From B2B “Boring-To-Boring” To Human Connection: What Business Are B2B CMOs Really In?

Walk into any SaaS company today, and you’ll hear the same mantra: We’re customer-centric. But peel back the glossy slide decks and the shiny websites, and too often you’ll find a transactional machine. Features. Pricing. Crowded product pages filled with tech specs in tiny fonts. And then the board shrugs and says, “do we even need a CMO if the products are just marketing themselves?”

Modern B2B CMOs have a huge opportunity to help the company find its unique voice and orchestrate across the C-suite to make customer centricity real, not just a slogan.

We forgot something important: Buyers—whether they’re singular humans or teams of decision makers—are still people. Nobody falls in love with a feature list. They fall in love with a story. They fall in love with trust. They fall in love with how a brand makes them feel (and of course delivers). They may be wowed by new features or bells and whistles, but a software update won’t make their soul sing. And we, as humans, want our souls to sing.

Even in B2B marketing.

That’s the thing—we’ve over-indexed on science and stripped away the art. In the age of AI and automation, we are forgetting that people want and need connection. We’ve never had more tools, more dashboards, more data—but we’ve also never been so disengaged. That’s the real disruption CMOs have to embrace—how to create connection when we’re all disconnected.

The Fork In The Roadlink to this section

Marketing leaders face a choice. Follow the superhighway toward speed, data, AI, and feature parity. Or take a more thoughtful path that satiates the human need for connection and storytelling while recognizing the world we’re living in. We’ve never had more information, and yet we’ve never been more disengaged. One road is all bytes and bots. The other asks: how do we still sell to humans at the end of the day?

In that environment, the CMO can either become a transactional role—pushing product to market and managing the assembly line—or step up as a transformational leader with a seat at the table. That means asking uncomfortable questions. Are we selling to the right buyer? Is this even the right product? Do we have the right story? Why should they care? What does success look like to them?

From Fertile Soil To Forestlink to this section

Customer centricity begins with the CEO. Without that commitment, the soil is barren. If your CEO doesn’t care about connection, you’re trying to plant seeds in concrete. Don’t do it. Find fertile soil. But in companies where leaders value differentiation beyond product, through human connection, the CMO can act as a catalyst. Marketing, working with sales, product, and R&D, can stitch together a narrative that accelerates the whole business.

CMOs already operate as connectors. We’re used to managing very different disciplines within one function. Expanding that skill to the broader C-suite is a natural progression. I like to think about it like a submarine. Ninety-nine percent of the work is under the waterline. That’s culture, integration, alignment. Then there’s the periscope—marketing—that sees both outside and inside. Most CMOs just pop up the periscope and look out, but the real heavy lift is under the water. That’s where you build a company that actually lives customer centricity.

Nobody falls in love on Bumble just because you listed “jogging” and “wine tasting” in your profile. You need to connect with something deeper. The same goes for B2B.

Bruno Bertini

CMO, 8x8

Beyond Featureslink to this section

You can spot surface-level customer centricity a mile away. Open a website, and if all you see is transactions—click here, sign up, pay now—you’re looking at a short-term play. It works for a while, but eventually, customers want more. Nobody falls in love on Bumble just because you listed “jogging” and “wine tasting” in your profile. You need to connect with something deeper. The same goes for B2B.

Think of Intel Inside, which created trust far beyond specs, or Burger King’s Moldy Whopper campaign, which reframed freshness. B2B has largely forgotten how to reframe. Too often, it falls back on white papers and spec sheets. Without a bigger narrative, you’re just hoping the product speaks for itself, and sometimes, now more than ever, it doesn’t.

Look at B2C CMOs: They live in constant dialogue with their customers. Every tweet, review, or TikTok is unfiltered feedback. They have to earn attention by sparking emotion, not just listing features. They know buyers want to feel something. B2B isn’t different. The CIO scrolling LinkedIn at lunch is the same person scrolling Instagram at night. If they expect connection, creativity, and authenticity as consumers, why would they settle for less at work?

My goal is to bring that same energy into B2B, leverage creativity as a path to more connection and differentiation, and create stories that make people feel and connect.

The most valuable CMOs don’t claim to own customer centricity. They orchestrate it. Every member of the C-team plays a part. The CMO is the one who gets everyone singing the same song.

Orchestrating The Next Eralink to this section

The most valuable CMOs don’t claim to own customer centricity. They orchestrate it. Every member of the C-team plays a part. The CMO is the one who gets everyone singing the same song.

That’s where the role is headed. Done right, B2B CMOs go beyond reporting on leads or MQLs, beyond acquisition. They help build a brand that feels like a song everyone wants to sing together—and pay to be part of.

My advice to CMOs is simple. Find fertile soil. Play both inside and outside the company. Orchestrate rather than claim ownership. And never forget the art. B2B has leaned too heavily on science. Bring back the energy and emotion that make people feel alive!

We’re at the end of the beginning for CMOs in SaaS. The transactional era is fading. What comes next will demand creativity, orchestration, and the belief that transformation is possible. And if we step into that role, the CMO won't just survive—we'll finally answer the question of what business we're really in: the business of human connection.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com on October 3, 2025

Bruno Bertini

Chief Marketing Officer, 8x8

Bruno Bertini is Chief Marketing Officer at 8x8, leading the shift from UCaaS to an AI-powered CX platform by aligning go-to-market and culture around customer outcomes, accelerating AI adoption and product growth.