Growth trends that will drive marketing and sales success in 2025

2024 was a year of exciting developments in the global B2B tech landscape. From generative AI to omnilingual tech, a host of technological advancements and changes in market dynamics bolstered growth across sales and marketing.

This is especially true for B2B tech sectors in the Nordics and Western Europe where growth has been dramatic. In fact, the Nordics have surfaced as a strong contestant to become Europe’s new digital technology hub, being one of the areas that produced the highest number of unicorn per capita.

Looking ahead at 2025, the B2B marketing and sales landscape is once again expected to be reshaped in how companies in the tech space will engage with their customers, refine their processes, and drive growth.

In this blog post we take a look at some of the growth trends predicted for 2025. We also share a few valued opinions of sales and marketing thought leaders as well as some of Brightvision’s own growth experts' views.

Customer-centric growth: value across the journey

Customer-centricity will take on a more holistic meaning in 2025. Advanced technologies and data insights will help businesses to integrate personalized, anticipatory, and seamless customer experiences across all touchpoints.

One of the key aspects of this evolved definition of customer centric includes personalization at scale.

Research has shown that at least 71% of consumers look for personalized interactions from businesses.

What’s more, customers expect super-tailored, customized experiences across all sales and marketing touchpoints. Organisations that want keep in step with the constant evolution of customer-centricity need to focus on a steady, consistent experience for customers.

In a recent podcast episode, Paul Butterfield, founder of the Revenue Flywheel Group noted the importance of a unified customer experience.

“From a customer’s standpoint, all touchpoints across the chain of contacts are interconnected. It is of no consequence to the customer that the respective teams belong to different departments; to the customer, it is one experience. To this end, the various customer-facing teams must be in alignment.”

B2B tech marketing trends driving growth

Let’s look at specific B2B tech marketing trends that will enjoy substantial focus in 2025:

• AI and data-powered hyper-personalization

“Meaningful personalization is the holy grail of outbound marketers and sellers” - Tony J. Hughes, Best-selling author and sales trainer

Hyper-personalization as a marketing strategy applies technologies like advanced data analytics, AI, and ML (machine learning) to gather in-depth insights and enable predictive recommendations that equip marketing teams to create experiences that are tailored to the tee to individual consumer needs and preferences.

The process of hyper-personalization surpasses the boundaries of normal data analytics to gain a comprehensive snapshot of customer habits and interests. This level of personalization will become the norm in 2025.

"AI and hyper-personalization are poised to reshape the landscape of 2025 in some really exciting ways. It's like we're on the cusp of a new era, similar to how the Renaissance ushered in a period of incredible discovery and innovation.

Imagine stepping into a world where technology anticipates your needs before you even voice them. Because AI is becoming increasingly sophisticated at analyzing vast amounts of data, businesses will be able to craft experiences tailored precisely to your preferences. This means everything from personalized product recommendations that align perfectly with your taste to customized content that resonates with your interests. It's like having a personal assistant who knows you better than you know yourself!

But what if this technology could also foster deeper human connections? AI can help bridge gaps by facilitating communication and understanding across cultures. Now, imagine a future where language barriers are effortlessly overcome and global collaboration flourishes.  With AI as our ally, we can unlock a universe of possibilities that were previously unimaginable.” - Mike Alton, AI Consultant & Podcast Host

• Demand for authentic, human-centric content

While AI enhances overall efficiency, there is a parallel demand for authenticity in marketing content. In 2025 brands will strive to balance AI-driven insights with genuine, human-centric narratives that connect emotionally with audiences.

“I think 2025 is going to be about a return to storytelling. From cave paintings to TikToks, the content that truly sticks is the content that tells a story. People love stories. We crave them, in fact. So, my advice for content marketing in 2025 is to make sure every piece of content tells a story. Who's the hero? Who's the villain? What's the conflict? It doesn't matter if your content is human-made or AI-generated: if it tells a story, people will pay attention to it. Just make sure that story is authentic.” - Amanda Thomson Åslund, Digital Consultant, Brightvision

• Augmentation in Direct Mail

AR and VR will play an increased role in mainstream content marketing to create immersive experiences for customers. Direct mail is one channel that will be significantly enhanced by AI and AR.

“In 2025, direct mail is poised for a strong resurgence, returning to pre-pandemic levels as businesses reinvest in the channel. Companies are increasingly leveraging AI to enhance creativity, refine offers, and improve data targeting, making direct mail more powerful than ever. With printers competing for business, prices are becoming more competitive, which helps offset rising postage costs. Key growth areas are expected to be financial products, real estate, B2B, and insurance, as these sectors recognize the unique engagement that direct mail offers." - Mike Gunderson, President, Gundir

• Multi-channel Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

ABM continues to be one of the most successful B2B tech strategies. In 2025, the focus will shift to multi-channel ABM strategies. This approach involves the use of unified content and messaging throughout the most frequently used online channels to provide customers with a consistent and personalized experience across all touch points. A key requirement for success with multi-channel ABM campaigns, is the alignment of internal teams. Collaboration is critical in giving customers a unified, personalized experience.

“We are in a world of team selling... Integrating how you develop accounts, not just marketing doing a motion over there and sales doing a motion over here, is critical. The customer needs to be the heartbeat throughout the whole buying process.” - Alisha Lyndon, author of The ABM Effect

B2B tech sales trends to look out for in 2025

Here are a few trends we can expect to see in the sales space in 2025:

• Sales enablement with AI and predictive analytics

In 2025, AI will continue to be a critical enabler in sales. Predictive analytics will improve sales forecasting and lead scoring. AI-driven tools enable the analysis of historical sales data to prioritize leads, personalize interactions, and ultimately shorten sales cycles.

"The main trend is AI. It’s interesting how AI tools are being built into CRM products, ERPs, and other business applications, providing context-rich insights for sellers." - Daniel Borodyansky, Strategic Sales Executive, RSM

• Hybrid sales teams

Hybrid selling - sales roles combining in-person and digital skills - was the primary sales strategy in 2024 and will continue to pick up pace in 2025 due to shifts in customer preferences and remote-first engagement. Companies that employ a hybrid sales model see up to 50% more revenue thanks to wider and deeper customer engagement as well as having access to a much larger, diverse pool of talent than traditional sales models. "Brightvision has always been a remote-first company. Our hybrid and remote sales model has enabled us to reach a vast audience in the B2B tech space and serve customers in their own language across Europe and the Nordics. This strategy will only gain momentum in 2025 as we continue to serve our customers across multiple channels.” - Jakob Löwenbrand, CEO, Brightvision

• Customer success as a growth engine

Customer success will continue to play an important business role, especially in the B2B SaaS and tech space.

“Customer success teams will continue using AI to predict client needs and offer custom solutions. For example, self-service options will continue to complement the customer experience by allowing customers to research solutions on their own but still get assistance from a “real human” when needed.

Customer success teams will continue to leverage client collaboration tools and real-time insights to tailor their delivery. This could look like automatically sending a follow-up email to a customer when their engagement drops below a certain threshold - something that will allow customer success teams to stay on top of their clients’ experience while being able to automate some of the more mundane, repetitive tasks.

Beyond revenue, customer success teams will continue looking for ways to stand out and deliver an A+ experience by building lasting relationships with their clients. AI is here to compliment our work, not to replace real human connections. Tracking client experience metrics in order to identify gaps and enhance the overall customer loyalty will continue being at the forefront of all things customer success.” - Cristina Buzica, Head of Customer Success, Brightvision

• Real-time sales coaching and training

Research shows that integrating AI into sales coaching and training shortens sales cycles by an impressive 56%. AI-based real-time coaching will further empower sales teams in 2025 to improve skills from objection handling to personalized pitching. AI-based sales coaching and training not only support sales teams, but has also changed how sales leaders approach coaching.

"Conversational intelligence platforms to me are one of the biggest game changers in all my years of managing sales. When you're building out enablement, one of the challenges we have is, you cannot and frankly, should not, be on every sales call as a sales leader. And finding the ability to see at a macro level, what's happening across your sales team, and the conversation they're having has always been very, very difficult. And so with conversational intelligence, we now have a way to assess that. And we have a way to measure if we've rolled out a new methodology or new approach. We have a way to see fairly quickly, how's that being adopted in that field. So to me, that is one of the biggest improvements to be able to lead and coach sellers and also to train them.” - Paul Butterfield, Founder, Revenue Flywheel Group

Conclusion

The B2B tech marketing and sales landscape can expect more exciting developments and innovation in 2025. Businesses that implement customer-centric strategies, experiment with AI capabilities, and further improve efficiency by aligning internal teams will be best prepared for success in this evolving environment.

Hyper-personalization, authentic storytelling, and multi-channel approaches will shape marketing success, while AI-driven tools and hybrid sales strategies will empower sales teams to deliver exceptional results. The emphasis on customer success and real-time coaching underscores the importance of human connections, even in a tech-driven world.

For companies in the Nordics and Western Europe, where innovation thrives, 2025 offers a unique opportunity to set new benchmarks for growth and customer engagement.

Brightvision will continue to help B2B tech businesses navigate these trends, ensuring they reach their goals and achieve sustainable success in the year ahead.