<![CDATA[Shift & Thrive Podcast: Inside Magnetude]]>https://www.shiftandthrivepodcast.com/s/inside-magnetudehttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Jl46!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbcb9e0d3-4aff-4c96-b12c-2bb9b3b8b19d_1000x1000.pngShift & Thrive Podcast: Inside Magnetudehttps://www.shiftandthrivepodcast.com/s/inside-magnetudeSubstackSat, 31 Oct 2026 12:02:43 GMT<![CDATA[Why B2B Buyer Behavior Demands a New Marketing Strategy - Michele Johnston - Shift & Thrive - # 110 ]]>https://www.shiftandthrivepodcast.com/p/why-b2b-buyer-behavior-demands-ahttps://www.shiftandthrivepodcast.com/p/why-b2b-buyer-behavior-demands-aWed, 19 Aug 2026 14:01:07 GMTIf you can no longer draw a clean line from marketing activity to revenue, does that mean marketing isn’t working, or does it mean you’re measuring it wrong? In this episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Michele Johnston, Director of Digital Delivery and AI Lead at Magnetude Consulting, for a special internal conversation on how AI and shifting search behavior are upending buyer journeys. Michele explains why chasing the technology behind search and AI distracts marketers from the person on the other end of it, why attribution is becoming less reliable as buying gets less linear, and why brand and demand should be treated as a spectrum rather than a rivalry. The conversation closes with an unexpected parallel: what nearly two decades of endurance racing has taught Michele about consistency, patience, and trusting a process you can’t always measure in real time.

Takeaways:

  • Focus on the person behind the search or prompt, not the technology driving it. Chasing platform mechanics distracts from solving the buyer’s actual problem.

  • Spend most of your effort on content that resonates, not technical optimization. Roughly 80 percent of SEO and AEO success comes from relevance, not schema and site fixes.

  • Be skeptical of anyone who claims certainty about how search and AI behavior will evolve. Test, adapt, and get comfortable saying “we don’t know yet.”

  • Evaluate marketing holistically instead of chasing perfect attribution. Look at top-line lead generation and quality rather than digging into channel-by-channel credit.

  • Treat brand and demand as a spectrum, not competing budgets. Brand builds the trust that gets you on the shortlist before buyers ever contact sales.

  • Use marketing to proactively answer the objections your sales team hears most. Removing those barriers publicly shortens the path to a real conversation.

  • Apply an endurance athlete’s mindset to marketing investment. Most of the work looks unremarkable day to day, but consistency compounds into results over time.

Quote of the Show:

  • “It is the consistency of doing that day after day, week after week, month after month, that gets you to completing an Ironman or a 10K swim. I really feel marketing’s very similar to that, where we’re doing a lot of different things, and not everything is immediately measurable, but if you don’t do those things, it’s gonna hinder your goals and your outcomes.” - Michele Johnston

Links:

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This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency.

Learn more at: Magnetude Consulting

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