The CMO role has never been harder. Trust from leadership sits at around 30%, average tenure has dropped to 16–18 months, and budgets keep getting cut while pressure mounts to "bolt on AI" without any strategy in place. But is this a people problem, or a playbook problem?

Andrei Zinkevich, co-founder of Fullfunnel.io, argues it is firmly the latter. In this episode, he and host Shahin Hoda tear apart the demand waterfall model that has been quietly undermining B2B marketing functions for years, and map out a practical path to cross-functional go-to-market that actually drives revenue. Andrei also shares his change management playbook, his approach to building CFO buy-in, and why deploying AI into a broken process just accelerates the wrong outcomes.

Guest Introduction

Andrei Zinkevich is co-founder of Fullfunnel.io, a B2B marketing consultancy helping tech and service companies with high-value deals and long sales cycles build full-funnel, account-based go-to-market programs. He is co-author of the book Full-Funnel B2B Marketing alongside co-founder Vladimir Blagojevic, a systematic guide to fixing broken GTM playbooks and building an enterprise pipeline without organisational revolution.

Key Topics

Why CMO trust and tenure are falling: the broken demand waterfall model, not individual performance, is the root cause, and why MQLs are no longer moving the needle with leadership
The case for cross-functional go-to-market: why siloed marketing, sales, and customer success KPIs make revenue growth structurally impossible for companies with long sales cycles
Flipping the measurement funnel: using revenue and sales-qualified opportunities from strategic accounts as North Star metrics, then decomposing to account engagement thresholds rather than arbitrary scoring models
Driving organisational change without triggering a revolution: the two-stage approach of problem buy-in first and solution buy-in second, including how to collect evidence, find internal change agents, and connect the dots to strategic initiatives
The "CFO quiz" playbook: reviewing closed-won deals across all touch points to reframe the attribution conversation with leadership and shift toward revenue-responsible marketing metrics
Making existing programs account-based as the entry point for change: showing marketing's impact on strategic accounts and pipeline without needing new technology or budget
AI in B2B go-to-market: why AI accelerates whatever processes already exist (good or broken), the dangers of "doing more with less" without a strategy, and the POS framework (Pilot, Operationalisation, Scaling) for responsible implementation

Resources & Links

Vladimir Blagojevic-Co-founder, Fullfunnel.io and co-author of Full-Funnel B2B Marketing
Full-Funnel B2B Marketing by Andrei Zinkevich and Vladimir Blagojevic — also available on Amazon

Contact & Credits

Host: Shahin Hoda

Guest: Andrei Zinkevich

Produced by: Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell

Edited by: Alexander Hipwell and Dave Somido

Music by: Breakmaster Cylinder

APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth