Why the Marketing Flywheel is Taking Over the Sales Pipeline

Gartner predicted in 2011 that customers would manage 85% of their relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human by 2020. So far, it seems like they’re on the right track:

• 2012 — CEB reports that customers are 57% of the way through the purchase decision-making process before their “first serious engagement with sales.”
• 2013 — Lori Wizdo of Forrester says, “today’s buyers might be anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out for a sales person.” 
• 2015 — Google finds that B2B researchers average 12 searches before engaging with a specific brand's site.
• 2017 — DemandGen reports that buyers are “gathering intelligence on their options and forming opinions long before they are filling out any forms or talking with a salesperson” (only 29% spoke to or engaged with a sales rep within the first month).

There have even been rumblings that the CMO should now be called the CXO (as in this 2019 Forbes article) because the role of marketing has expanded end-to-end across the whole customer experience. Yep, big changes are in the works. But why is all of this happening?