GTM Shifts and Bets: Observations for Leaders After 6Sense Breakthrough 2025

Attending the 6Sense Breakthrough event in Las Vegas last week, one theme was impossible to miss: the urgency to evolve. 

Whether you’re a B2B buyer, seller, marketer, or partner, expectations are rising, cycles are accelerating, and the pressure to deliver and show business impact is intensifying. Yes, AI is fueling much of this momentum, but it’s only part of the story. The real driver is the growing demand for GTM teams to prove their value—faster.

What stood out most wasn’t a flashy “new playbook” or the usual declarations that something in GTM is “dead.” Instead, it was a return to fundamentals. In a market shaped by self-directed buyers and AI-accelerated processes, the teams that deliver align with how buying actually happens today.

Here are a few of my observations, fueled by conversations and sessions from Breakthrough 2025.

Apply AI for Efficiency and Speed; Humans for Connection and Confidence. 

AI is now the engine driving GTM efficiency. AI is being deployed to spot signals earlier, automate workflows, and sharpen pipeline visibility. Marketing and sales teams are leaning into AI with the promise of acting within hours rather than weeks.

But AI can’t build trust. It can’t navigate political complexity or read the emotional undertones of a buying group. In high-consideration B2B, human judgment, empathy, and credibility remain irreplaceable. The winning formula being developed inside GTM teams is shaping up to be: AI clears the path and humans close the gap.

Full Lifecycle Marketing Takes Center Stage 

Many teams are still over-indexed on net-new acquisition and top-of-funnel activity. This is a hangover from the “growth at all costs” era and many of the strategies and tech used during this period. Others swing to the opposite extreme, chasing only late-stage intent signals, hoping to get in on the action. 

Neither is enough as a standalone approach.

Modern GTM teams are embracing full lifecycle marketing because they’re learning that:

• Discoverability must start early. Brand is not a campaign; it’s every touchpoint.
• Trying to “swoop in” based solely on intent is too late. By that time, the shortlist is already set. You’ve lost.
• Retention and expansion are revenue engines. Existing customers often represent your fastest, most profitable growth.

Marketing and sales teams are starting to talk about GTM as a connected system (not a funnel!) where awareness, acquisition, adoption, and expansion can be understood, optimized, and executed.

The B2B Buying Process Has Shifted, And Most Teams Haven’t Shifted With It 

New data from Kerry Cunningham, 6Sense’s head of research and thought leadership, unveiled the latest global buying research. This new intel confirms what many marketers know - buyers are in control, and they’re moving earlier – but most are figuring out how to adapt to this reality.

This complete research will be released later this month, but here are some key takeaways and interpretations from Kerry’s Breakthrough session:

• The need for speed: Buyers engage vendors 6–7 weeks earlier as innovation cycles accelerate
• Marketing must play a lead role: 94% rank their shortlist before talking to sales
• Show up early with value: 95% of winners come from the Day One shortlist
• Competition is intensifying: Buyers evaluate more vendors (5.1), but now are completing cycles one month faster

If your brand, content, and solution aren't discoverable before buyers begin their journey, you’re invisible when it matters. Brand-to-demand integration with consistent visibility and value before intent is now essential to earning a seat at the table.

Time Is the Most Damaging Barrier to Understanding and Proving Impact

Analytics, measurement, and proving ROI remain at the top of GTM leaders and practitioners' list. Even with more data and technology, GTM teams report their biggest constraint is time – from time to unify data to time to produce reliable insights to action and share. 

Here is a list of our notes on the time challenge when it comes to measurement and analytics:

• Answer real-world questions to understand what’s working, what’s not.
• Produce trusted, reliable insights fast enough with confidence
• Unite fragmented data into a single, actionable source of truth
• Connect marketing and sales activity to real revenue outcomes
• Prepare board decks, QBR content, and pipeline prep materials
• Keep up with manual reporting demands

In an era defined by speed and resource constraints, slow answers are eroding both stakeholder and marketing pros’ confidence. 

Evolve GTM By Focusing on What Matters

Across B2B markets, buyers, sellers, marketers, and partners are signaling the same message: expectations are rising faster than most GTM organizations can adapt. AI is the big GTM bet (shocker!), but the real pressure comes from revenue accountability, compressed cycles, and a buying process that GTM teams still struggle to align with.

Instead of chasing the next “new playbook,” leaders need to acknowledge the reset that is already underway. The teams making progress aren’t relying on hyperbole or sweeping declarations. They are doubling down on fundamentals and aligning their entire lifecycle to how buying actually happens today. And build trust with stakeholders by measuring and demonstrating the value of the strategies and investments they put into the market.

Until next year!