Cost of Chaos Report | Chapter 2
WHEN CHAOS BECOMES THE OPERATING MODEL
Chaos is not confined to people. It also affects processes and creates a misaligned environment.
A clear disconnect across processes and teams
Marketers identified product, partner, and demand as some of the most disconnected areas, suggesting that fragmentation isn’t isolated but is
embedded across the entire marketing function.
Product leads the way as the most disconnected area out of the three (40%).
This suggests strategy and messaging are misaligned, leading to confusion
when going to market.
"Product, Sales and Marketing must be a one-headed dragon"
Anna Griffin, CMO, Commvault
Which of these areas feel most disconnected?
Navigating the buying decision
The chaos marketers experience is mirrored in the buying process.
Research from Gartner and Forrester found that every deal now averages 11+ stakeholders, often with competing incentives. Enterprise B2B buying is hard.
Our research also reveals that more than one in three buyers (33%) mentioned “too many decision-makers involved” as a barrier to buying. This suggests that the number of stakeholders involved in the buying process could be contributing to the level of chaos, making the decision phase less straightforward.
As complexity grows, so does the pressure to deliver clarity and consistency
at every touchpoint.
What’s making the buying process harder?
Internal fragmentation of brands compounds the problem: 38% of buyers say it reduces trust, makes comparisons harder (33%), and causes hesitation or delays in purchase decisions (31%).
Research from The B2B Institute on the decision drivers for buyer groups found that 62% would reject a lesser-known brand if faced with similar products at similar prices. This reinforces the importance of having clear, coherent external communications to nurture and maintain brand awareness.
Buying groups comprise people from different disciplines across a target account. If those separate audiences are receiving incoherent, fragmented messaging about your brand, how will they ever reach a positive consensus about you?
Consistency builds awareness and trust.
"We started to shape a story and a value proposition that made sense whether you were the CEO of a customer company or somebody working in security or IT Ops. That was super important because that meant we could tell one story, we could lean in, and it could also be simple."
Claire Hockin
SVP & CMO, Splunk
Where trust can be won
Showing up as a coherent brand builds trust. The challenge is that many of the channels that buyers trust aren’t owned channels.
Buyers have the need for speed. And customisation. And transparency. And true collaboration.
It’s not just about coherence across channels and content. It’s about behaving in a way that makes buying easier, too. Buyers have the need for speed, customisation, transparency, and true collaboration.
“Buyability is the shift from optics to outcomes: reach the whole buyer group, amplify trust through peer advocacy, and instrument measurement to the signals that move pipeline so complex decisions feel aligned, defensible, and easy to say ‘yes’ to.”
David Walsh, EMEA Customer Insights Director at LinkedIn
Which channels do you trust most?
What makes you feel most connected with suppliers? UK top three:
Chapter 3
WHEN CHAOS BECOMES THE OPERATING MODEL
Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.