Calculating Marketing Velocity: A Strategic Framework for B2B Growth

Diagnosing Why Your Marketing Engine Might Be Stalling (And How to Kickstart It Again)

Hey friends,

I'm pumped to share today's guest post from my friend Chad Jardine, the Founder/CEO of CMO Zen.

Have you ever felt stuck when your marketing isn't working? Maybe leads aren't coming in, sales are slow, or growth has stalled. It's tempting to try to fix the small, low-hanging fruit (like changing your website copy).

But Chad shows us a better way. He shares a simple but powerful framework he calls "marketing velocity" that he's used with many B2B startups. It helps you figure out if your growth challenges are coming from weak motivation, too much friction, or customer concerns you haven't addressed yet. His approach is straightforward, actionable, and might be exactly what you need if you're stuck.

Enjoy!

Garrett

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When I’m stuck—maybe things have plateaued and aren’t working as well as they once were, or maybe I’m having trouble figuring out where to start—I often use this framework to get me going again.

It’s frustrating when marketing efforts aren't delivering the results you need. Leads aren't converting, sales cycles are dragging, or things just seem sluggish.

It’s common when marketing isn't performing for teams to resort to tactical fixes—tweaking ad copy, redesigning landing pages, or overhauling the CRM. But here’s the deal, tactical solutions risk missing the forest for the trees by taking a view that is too granular, too high res, too zoomed in.

I first heard this framework from Boston VC, David Skok, and after working with dozens of B2B startups facing growth challenges, it’s now a trusted part of my diagnostic toolkit. What’s great is it’s not theoretical—it's practical and you can use it immediately to zero in on what's holding your growth back.

The Velocity Equation

Marketing results can be understood through this equation (and this also works for sales and revenue, fundraising, subscriptions, etc.):

V = M - (F+C)

Where:

• V = Velocity (throughput of leads, sales, conversions)

• M = Motivation (your value proposition's strength)

• F = Friction (obstacles in the buying process)

• C = Concerns (objections or uncertainties buyers have)

Let's break down each component.

Motivation is What Drives Action

Motivation is a belief that translates into behavior.

Your customer believes a certain action or behavior will benefit them in some way. The belief can be strong or weak, central to their identity or ephemeral and momentary. Simon Sinek famously advised to "Start with Why"—and your customers need a compelling why to engage with your offering.

Motivation is often the strength of the response to the messaging component of your go-to-market. When they hear your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), how well does it land? Customers don't actually need to understand the technical details of how your solution works—they just need clarity on how it will benefit them. They need to say “I get it” and “I want it.”

When Motivation Falls Short

If you suspect you’re generating insufficient motivation, consider that you may be:

• Hawking a weak value proposition: The benefit may not be compelling enough to drive action, or to overcome F and C.

• Targeting the wrong ICP: Are you reaching the people that REALLY need what you’re selling? Or is it a mixed bag in terms of responses?

• Facing a relevance gap: Where prospects can't see themselves in your marketing, or how your solution fits their situation or context.

• Struggling with value perception: The benefit seems too small, too distant, or too confusing

• Up against reach limitations: You're not connecting with enough potential customers who would care, so even though a few prospects are motivated, the results are thin.

Real-World Example:

I worked with a B2B company that felt they knew their ICP, and they wanted to deepen relationships with the CEOs at the companies they sold into. However, after some interviews and analysis, we learned that the CEOs weren’t actually deciding how much business went to our client. It was a team of reviewers.

As projects were evaluated, the review team decided who to send bids to. Our client only had strong relationships with a few people on the review team. The others were new hires or recently promoted and had no relationship with our client. By shifting our focus to deepening relationships with the reviewers, our client was able to generate motivation within more key people in the sales process and drive more revenue.

Friction: When Buying Is Hard

Even with strong motivation, if the friction is greater, conversions will suffer. Friction represents all the obstacles in your buying process—the hoops prospects must jump through to become customers.

Common examples of friction include:

1. Complex purchasing processes requiring multiple approvals or long evaluation periods

2. Information overload in marketing materials making it difficult to choose the right product

3. Excessive form fields on landing pages

4. Complicated pricing structures that undermine confidence or create fear of being locked in

5. Lengthy or complex onboarding processes that prevent adoption and use

6. Poor user experience on your website or product

When friction accumulates, even highly motivated prospects lose momentum and abandon the process.

Especially if you’re GTM motion is PLG:

Product-led companies are often most at risk of friction killing their velocity. There’s no failsafe if a prospect gets lost, confused, or loses steam before completing a purchase.

Concerns: Trust and Risk

Concerns represent all the doubts, fears, and objections your prospects have about your solution. B2C customers want to be happy. B2B buyers don’t want to get fired.

Common concerns include:

• Implementation and change management risk: Will this disrupt our current operations?

• ROI uncertainty: Will we actually see the promised benefits?

• Vendor stability: Is this company going to be around in three years?

• Security and compliance: Does this solution meet our regulatory requirements?

• Team adoption and utilization: Will our employees actually use this?

• Integration challenges: Will this work with our existing tech stack?

The Balancing Act

The beauty of the Velocity Equation is that it’s flexible. You don’t have to generate life-or-death motivation so long as your customer can buy without a lot of friction or serious concerns. You just need to have enough motivation to overcome the combined weight of friction and concerns enough times to achieve your desired velocity.

And that means you can influence the equation from either side:

Amplify Motivation

• Refine your value proposition to emphasize specific, measurable benefits

• Improve targeting to reach prospects with higher inherent motivation

• Enhance storytelling to create an emotional connection

• Use social proof to demonstrate results and build credibility

• Quantify ROI more precisely

Reduce Friction

• Simplify your buying process

• Remove unnecessary steps in your conversion funnel

• Pre-fill information whenever possible

• Create clear, streamlined pricing

• Develop better self-service options

• Optimize website UX/UI for clarity and ease of use

Address and Resolve Concerns

• Create content that proactively addresses common objections

• Offer guarantees or risk-reversal policies

• Provide transparent case studies and metrics

• Build trust through consistent thought leadership

• Offer free trials or proof-of-concept engagements

• Develop robust security and compliance documentation

Diagnosing Your Marketing Challenges

Now that you understand the framework, here's how to apply it to diagnose your specific marketing challenges:

1. Measure your current velocity: Establish baseline metrics for conversion rates across your funnel.

2. Assess motivation strength: Survey current customers to understand what drove their decision. What benefits were most compelling? For prospects who didn't convert, what was missing?

3. Map friction points: Document every step in your customer journey and identify potential obstacles. Mystery shop your own process. How many clicks, forms, or interactions are required?

4. Inventory concerns: Collect sales objections, hesitations, and questions that consistently arise. What's making prospects nervous or uncertain?

5. Identify your weakest link: Which component—motivation, friction, or concerns—appears to be most problematic? That's your priority for intervention.

Velocity Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

The Velocity Equation isn't a one-time fix but an ongoing diagnostic tool.

Really, any time things stop working like they were, or like you expected, this can be an effective way to identify what has broken down. As market conditions change and your product evolves, it can be time for another pass.

Your Next Steps: Immediate Actions

Here's what you can do today to start improving your marketing velocity:

1. Schedule a velocity audit with your team using the framework outlined above

2. Interview 3-5 recent customers about what motivated them and what almost prevented their purchase

3. Mystery shop your own buying process and document friction points

4. Create a concerns inventory based on sales team feedback

5. Select one high-impact intervention in your weakest area to implement this week

Let's Transform Your Marketing Performance

The Velocity Equation can help you understand the effectiveness of your GTM program.

Whether you're a founder wearing the marketing hat, an early GTM leader, or a seasoned CMO facing a performance plateau, this framework will help you systematically improve your marketing outcomes.