14 - Why brands left X

23:30 - Where to start without becoming a data protection expert

26:24 - Auditing your social media set-up

28:04 - Why Luan stays optimistic

29:24 - The one reframe: be proactive

30:07 - Where to get the book

Follow Luan Wise

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luanwise/

Website: luanwise.co.uk

Privacy in the Age of Social Media: Beyond the Like (Routledge): https://www.routledge.com/Privacy-in-the-Age-of-Social-Media-Beyond-the-Like/Arunmozhi-Wise/p/book/9781041102816

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful and memorable, this conversation is for you.

🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community: https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬 What's the first privacy setting you will check on your company's social accounts? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔 Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing: https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

Get notified in your inbox each time an episode drops with the Trust & Influence in B2B podcast newsletter - sign up here: https://trustandinfluenceb2b.beehiiv.com/

📲 Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web. LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/Podcast: https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #B2BSocialMedia, #SocialMedia, #DataPrivacy, #Cybersecurity, #BrandTrust, #BuyerTrust, #LinkedIn, #DigitalHygiene, #BeyondTheLike, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BStrategy, #ThoughtLeadership

Is 'ghost revenue' haunting your boardroom? | How B2B marketers can stop lingering in the shadows of the CEO Blindspot Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

Four in five CEOs still see B2B marketing as a support function, not a growth driver. That's the headline finding from new Propolis research, and it's the starting point for this conversation between Richard O'Connor, CEO of B2B Marketing's Propolis platform, and host Joel Harrison.

Richard walks through the three blind spots the research surfaced: ghost revenue, the growth marketing creates that sales quietly gets credit for; a credibility crunch, where CEOs say they'd trust marketers more if they understood the numbers; and an AI value trap, where budget cuts are falling hardest on the very work that builds trust over time. He also makes the case, backed by real boardroom examples, for why commercial credibility buys marketers the freedom to take bigger creative risks, and what it will take for marketers to stop lingering in the shadows of the CEO's blind spot.

What you'll learn

Why 84% of CEOs still see marketing as a support function, and why that starts as a visibility problem before it becomes a trust problem.
What “ghost revenue” is, and why the growth marketing creates so often gets credited to sales instead.
Why speaking the “language of business” isn't enough on its own, and what actually earns commercial credibility in the boardroom.
Why AI is sharpening the CEO's blind spot, and the risk of cutting the very work that builds trust.
What it will take for marketers to stop lingering in the shadows and own the growth agenda.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: trust in the boardroom

00:57 84% of CEOs call marketing a support function

01:44 What Propolis is, and how it connects to B2B Marketing

02:33 The shape of the research: 150 CEOs surveyed

05:42 Is the CEO blind spot a trust problem or a visibility problem?

08:41 Ghost revenue: the growth marketing creates that CEOs never see

12:05 Why a CFO said he trusts his marketing function

13:11 The credibility crunch: why “the language of business” isn't enough

15:20 Account-based marketing as a model for commercial credibility

17:51 Why marketing gets excluded from growth strategy and forecasting

19:33 The AI value trap: cutting budgets without understanding the cost

23:23 Richard's advice: own the agenda for growth

24:42 What CEOs actually want from marketing

26:03 Where to find the report

Download the CEO Blindspots report here: https://www.b2bmarketing.net/reports/the-ceo-blind-spot-how-b2b-marketers-prove-protect-and-grow-their-commercial-impact/

Follow Richard O'Connor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardmpoconnor/

https://www.b2bmarketing.net/propolis/

Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Podcast: htts://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/podcast

Hashtags

#JoelHarrisonB2B #B2BMarketing #TrustAndInfluence #CEOBlindspot #GhostRevenue #B2BLeadership #MarketingTrust #BoardroomTrust #CommercialMarketing #B2BGrowth #MarketingROI #B2BPodcast

Is a lack of ‘commercial credibility’ the Achilles heel of B2B brands in the sales conversation? | Lorraine Emmett of Emmett & Churchman on ‘The Trust Advantage' Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

Here's an uncomfortable idea for any B2B business competing for a high-value deal: your biggest competitor may not be a better business. It may simply be one that's easier to believe.

That's the starting point for the second year of the Trust Advantage research from Emmett & Churchman, which surveyed 200 senior technology decision-makers and sat down with 19 CEOs making real, high-stakes buying decisions. The finding: capable businesses lose deals constantly, not for lack of capability, but because of what the research calls the commercial credibility gap, the distance between what a business can deliver and what a buyer can see, believe and defend.

Joel is joined by Lorraine Emmett, founder and managing director of Emmett & Churchman and the lead author of the research, to unpack why 45% of senior buyers say they've ruled out a supplier for failing to prove its credibility, and what leadership teams can do to close the gap in their own business.

Download the 'Trust Advantage' report here: https://emmettandchurchman.com/trust/

What you'll learn

What the commercial credibility gap actually is, and why it explains lost deals that looked like safe wins on paper.
The three questions buyers are really asking of every supplier, and which one businesses most consistently fail to answer.
Why a frank discussion of limitations and risk can build more trust than a flawless pitch.
What a smaller or less recognised B2B business can do to compete credibly against a better-known incumbent.
The first practical step for any leadership team that wants to close this gap in its own business.

Chapters

Introduction: the commercial credibility gap
Why Emmett & Churchman ran this research for a second year
The three questions every buyer is asking: can I see it, believe it, defend it
Why “can I see it” is the one businesses fail most
Overpromising versus candour: the biggest destroyer of trust
The human side of commercial negotiation
Equipping your champion: evidence that travels beyond the room
Challenger opportunity: why 57% would choose a trusted smaller supplier
Reframing commercial credibility as a leadership issue
The CEO commercial credibility test
Closing thought: where to start closing the gap

Follow Lorraine Emmett

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraineemmett-b2b-strategic-comms/
Emmett & Churchman: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emmett-churchman/home/

Closing boilerplate

If you found this conversation useful, the best way to support the show is to subscribe and leave a rating wherever you listen. It genuinely helps more B2B marketers find us.

🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡ www.joelharrisonb2b.com

💬 What's costing your business the deals it should be winning: capability, or credibility? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔 Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. www.joelharrisonb2b.com/podcast

#JoelHarrisonB2B #B2BMarketing #ThoughtLeadership #TrustAndInfluence #B2BSales #CommercialCredibility #B2BBuyers #MarketingPodcast #B2BInsights #CMOLeadership #B2BGrowth

How to win trust in ABM's biggest deals Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

Why AI makes human experiences more valuable, not less, with Claire Ellis of JPC

ABM was supposed to be about relationships. As AI makes targeting and personalisation cheap and abundant, the thing ABM was meant to build in the first place, trust with the people who actually decide, has become the real differentiator. Nowhere is that more acute than in ABM's biggest deals, where a single account can be worth millions and keeping it can matter even more than winning it.

➡️ Joel Harrison is joined by Claire Ellis, Managing Director of JPC, to unpack experiential ABM: human moments designed to move specific stakeholders, rather than events that simply fill rooms. Claire explains why buyers are now using AI to form preferences early and out of sight, why so much supplier activity is noise rather than relationship progress, and how to work out who really carries the room. She shares how BT moved from infrastructure provider to strategic partner with Translink, where organisations should deliberately keep human judgement in the loop, and why accountability matters more than accuracy when AI shapes what a senior buyer sees. If you run ABM, or are weighing up where your next experience budget should go, this conversation will sharpen how you plan, measure and own those moments. This episode is sponsored by JPC.

What you’ll learn

Why AI has made trust harder to earn in complex deals, and what buyers rely on instead.
How to design experiences around the change you need in specific stakeholders, rather than around the format.
How to spot who really carries the room, and when to rethink your account plan.
Where to deliberately keep human judgement, and how open to be about AI's role.
What credible relationship movement looks like, and who should own what happens next.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: trust and ABM in an AI world

01:55 Claire Ellis and JPC

04:29 Where suppliers go wrong in complex deals

08:26 AI cuts both ways: why trust is harder to earn

11:59 Influencing an account before the opportunity exists

15:30 What experiential ABM is, and what it isn't

18:06 Why the format gets decided first, and what it costs

22:00 Finding who really carries the room

26:17 BT and Translink: when co-creation is real

31:14 Where to keep human judgement in the loop

35:13 Accuracy, authenticity and accountability in AI

37:44 What credible relationship movement looks like

41:47 What a CMO should ask before booking anything

44:11 Close and where to find out more

Follow Claire Ellis

Claire Ellis on LinkedIn ▶ https://www.linkedin.com/in/claireellisjpc/

JPC ▶ https://thinkjpc.com/

Find out more

Read JPC's report, The human advantage in an AI-powered world ▶ https://thinkjpc.turtl.co/story/experiential-abm-roundtable-recap/page/1?pid=6aabbc5b8632548bf34bd33c

Hear Claire and JPC at the Global ABM conference ▶ https://events.b2bmarketing.net/abmconference

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach, whether you're a marketing leader, an ABM practitioner, or working alongside sales on your most important accounts.

🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬 What's the last event in your account plan that actually moved a relationship? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔 Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing.

📲 Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web:

LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/

Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ABM, #AccountBasedMarketing, #ExperientialABM, #ExperientialMarketing, #B2BTrust, #AIinMarketing, #EnterpriseSales, #StrategicAccounts, #SalesAndMarketing, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BStrategy, #CMOLeadership, #B2BGrowth

Everyone's talking about BGM, but how do you measure maturity? | Analysis from Pretzl's new Buying Group Index Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

Everyone's talking about buyer group marketing. Far fewer are doing it well, and most organisations have no reliable way of knowing how mature their approach really is. For this sponsored episode, Joel Harrison is joined by Greg Salmon, CEO of Pretzl, and Jeff Lowe, Pretzl's go-to-market advisor and a former CMO and Chief Commercial Officer at SMART Technologies, to unpack the 2026 Buyer Group Index. Produced in association with the ANA and research firm NewtonX, the Index surveyed 200 senior go-to-market leaders and measured 28 practices against commercial outcomes, from pipeline velocity to time to market.

➡️ Greg explains why so much of what passes for buyer group marketing is persona-based nurture under a new name, why the single score of the MQL is so comforting and so misleading, and how to reach the hidden influencers and build trust with people a vendor may never meet. He also warns that AI can scale bad assumptions as easily as good ones. Jeff draws on his years client-side to argue that separate sales and marketing teams are an outdated idea, explains why connected data has become a CMO's problem, and sets out what the leading organisations do differently.

What You'll Learn

Why so much of what passes for buyer group marketing is persona-based nurture under a new name, and how to tell the difference.
How to identify the hidden influencers in a buying group and build trust with people you may never meet.
Why AI is speeding up go-to-market activity without automatically improving growth, and what to do about how AI represents your brand.
Why connected data and genuine sales and marketing alignment are the highest-impact practices, and among the weakest.
What the leading organisations do differently, and how to benchmark your own maturity in around 15 minutes.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Pretzl and buyer group marketing

01:57 Introducing the 2026 Buyer Group Index

03:59 When buyer group marketing is persona nurture by another name

04:38 What a maturity score of 63.2 tells us

07:01 Why the MQL is so hard to let go of

10:06 Who the hidden influencers are

11:25 Building trust with people you never meet

12:28 Practical step: mapping your buyer group

14:57 When most buyer research happens out of sight

16:31 Why AI isn't automatically improving growth

17:36 How AI represents your brand

18:49 Practical step: the next 90 days

20:09 Jeff Lowe: from client-side to Pretzl

20:59 Why the real benchmark is lower than 63.2

22:18 Connected data and the systems gap

24:00 Should sales and marketing be one team?

26:56 What the leading organisations do differently

29:23 Practical step: benchmark your own maturity

31:31 Wrap-up

Follow Greg Salmon, Jeff Lowe and Pretzl

Greg Salmon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-salmon-280a1412/

Jeff Lowe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflowe2/

Pretzl: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pretzlco/

Take the free Buyer Group Index assessment: [link]

If you're responsible for go-to-market and want an honest view of where your organisation stands, this conversation is for you. It's practical, candid and packed with first steps you can act on now.

🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬 Is your buyer group marketing the real thing, or persona nurture with a new name? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔 Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲 Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web: LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/ Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/ Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BStrategy, #BuyerGroupMarketing, #BuyerGroups, #GoToMarket, #GTMStrategy, #SalesAndMarketing, #ABM, #RevOps, #AIinMarketing, #CMOLeadership, #B2BGrowth

B2B nostalgia: how and when to go retro in your campaigns | Five creative approaches from the B2B Marketing Awards entries, with Guy O'Brien of Custom Influence Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Nostalgia sells everything from trainers to TV reboots, yet it barely registers in B2B marketing. To find out why, Joel Harrison went through three years of B2B Marketing Awards entries in search of the exceptions, and invited Guy O'Brien, co-founder of B2B influencer marketing agency Custom Influence, into the studio to make sense of what he found.

➡️ Together they unpack five ways B2B brands are going retro, from Exel Composites retelling the Three Little Pigs to Allica Bank's bowler hat, and ask why so few try it. Guy's verdict is that nostalgia isn't wrong for B2B, it's just hard: target the wrong generation and you alienate the buyers coming through; lean too far into the joke and people remember the ad but not the brand. Joel adds a warning of his own about nostalgia that stirs the wrong memories. If you're weighing a bolder creative idea, this conversation will help you judge when going retro will pay off.

What You'll Learn

Why nostalgia is everywhere in consumer marketing but rare in B2B, and why that comes down to difficulty rather than suitability.
The five creative approaches B2B brands are using to go retro, with campaign examples from the B2B Marketing Awards.
How to avoid alienating buyers from other generations as B2B buying groups get younger.
Why the brand, not the nostalgic idea, has to be what people remember.
How a nostalgic idea can build a community rather than a one-off moment.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction: where this conversation came from

01:52 - Guy O'Brien and Custom Influence

03:44 - Nostalgia and the humanisation of B2B

04:27 - Trend 1: Generational era cues (Just Group)

09:45 - Why nostalgia is so rare in B2B

11:25 - Trend 2: Childhood storytelling (Exel Composites)

17:16 - Trend 3: Retro media formats (Infoblox and 6sense)

22:45 - Trend 4: Period-specific aesthetics (Ecolab)

27:14 - Trend 5: Iconography of tradition (Allica Bank)

34:29 - The verdict: is nostalgia viable in B2B?

36:14 - When nostalgia backfires

40:47 - Where to find the campaigns

Follow Guy O'Brien

LinkedIn: [link]

Custom Influence: https://custominfluence.com/

Closing boilerplate

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach to creative and thought leadership, whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬 Would you take your B2B brand retro, or is nostalgia best left to consumer marketers? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔 Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲 Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web: LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/ Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/ Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #ContentStrategy, #MarketingTrends, #B2BContent, #Storytelling, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BVideos, #B2BStrategy, #NostalgiaMarketing, #B2BCreative, #CreativeEffectiveness, #BrandBuilding, #InfluencerMarketing, #B2BMarketingAwards

Think you control the buyer journey? Think again... | Why LLMs and influencers are in the driving seat, with John Rockhold of Spotlight Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

The winning vendor is usually already on the buyer's shortlist before a single sales conversation happens, and increasingly, it isn't a salesperson or a website that put them there. It's a large language model, quietly checking what real people are already saying about you.

John Rockhold, VP of Market Engagement at Spotlight, joins Joel Harrison to unpack Influence Orchestration, Spotlight's new research into how buying preference now forms in AI answer engines, peer communities and analyst conversations, long before a deal ever reaches a pipeline. John's team interviewed 23 leaders who build and measure B2B influence, reviewed 27 published studies of buyer behaviour, and analysed millions of AI engine answers and citations across B2B technology categories. The conversation also draws on Spotlight Summit, the event John's team ran in Kansas City the week this episode was recorded, where Joel spoke alongside Bijou Barry, Megan Burns and other voices shaping this shift.

What you'll learn

Why buyer preference now largely forms out of sight, in AI prompt windows, peer conversations and communities, before a vendor even knows a deal exists
What separates the vendors AI answer engines actually recommend from the ones they ignore
Why earned trust compounds over time, while paid attention resets the moment you stop paying for it
Who should really own influence inside a B2B company, and why almost nobody does today
What to check in your own AI visibility on Monday morning, and what to do if you don't like what you find

If you find this conversation valuable, please take a moment to subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating or review. It really helps other B2B marketers discover the show.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: the shortlist is already written

01:47 Welcome, John Rockhold

02:08 Inside Spotlight Summit

04:22 What Spotlight does, and where the report began

08:25 Why “Influence Orchestration”

11:22 The day one shortlist: 95% and what it means for the buyer journey

15:05 Robots, humans, and the return of intermediaries

16:55 The verification loop: how buyers check what the machine tells them

19:20 Earned versus owned: the quote, the sidebar, and the flip

22:13 Megan Burns and the internal trust problem

25:28 Why nobody owns influence, and why that has to change