Most B2B demand gen strategies are built around your funnel stages: Awareness → Consideration → Decision.
But here’s the truth: your buyers aren’t following your timeline—they’re following theirs.
They don’t care about your campaign calendar. They care about solving their problem. And unless your strategy meets them at that moment, you’re just background noise.
Let’s break down how to align your demand generation with how buyers actually buy.
Step 1: Understand Their Internal Decision Phases
Here’s how most internal buyer journeys unfold—long before your “MQL” dashboard lights up:
- Unaware: No problem acknowledged yet
- Problem Identified: “We need to fix this”
- Solution Seeking: “What’s out there that solves this?”
- Shortlisting: Comparing vendors
- Decision Made: Approvals, purchasing, onboarding prep
Your job is to show up with the right message at each of those stages—not just when they’re ready to buy.
Step 2: Map Content to Buyer Intent
Here’s how to align your assets to their internal timeline:
| Buyer Stage | What They Need | What You Should Deliver |
| Unaware | Provocation, perspective | Contrarian POV posts, “why X is broken” |
| Problem Identified | Clarity, frameworks | Playbooks, how-to guides, light pain-based ads |
| Solution Seeking | Options, direction | Case studies, product explainers, demo videos |
| Shortlisting | Proof, differentiation | ROI calculators, comparison charts, testimonials |
| Decision Made | Confidence, logistics | Implementation plans, pilot templates |
If your funnel is too conversion-heavy, you’ll miss the top. If it’s too fluffy, you’ll stall at the bottom.
Step 3: Let Signals, Not Stages, Guide Campaigns
Not every buyer moves in a perfect line. Some binge your content. Others go dark and come back 6 months later.
Instead of forcing people into sequences, listen for:
- Engagement patterns (multiple visits, asset downloads)
- Buying triggers (job changes, funding rounds, hiring activity)
- Inbound questions (“Can we use this with Salesforce?”)
Then tailor your outreach or retargeting to match where they are, not where your campaign says they should be.
Step 4: Build Always-On Assets Around Key Triggers
You can’t predict exactly when a buyer hits a need. But you can be present when they do.
Examples:
- SEO content that answers pre-buy questions
- LinkedIn posts that frame the problem before they name it
- Drip campaigns that deliver value across the long tail
Your goal isn’t to rush them. It’s to be the no-brainer when they’re ready.
Final Thought
Buyers don’t follow your funnel—they build their own.
And the best demand gen teams are the ones who map to that internal timeline, meet buyers with the right content at the right time, and make conversion feel like the next logical step—not a leap.
Stay focused. Stay productive. Keep building.
