Trust & Influence in B2B

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 LearnWhy 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.Chapters00:00 - Introduction: where this conversation came from01:52 - Guy O'Brien and Custom Influence03:44 - Nostalgia and the humanisation of B2B04:27 - Trend 1: Generational era cues (Just Group)09:45 - Why nostalgia is so rare in B2B11:25 - 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 backfires40:47 - Where to find the campaignsFollow Guy O'BrienLinkedIn: [link]Custom Influence: https://custominfluence.com/Closing boilerplateIf 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

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 learnWhy buyer preference now largely forms out of sight, in AI prompt windows, peer conversations and communities, before a vendor even knows a deal existsWhat separates the vendors AI answer engines actually recommend from the ones they ignoreWhy earned trust compounds over time, while paid attention resets the moment you stop paying for itWho should really own influence inside a B2B company, and why almost nobody does todayWhat to check in your own AI visibility on Monday morning, and what to do if you don't like what you findIf 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.Chapters00:00 Introduction: the shortlist is already written01:47 Welcome, John Rockhold02:08 Inside Spotlight Summit04:22 What Spotlight does, and where the report began08:25 Why “Influence Orchestration”11:22 The day one shortlist: 95% and what it means for the buyer journey15:05 Robots, humans, and the return of intermediaries16:55 The verification loop: how buyers check what the machine tells them19:20 Earned versus owned: the quote, the sidebar, and the flip22:13 Megan Burns and the internal trust problem25:28 Why nobody owns influence, and why that has to change26:42 The 50% ceiling: when owned content collapses your visibility28:20 Three predictions for 2027 and 202833:48 What to check on Monday morning35:15 Does compounding influence favour challengers or incumbents?38:33 What John learned at Spotlight SummitChapter times are taken from the pre-edit transcript. Re-time against the published cut once the final edit is locked.Follow John RockholdLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrockhold/Spotlight: https://spotlight-io.com/More from Trust & Influence in B2B🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community: https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/💬 What's the one place your buyers are checking that you haven't thought about yet? Let us know in the comments.🔔 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/#B2BMarketing #TrustAndInfluence #InfluenceOrchestration #AIinMarketing #GEO #AEO #BuyerJourney #AnalystRelations #B2BPodcast #MarketingPodcast #JoelHarrison #Spotlight #JohnRockhold

Every B2B vendor now has an AI story. Michelle Huff, Chief Marketing Officer at Alteryx, argues that's exactly the problem: when everyone makes the same promise, positioning around AI stops being a differentiator and becomes table stakes. Michelle brings more than 25 years leading marketing and go-to-market strategy at Oracle, Salesforce and UserTesting to the question of how a 25-year-old analytics brand earns its place in the AI era without sliding into hype.Joel and Michelle talk through how Alteryx replaces claims with proof – a 760,000-member user community, customer stories, and a framework (Visible, Understandable, Repeatable, Auditable) for what makes an automated decision trustworthy. Michelle also unpacks a strikingly simple way to think about handing judgment to AI: treat it like onboarding a new hire, earning autonomy step by step rather than switching it on and walking away.What you'll learnWhy positioning around AI is now table stakes rather than a differentiator – and what to do about itHow to move a brand beyond me-too claims to demonstrable, genuine valueWhat proof of substance actually looks like to a buyer who's heard every AI promise beforeWhy the real AI story is about automating judgment, not just tasksA practical framework for deciding what's ready to automate and what still needs a human in the loopChapters00:00 Introduction: why AI positioning is now table stakes02:02 Meet Michelle Huff and Alteryx's 25-year evolution04:54 25 years across tech shifts: the instinct that carries through08:49 Beyond the AI me-too: proving value, not just claiming it10:36 Community and advocacy at scale12:21 Building movements, not monuments: the Salesforce influence14:00 Where AI genuinely changes the product vs. just the language15:50 Vision vs. reality: staying grounded while pointing ahead16:19 Repositioning a legacy brand without over-claiming20:15 The BIRA framework: visible, understandable, repeatable, auditable23:50 Data vs. story: which one wins when they pull apart26:45 Automating judgment: the new-hire analogy and the trust score31:02 Task-owners vs. problem-owners: staying valuable as AI reshapes marketing32:58 Advice for teams that don't trust their AI output yet34:29 Closing thoughtsFollow Michelle HuffLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellehuff/Alteryx: https://www.alteryx.com/Closing boilerplateIf 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/💬 Where's the line for you between AI that's a genuine step change and AI that's just new language on old capability? 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/

Iron Mountain is nearly 75 years old, built on physical records storage, and structured as a real estate investment trust — known for most of its history for warehouses and shredding trucks, not brand campaigns. Then Karen Feldman arrived as the company's first-ever Chief Marketing Officer.Karen joins Joel Harrison to explain what it actually means to become a legacy business's first CMO when marketing already exists, just without a seat at the top table — and the trust-building playbook that got her there. We cover the brand health study that reshaped her budget priorities, the McLaren Racing partnership that mirrors Iron Mountain's own value proposition, how AI is reshaping B2B search behaviour, and her advice for any marketing leader walking into a legacy business.If you find this valuable, please subscribe and leave a rating or review — it really helps other B2B marketers find the show.GuestKaren Feldman, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Iron MountainKaren Feldman is SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Iron Mountain, a role she took on in November 2024 as the company's first-ever CMO. She joined from IBM Consulting, where she spent over 25 years at IBM, including as CMO leading the business's repositioning following the Kyndryl spin-off.Karen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-feldman-217440/HostJoel Harrison, founder of Joel Harrison B2B and host of Trust & Influence in B2B.Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/In this episode00:00 Welcome, and introducing Karen Feldman02:27 What Iron Mountain actually does today04:48 Karen's path from IBM Consulting to Iron Mountain11:06 The brand platform: protect what matters, unlock what's possible14:43 Earning the leadership trust to build a real CMO mandate19:09 The McLaren Racing partnership21:59 Brand, demand, and speaking the business's language28:28 AI and trust in the B2B mid-funnel32:25 Advice for marketers walking into a legacy business35:11 Two years in: what's been unlocked so farFollow Karen Feldman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-feldman-217440/Iron Mountain: https://www.ironmountain.com/Closing & Calls to Action 🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community: https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/ What would you tell a marketing leader walking into a legacy B2B business for the first time?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=1Follow 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, #BrandStrategy, #Storytelling, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BVideos, #B2BStrategy, #CMO, #MarketingLeadership, #BrandTrust, #LegacyBrands, #B2BGrowth, #TrustAndInfluenceInB2B, #IronMountain

NPS has survived more obituaries than almost any other metric in B2B marketing — and it's still standing. Bain & Co.'s newest research doesn't try to kill it off again; it argues the real predictor of B2B growth is something else entirely: whether a vendor makes a buyer's 'day one' shortlist, the mental list formed before anyone picks up the phone. Tony Larks, a B2B marketing leader with over 20 years of experience spanning sales, enterprise technology and zero-to-one startup builds, read that research and asked the obvious next question — could you estimate your shortlist position without ever surveying a buyer?➡️ Tony walks Joel through the AI prompt he built to do exactly that — scoring companies against Bain’s five-part framework using nothing but public signals: analyst coverage from the likes of Gartner and Forrester, peer review sites such as G2, forums including Reddit, and even employee sentiment on Glassdoor. He shares the story of an NPS score skewed by SMB customers who’d rather pay a compliance fine than do the hard work of getting compliant, unpacks why ‘shortlist share’ risks becoming exactly the kind of vanity metric NPS became if marketers try to game it with PR spend, and explains why fixing the fundamentals — service, roadmap transparency, honest pricing — beats gaming any signal. He’s open-sourced the tool and is giving the prompt away free to anyone who wants it. If you’ve ever wondered whether your brand is even in the room before the RFP lands, this conversation will change how you think about being ‘in the market’ versus being in contention.What You'll Learn• What's actually wrong with NPS, the B2B trust metric — and why nobody's replaced it, until now• What the ‘day one list’ is, and why Bain says most lost deals were never winnable to begin with• How Tony built an AI model that estimates buyer confidence from public signals alone, and where the approach is strongest and weakest• What brands should actually do once they know where they sit on the shortlistChapters00:00 - Introduction: Why We're Finally Talking About NPS01:35 - Meet Tony Larks: From Sales Floor to Startup Marketing Leadership04:45 - From Sentiment Tracking to Bain's ‘Day One List’09:28 - What's Actually Wrong With NPS (And What Isn't)12:14 - NPS's Cultural Blind Spot: Sevens, Nines and Detractors15:07 - Inside Bain's Day One List: Why ‘Lost’ Deals Were Never Winnable17:56 - Do You Need Bain's Budget? Mining Your Own CRM Data21:02 - The Hidden Buyers Bain's Framework Surfaces23:55 - Building an AI Proxy for Buyer Trust: How the Shortlist Matrix Works26:26 - Estimation vs. Measurement: How Rigorous Is Good Enough?28:07 - The Gaming Risk: Can Shortlist Share Be Bought?31:26 - Could ‘Shortlist Share’ Become the Next Vanity Metric?33:27 - What Marketers Should Actually Do With Their Score35:02 - Explaining the Two-by-Two Grid36:13 - NPS Isn't Dead, It's Just Incomplete37:42 - Wrap-Up and How to Get the ToolAbout the guestTony Larks is a B2B marketing leader with over 20 years of experience, starting his career in sales before moving into marketing roles spanning distribution, systems integrators and enterprise technology businesses. He has spent his most recent years leading zero-to-one marketing builds inside startups, and over the past year has been building a suite of AI agents to track brand and market sentiment — work that led him to develop the open-source ‘shortlist matrix’ featured in this episode.Tony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonylarks/Blog featuring shortlist matrix prompt: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-measuring-market-share-start-shortlist-tony-larks-hazje/?trackingId=BHbT3G1Q76e9aaY0PZoOcg%3D%3DAbout the podcastThis is a full episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, hosted by Joel Harrison, founder of Joel Harrison B2B.Joel on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/If this was useful, subscribe for more on trust, influence and the metrics that actually predict B2B growth — and tell me in the comments where you think you’d land on the day one shortlist.