The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of B2B Marketing’s ‘Support Role’ Label

Somewhere along the way, it seems that some B2B marketers have gotten comfortable being the order taker.

Along with other function leaders, we’ve accepted the notion that we can’t show impact like sales can; that proving our influence on revenue is too hard, too messy, or too indirect.

We get the calls for decks, one-pagers, and last-minute event swag. Sales gets the spotlight because they’re closer to the revenue. (In fairness, sales people also have shorter tenure, so it’s not all glory.)

I was reading a Reddit thread about how marketing feels like a support role in sales-led companies. A few quotes jumped out:

“Yeah I feel that marketing is appreciated more in B2C (also depends on leadership) vs. B2B.”

“If you are in an organization that measures marketing by the same ruler as sales, the struggle will be that much more difficult. Marketing is typically the long game… Your first hurdle is to help leadership understand that you don’t get marketing results in weeks or months. Unlike sales.”

“In my experience, sales/business development in B2B is valued more than the marketing function because it’s closer to the revenue…”

You know what struck me? Most of the conversation stopped there. There was limited talk about changing how marketing is viewed or valued. More importantly, they weren’t discussing how to rewrite the story of marketing’s role in the business.

Someone recently said to me, “Marketing isn’t undervalued - its leaders are doing a crap job proving its impact on things like revenue or stock price.” Harsh, but not entirely wrong.

I’ve spoken with company leaders who have full marketing teams and still aren’t tracking meaningful data. That’s wild in 2025, when we have countless tools to measure, connect, and analyze.

Sure, tying every marketing move to revenue isn't easy. Long lead and sales cycles, multiple touchpoints, brand influence, it’s tricky to track. But if we don’t even try to connect the dots - even imperfectly - we leave the door wide open for the “marketing doesn’t matter” crowd.

Marketing’s job isn’t just to make things look pretty or generate “awareness.” It’s to make sales easier, faster, and bigger, and in doing so, deliver revenue. If we can’t show that, someone else decides marketing’s worth.

The good news? AI is going to make connecting those dots far easier, tying together disparate data points, mapping buyer journeys, even running permutations we couldn’t dream of before. This is exciting.

But until then, when the science is imperfect and the pressure is on. How are you proving your marketing impact in a way that boards, shareholders, or PE firms actually care about?