The role of marketing isn’t to get people to do what they don’t want to do – it’s to make it easy for prospects to buy when they’re ready.

That’s the message from fractional CMO Alun Davies, who told SALT’s Reza Moaiandin on the debut episode of Flipping the Playbook that many marketers have lost sight of what actually matters.

Flipping the Playbook is a new podcast that gives you a front-row seat to how leading CMOs are tearing up outdated marketing rules and building strategies that genuinely move the needle. If you’re tired of being told “this is how it’s done”, the podcast challenges those assumptions head-on.

The biggest advantage any marketer can have right now

Alun, who has spent more than two decades leading marketing functions for B2B tech and SaaS companies, argues that the industry’s obsession with laser-targeted campaigns and conversion funnels has created a fundamental problem.

“The biggest advantage any marketer can have right now, it’s not AI, it’s not budget, it’s clarity about who you serve, why you matter to them, and clarity about how you’re going to keep showing up in the right places until they’re ready to say yes,” he said.

This philosophy underpins much of the conversation on the show. Alun points to a stark reality facing B2B marketers: 95 percent of your audience isn’t in the market to buy right now. If you strip your marketing back to only target those ready to convert today, you’ll miss the vast majority who will eventually need what you offer. Worse still, when they do enter the market, 75 percent will already have a shortlist of preferred supplied – and you won’t be on it.

An always-on ‘drip, drip, drip’ brand strategy is essential

The solution? Always-on brand building, even on a modest budget. Alun suggests that even £500 to £1,000 a month dedicated to non-conversion awareness campaigns can make a meaningful difference.

“If you get the messaging right, if you get the creative right, and it resonates with your target audience, and you just have that as an always-on drip in the background, raising awareness with the 95 percent who aren’t yet ready to buy – when they are ready, they’re more likely to respond positively to your conversion campaigns,” he said.

The episode also explores the challenges that arise when VC or private equity funding enters the picture. Alun has seen board meetings where representatives with accountancy backgrounds push to cut brand spending in favour of short-term performance marketing – a strategy he describes as having “flawed logic” that ultimately undermines long-term growth.

Marketing, brand building and AI

On the topic of AI, Davies is refreshingly practical. He’s built a custom GPT trained on his years of marketing materials, which he uses daily for research, competitor analysis, testing propositions, and even debugging technical problems beyond his expertise. For quick wins, he recommends vibe coding platforms like Lovable for building branded web apps and calculators.

“Half a day for a non-expert to build an app and deploy an app is an indicator,” he said. “That’s a direction that most marketing teams should be looking at.”

But he sounds a note of caution too: AI-generated content needs proofreading, and sources must be verified. His advice? Prompt AI to exclude vendor and competitor research, relying only on first-party sources to avoid bias.

Alun also shares a warning for companies replacing an outgoing fractional CMO: resist the urge to rebrand.

“Very rarely makes a difference, often has a negative impact,” he said. “They divert resources away from the priority, which is usually how do we generate more leads, more revenue, more inbound sales.”

This is just a taste of the full conversation, which also explores how to truly define your ideal customer profile (hint: it’s not your total addressable market), the importance of internal communication, and how to create smooth leadership transitions.

Watch or listen the full episode of Flipping the Playbook on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to hear Alun Davies’ and Reza Moaiandin’s discussion on building marketing strategies that actually work. Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and please like and share the podcast if you enjoyed it.