Meet the team
RTB House Editors: Let’s start with an easy warm-up. Which is more important, Marketing or Global Partnerships?
Mateusz: Ha ha! No comment!
Anna: Indeed! Thanks for that simple starter question!
Mateusz: But seriously, it’s not trite to say that they are equally important.
Anna: That’s right. One helps bring great partners to our business, and the other helps forge new relationships and then works to keep people with us for the long haul.
Tell me one thing your area of the business isn’t…
Anna: Global Partnerships isn’t giving people gift baskets and taking them to corporate events. That’s not what makes a partner happy over a serious stretch of time.
Mateusz: Marketing isn’t what makes a new customer sign a deal. That’s way down the line from what we do. I wouldn’t even say that our role is to “create demand.” For me, the key role of Marketing is to create credibility and build trust.
Behind every business are everyday people
Enterprise buying has become more complex than ever. Why does this conversation about trust feel so urgent right now?
Mateusz: Most businesses embrace operational concepts like being agile and streamlining processes to make decisions faster. However, in times of tight budgets and uncertainty, the cost of making a mistake rises exponentially. So, businesses naturally slow down and do a lot more due diligence. A decade ago, a CMO or CTO could make a purchase. Now the risk must be assessed by a whole ecosystem of decision-makers from finance, procurement, regional leads, and legal. Each has a different motivation and threshold for risk.
Anna: It’s all too easy to think of businesses as faceless entities, but behind every “enterprise account” are real people trying to make a high-stakes decision. If something fails, it’s not just a bad quarter—it can impact careers. Therefore, every person needs time to look at a deal in depth before passing it on to the next team for their sign-off.
Mateusz: When a deal takes 12 to 16 months, you’re doing more than selling a product; you’re managing human psychology at scale.
Anna: That’s why trust becomes the single most valuable currency. If you lose the confidence of any person along the way, the deal is going to be a lot harder to make.
Trust in the age of AI
I saw a recent post from you, Mateusz, in which you responded to some thoughts from Mark Cuban about the idea that human trust is the real differentiator in a world full of AI-generated noise.
Anna: I saw that post—and it struck me because it’s so true. AI has made it easy to produce infinite messages, but it also generates white noise. Some people are better than others at seeing what is authentic and what is generated—but we are all more comfortable with, and more drawn to, something that feels “real.” People scan feeds for information, but they stop scrolling only when they see something sincere.
Mateusz: Exactly. The irony is that we scale automation—because we want to communicate fast with as many people as possible—but, at the same time, users are absolutely craving authenticity.
And there is a lot of pressure on Marketing to build that trust and credibility very early. That’s not easy when people are sceptical about so much of the content they see in the world—and rightly so, when everything from text to voice to video can be so convincingly faked.
As I said at the top of this chat, Marketing isn’t there to create demand. In complex B2B sales, no amount of messaging will make a global enterprise buy before it’s ready. What Marketing can do is build awareness and credibility so that when that very short window of opportunity opens up for Sales, we’ve already positioned ourselves as a reliable, trusted choice.
Anna: That’s crucial, because most buyers today are already deep into their process before a salesperson ever appears. Roughly 70% of the buyer journey now happens independently. They’ve read reviews, benchmarked competitors, even vetted your company and your salespeople online before they interact with them. By the time they start that conversation, they’ve already formed an opinion about whether you’re trustworthy.
That’s why I think we’re entering an era where trust itself becomes a competitive advantage. Anyone can automate outreach, but not everyone can build real, human-to-human relationships.
A space for trust
Is it even possible to build unreserved trust and foster these human-to-human relationships?
Mateusz: It’s difficult when everything is online. When anything digital can be faked or replicated by AI, physical presence suddenly becomes a strategic advantage.
I’d go so far as to say we need to create AI-free zones—spaces where genuine connection can happen. Face-to-face conversation is still 100 percent human territory. And people apply much greater value to the things that can’t be easily or digitally faked—the tone of a real conversation, body language, the transparency of a live Q&A, the authenticity of a person who admits they don’t have all the answers.
Anna: This is where real onsite events are vital for both Marketing and Partnerships.
Mateusz: Even though we were told just a few years ago that large events would not be worthwhile and that business had moved permanently to an online-only format during the pandemic…
Anna: Exactly! The people who said that didn’t take into account that humans have a universal need to connect with others in a real setting. This is missing in so many parts of our lives, but the need is still there.
Even in business?
Anna: Especially in business! When the stakes and the stress are high, people look for something more than “cold professionalism” driven by pure logic. The differentiators are transparency, small gestures, and genuine person-to-person contact.
Mateusz: We saw that recently at events like DMEXCO. It wasn’t only the big presentations that inspired people so much; it was the small chats in which people listened to one another, were open to learning, and showed genuine curiosity.
Delivering on the promise
Is it fair to say that Marketing and Partnerships work toward the same goal from different angles?
Mateusz: Yes, Marketing sets the stage—we build recognition, clarity, and trust. Partnerships carry that forward by living it every day. You can’t separate the two.
Anna: I always say managing clients doesn’t really have to do with selling anything: it’s relationship management. It’s about being present, consistent, responsive, and really showing up when things go wrong—these are the things that create long-term partnerships.
Mateusz: Marketing creates the promise of good service, and you deliver on that promise.
Anna: Right! And delivering means communicating openly and building enough trust that clients are confident about going with you when things change. Clients understand that change is inevitable. In fact, many of them embrace new challenges. So, you’re more likely to lose a client because their level of trust has changed than because the business around us has changed. Ownership and accountability build a sense of safety that will see clients stick with you through all kinds of challenges.
Building trust from the inside out
How important is authenticity within the company?
Mateusz: If a company wants to be perceived as credible, it can’t just build human-to-human relationships with clients—it needs to encourage them internally. Teams that trust each other project that trust outward.
In the very best companies, that trust is in each individual team, and also between teams as they interact with each other inside the organization. Marketing, Partnerships, and Sales can’t operate in silos. Marketing creates the narrative; Sales makes it tangible; Partnerships sustain it. If each team has trust internally, as well as confidence in the others, everyone will thrive.
To be clear, even though we’ve talked about artificial intelligence eroding people’s confidence in what they see and raising their skepticism, AI isn’t the enemy of trust. When used properly, it can only serve to enhance people’s capabilities at work. I think the future belongs to AI-enhanced teams that collaborate closely, combining the efficiency of technology with genuine empathy.
What authenticity looks like
How can you really spot something as undefinable as authenticity, or be sure that trust has been earned? These are quite subjective ideas.
Anna: Of course, we can never be sure how authentic someone is, but we can be sure if we are being true to ourselves. There are things we can bear in mind when doing that.
Firstly, forget pushing your own agenda; set aside the idea of selling and enter into conversations with people with genuine curiosity and a willingness to listen and learn. After all, we’re not building relationships with “a company,” but with the actual people we talk to. Secondly, don’t be afraid to ask real questions—not just the safe or polite ones. Ask about things that you really want to know more about.
Finally, be yourself; don’t just tell others what they want to hear. Too often, client-facing professionals try to mirror whoever is in front of them, shifting personalities depending on the conversation. That’s not authentic, and it’s also not a sustainable way of behaving.
What enterprise buyers really want
What do enterprise buyers today truly value in a partner?
Anna: Confidence. Every large deal carries personal risk. A CMO or CFO who signs a multimillion-dollar contract knows their name is attached to it. So they look for partners who will stand beside them when things get hard—who share accountability. That’s why 87% of tech buyers say they now focus only on mission-critical solutions. The margin for error is gone.
Mateusz: And when the stakes are that high, trust outweighs features. A competitor can copy your technology, but they can’t copy how you make a client feel. Winning enterprise deals isn’t just about having the best product or technology; it’s about being credible, human, and reliable over the long term.
In a nutshell
We’ve finished our coffee. What final thoughts would you leave us with today?
Anna: According to Forrester, buyers who trust a supplier are twice as likely to recommend them and more willing to pay a premium. It underlines that trust is more than just “nice to have.” It’s a genuine commercial advantage.
Mateusz: And that is only becoming more true as people become more conscious that many things they see and experience are not 100% real in the modern world. The more artificial the big picture becomes, the more important the genuinely authentic small part becomes. What’s more, every interaction—big or small—either adds to or subtracts from that trust bank.
Anna: The good news is that building confidence is very easy if you are a person or business fundamentally worthy of people’s trust. If that’s the case, you only need to show up and be yourself. And the math is simple: small actions compound. The right follow-up email, the honest update, the thoughtful invitation—all these things add up over time and create an accurate picture of you for the customer.
You can follow Mateusz’s thoughts on LinkedIn here: LINK
Anna is a regular poster on LinkedIn: LINK
She is an active member and contributor to Forbes. See her profile here: LINK
* https://6sense.com/science-of-b2b/2024-buyer-experience-report/
