The Exit Five CMO Podcast
Episode: Events, AI, and The Future of B2B Buying with Sydney Sloan, CMO at G2
Host: Dave Gerhardt
Guest: Sydney Sloan
Date: October 9, 2025
Episode Overview
This episode features Sydney Sloan, CMO at G2, in a high-energy and insightful conversation with host Dave Gerhardt. They dive deep into the strategic role of B2B events in today’s marketing landscape, the radical shifts being driven by AI (both for marketers and buyers), and how the structure and future of modern marketing teams are evolving. Sydney brings practical advice, playbooks, and hard-won lessons from G2’s rapid experimentation – making this a must-listen for marketing leaders navigating events, AI, and organizational transformation.
Key Topics & Discussion Highlights
1. The Resurgence and Strategy of In-Person Events
Events Are Back in Force
- Sydney confirms the post-pandemic buzz is still alive: “Not only is the in person back ... we just wrapped up our road show. Four cities, sold out at every stop, 250 people.” (03:03)
- Events are mixing both large-scale and small, intimate formats, offering differentiated value.
The Power of Community
- Dave observes: “There’s something really special... because it’s built from a community, like an online community where people feel like they know each other.” (04:07)
- Both discuss challenges of inclusivity as communities grow, with Sydney offering a practical “buddy program” tip for integrating newcomers: “Put a newbie with an OG and that could be a nice way to get the blending to happen from the get go.” (06:17)
Events as Part of Business Strategy
- Measurement and ROI: Sydney stresses “event ROI is harder ... it’s mushier than just sales. But... engagement is as important for your existing customers to attend these events as your prospects.” (08:07, 17:11)
- Introduces her concept: "Revenue in the room"—track both prospect and retention potential at every event. "We touched over 20% of our revenue [with our roadshow]." (17:11)
Event Execution Playbook
- Content Comes First: “Spend more time on the content, that is what people are going to remember.” (11:25)
- Shares the “Three-by-Three Framework” for planning: “What do you want them pre, during, post? …think, feel, do…” (11:25)
- Personal Touches & Follow-up: “I was DMing ... send an email, LinkedIn post, text if I have it… Working hard to get the right people in the room matters.” (14:41)
- Matchmaking & Facilitation: Assign tables based on experience level, have facilitators to prompt discussion, and keep sessions hands-on and interactive (15:44).
- Post-event advice: “Value is in the follow-up... I like the leads to drop immediately, if not end of night... if we're the first to respond, that shows we're on it.” (23:21)
Memorable Quotes
- “You don’t get great value if you don’t take great risk.” – Sydney Sloan (48:53)
- “There’s always the bagel snatcher ... trolls Eventbrite.” – Sydney Sloan, on event freeloaders (15:35)
2. The Accelerating Impact of AI on B2B Marketing and Sales
AI’s Rapid Mainstream Adoption
- Sydney shares new G2 research:
- April: 4/5 buyers use an LLM (Large Language Model); 29% start with LLM
- August: 9/10 buyers use LLM; 50% start there—a 71% increase in 4 months (26:39)
- “You have to understand now what people are asking and write your content for the answers to those questions. It’s a total shift.” (29:15)
Future of B2B Buying
- Dave: “This is how I buy today. I’m going to my ChatGPT and say, ‘here's my ICP, my budget ... compare these platforms, make a recommendation’... where as recent as three or four years ago, the process would have been: go to each person’s site, fill out a form, wait to hear back…” (30:37)
- Sydney: “And they’re trusting the answers ... the answers are complete and complex.” (29:04)
Navigating SEO and Generative Search
- Sydney on shifting search strategy:
- “We started seeing changes a year and a half ago to our traffic and what content was influencing.” (35:30)
- “You want to think about that with your content strategy: how do you make sure [your answers] are published in multiple places? ... [LLMs look] for confirmation ... syndicated reviews have higher influence.” (34:32)
- Discusses “Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)” and G2’s move to syndicate data everywhere, not gate it.
G2’s Response
- “We did rewrite our vision ... to be the most trusted data source in the age of AI. We made a conscious decision to put G2 everywhere, to give it to the LLMs, not gate it.” (36:54)
- Launching innovations: AI Voice Reviews, real-time G2AI product, easier review capture; embedding themselves into the AI-driven buying journey (36:54, 40:23)
Memorable Quotes
- “Everyone has an equal shot, except the ones who have been investing in brand all along.” – Sydney Sloan (26:39)
- “All you need is a prompt engineer and a license to build a product.” – Sydney (36:19)
3. Rethinking Marketing Teams & Organizational Structure for the AI Era
From Silos and Titles to Outcome-Based Pods
- Sydney: “We’re reinventing the team... moving towards outcomes and pods instead of the traditional jobs and titles.” (01:26, 43:12)
- Explains G2’s internal work on pods:
- Brand Relationship Team: Focus on influence, brand, and signals.
- Relationship Building Team: Persona-based, blending new/existing customers, heavily leveraging AI for research and personalization.
- Product Delight Team: Linking customer challenges to product capabilities, driving usage and value.
Pod Model Advantages
- “People feel ownership of the outcome… they own it: writing, promoting, curating, getting feedback. That’s what they own.” (48:01)
- Inspired by product’s outcome-based squads: focus work on specific customer or business outcomes, not arbitrary functions.
Dave’s Take
- “So much nuance and they’re just so blurry... I love this idea—steal from product: jobs to be done, pods for outcomes.” (47:10)
- “It’s much easier to do the same thing than to try to rip it up and try something new.” (49:00)
AI’s Place in the Org
- Role of agents/tasks vs. fully rethinking team: “Org charts... have all these agents, but I’m not sure that’s the right way.” (43:12)
- Training and Process Evolution: “First... embrace it; now: how do I design this into my processes? What is the right architecture for us?” (41:10)
Memorable Quote
- “We’re given the invitation to restart.” – Sydney Sloan (47:58)
4. Lessons from Marketing’s Past and the Current Inflection Point
Learning by Doing
- AI is moving faster than previous technological shifts: “I don’t think we should be building playbooks yet ... we should be testing, iterating and just be super agile.” (51:04)
- Sydney reflects on the ‘90s internet revolution, CRM adoption, and the current AI scrappiness: “We were in the trenches figuring it out because there was no playbook.”
Velocity of Change
- “The difference, Dave, is the speed of this change … before it took three years to connect the web to the CRM, now it’s happening in months.” (51:45)
Notable Quotes & Moments
- “Revenue in the room is how much prospect revenue and how much retention revenue [is present].” – Sydney Sloan (17:11)
- “Start with the end in mind: what is the one to two things you want them to learn? What’s the one to two things you want them to do?” – Sydney Sloan (11:25)
- “I love when things work because they’re good, not because we found some shortcut or hack.” – Dave Gerhardt (14:22)
- “The version of this 10 or 15 years ago... you’d write an article ‘the 10 best CRMs’ and put yourself at number three...” – Dave Gerhardt on the evolution of buyer research and SEO (30:22)
- “We did rewrite our vision last December, January, to be the most trusted data source in the age of AI.” – Sydney Sloan (36:54)
Important Timestamps
| Topic | Timestamp | |----------------------------------------|-----------| | Events/Community & FOMO Discussion | 03:03-07:33 | | Event Strategy, Measurement, ROI | 08:07-11:25 | | Event Content & Planning Frameworks | 11:25-15:44 | | "Revenue in the Room" & VIP Events | 17:11-18:57 | | AI in B2B Buying – G2’s Buyer Report | 26:39-30:22 | | Future of Buying/LLM Use Case | 30:22-34:32 | | G2 AI Strategy & AEO | 34:32-39:39 | | Org Design: Pods & Outcomes | 41:10-48:01 | | Reflections on Earlier Tech Shifts | 49:55-52:05 |
Episode Takeaway
Sydney’s approach is a blend of data-driven rigor, human connection, and a willingness to rewrite the playbook. Whether discussing the tangible and intangible ROI of events, the existential business implications of AI, or the internal reinvention needed on marketing teams, she offers actionable frameworks and candor: “We have to start. This is one of those moments.” (49:07)
This episode is a blueprint for marketers and CMOs looking to lead through change—by putting customers, creativity, and smart risk-taking at the center.
Connect with Sydney Sloan
Produced by: Exit Five
Community: exitfive.com
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