Why B2B CAC Keeps Rising Without Deal Gains
B2B customer acquisition costs continue to rise across categories even as deal volume, velocity and size show no improvement, according to MarTech.
Customer acquisition cost is rising across virtually every B2B category while deal volume, deal velocity and deal size show no corresponding improvement, according to MarTech. The source material states that spending more to acquire customers without gains in those outcomes points to a proof problem rather than market conditions.
The Embedded Thesis in GTM
The B2B go-to-market profession operates from the thesis that awareness plus information equals purchase intent. The source material identifies this premise as thin and unexamined, noting that decades of declining GTM effectiveness confirm the error. Awareness is necessary but nowhere near sufficient, and neither awareness nor information delivery builds trust.
Three Distinct Conditions
The source material specifies three conditions that drive B2B buying and form a strict causal order: Awareness → Confidence → Trust. Awareness covers problem awareness, category awareness and stakes awareness. Confidence is the buyer’s internal assessment of whether claims are well-founded and evidence credible. Trust is relational and requires the seller’s people to demonstrate competence, intentions and reliability.
Most GTM frameworks treat these conditions as one blended concept. The source material calls this conflation a structural error with measurable consequences for pipeline, velocity and deal size.
Where GTM Motions Break
GTM motions invest heavily in awareness and then hand buyers to sales. The source material states that confidence is almost entirely skipped. When the confidence bridge is not built upstream, account executives spend early meetings rebuilding credibility and re-establishing the problem frame.
An undiagnosed confidence gap appears directly in deal velocity through cycles that drag and in deal size through commitments that shrink. The source material notes that information that cannot be evaluated or tested creates noise rather than the conditions for trust.
according to MarTech.
