# Delfin Vassallo

Delfin Vassallo writes about B2B marketing, with a focus on brand-building, trust and reaching buyers in complex, long sales cycles.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/delfin-vassallo/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delfinvassallo
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, sales, b2b-marketing, demand-generation, ai-in-marketing, brand-strategy
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-10-06

## Summary

Delfin Vassallo is most useful for brand-first B2B thought leadership on trust and long sales cycles.

- Best for: A B2B agency selling brand-first demand generation to enterprise clients with long sales cycles.
- Not for: An AI content platform seeking sponsored posts with tracked demo signups and pipeline links.
- Check first: Confirm audience analytics and documented follower roles, industries, and seniority before contacting.

### Takeaways

- Branding is top 2026 priority; AI ranks 18th for B2B leaders.
- Committees of 11 to 14 people research before first contact, so relationships matter.
- AI-generated content can undermine trust; looking like AI is enough.

## Main ideas

- **Brand-building should outrank funnel mechanics in complex B2B**: Vassallo argues that branding, not AI, is the top priority for B2B marketing leaders, citing McKinsey's State of Marketing Europe 2026, where branding ranks first and AI ranks 18th for B2B marketers. They say more than a decade of lead scoring and MQL funnels imported from American martech never suited long, complex sales cycles. The Ehrenberg-Bass 95-5 rule explains why: while about 5% of buyers are in-market, the other 95% have already built a shortlist, and the brand determines who makes it. The post's sharpest formulation: brands did not forget brand-building; they dismantled it to make it measurable to the CFO. With authenticity ranking third in the same survey, they connect it to human connection in a world of AI slop.
- **Stay visible to the 95% who are not buying yet**: B2B teams should keep showing up for the large majority of their addressable market that is not currently in-market. Vassallo says the label matters less than the job: whether a team calls it brand awareness, problem awareness or content marketing, the aim is to stay top of mind so that when a prospect is ready to buy, they come to that brand rather than start a fresh search. The payoff, they say, is protection against discovery through Google and LLM search.
- **Buying committees buy relationships, not just demand capture**: Vassallo argues that demand generation assumes buyers are actively shopping, misreading complex B2B. In this setting, the sale is to an 11-to-14-person buying committee that does its homework quietly and reaches out only when someone in the room can vouch for the vendor. Gartner research puts 61% of the buying journey before first contact; Vassallo frames a trusted referral as what accelerates the decision, rather than demand generation. The practical conclusion: building a demand engine means building personal credibility and market authority, because being the name that comes up in the room still matters most.
- **AI-generated content creates a credibility problem — and 'looking like AI' is enough**: Vassallo cites a Gartner Marketing Survey finding that 50% of consumers prefer brands that avoid generative AI in consumer-facing content. The key point: it may not matter whether AI was actually used; if content looks like AI, audiences become sceptical. They call this the compound effect of AI slop in ads and content marketing, framing it as a credibility problem for brands. In B2B, they argue, future business is lost without trust in the company and brand. This sits in tension with their event recap, which flags AI search and GEO as a hot topic: the distinction is between AI as a discovery or search subject and AI-generated consumer-facing content.
- **Research-led commentary is the working method**: Several posts follow a repeatable method: cite a named external source, pull out the finding that matters to B2B marketers, add a practitioner interpretation and link to the original report or source. Vassallo applies this approach to McKinsey's State of Marketing Europe 2026 and a Gartner marketing survey. The posts are short, usually make a single argument and often address the reader directly or ask a question.
- **A curator's ear for other marketers' live debates**: Vassallo also curates Nordic B2B marketing conversations. One post recaps a Marketing Morning by Obsidian event in Helsinki and credits five named speakers, each with a distinct point. Their contribution is the framing and observation about the event format, rather than an original framework.

## Work to read

- [AI is not a priority — branding is](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/delfinvassallo_leadership-marketing-board-activity-7457296784906956800-G-kb)
- [Committees buy relationships](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/delfinvassallo_b2bmarketing-leadership-activity-7467085125135220736--trC)
- [Educate the 95%](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/delfinvassallo_b2bmarketingjournal-leadership-marketing-activity-7439594666129350656-U6Y3)
- [Customers are fed up with AI](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/delfinvassallo_b2bmarketingjournal-b2bmarketing-leadership-activity-7468168430224035840-SzOA)
- [What marketers need to know this morning](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/delfinvassallo_b2bmarketingjournal-b2bmarketing-leadership-activity-7510775062531342336-IfbR)

## Brand relationships

- **Generate More – The AI SEO Agency** (mention)
- **Obsidian** (mention)
- **Gartner** (mention)
- **McKinsey & Company** (mention)

## Partnerships

Delfin Vassallo’s LinkedIn posts from March to September 2026 offer no partnership or sponsorship details. Across five posts, they discuss B2B marketing—brand versus demand generation, buying committees and AI skepticism—but don’t mention paid formats, rate cards, audience packages or how to inquire about working together. Two posts feature other people’s channels: one links to an episode of a podcast hosted by Lari at Generate More, and another summarizes talks by other marketers at an Obsidian event in Helsinki. Neither post states or implies payment. Marketers should ask for a sponsor policy, media kit or disclosed commercial example before considering a partnership.

## Alternatives

- Mark Schmukler: Choose Mark Schmukler when a campaign needs agency-operator credibility and executive objection-handling rather than a research-led brand argument. After 25+ years leading a B2B agency, their published work argues that most B2B marketing objections are really risk objections — wasted spend, murky ROI, the wrong agency — and that executives miss the risk of standing still. A second post makes the case for thought leadership beyond the C-suite, with account managers, strategists and subject-matter experts carrying the public voice. For a webinar aimed at hesitant CMOs, Schmukler's argument is about turning marketing from a leap of faith into growth infrastructure.
- Mohammad Zumair: Choose Mohammad Zumair for a campaign focused on measurement and AI-search visibility. The posts argue that AI is breaking the assumption that business interaction is countable, cite Forrester's 2026 finding that 94% of business buyers use AI in their buying process, and contend that buyers can be influenced by a conversational answer that records no click, form fill or session. A second post presses the same point: buyers rank shortlisted vendors before engaging sellers, only 2% start with no vendor in mind, and the job is to create preference before demand exists. This suits a campaign delivered as a measurement argument to a CMO audience already fluent in pipeline metrics.
- Linda Fanaras: Choose Linda Fanaras when the campaign task is funnel recovery or brand consistency rather than building preference ahead of the pipeline. One post argues that most companies have a follow-up problem, not a lead problem, and promotes a podcast episode on reactivating dead leads with a guest who generated $2.37M largely from prospects other salespeople had written off. A second post diagnoses a fragmented brand — different channels telling different stories, employees who cannot articulate the offer — and offers a live session on the four symptoms. The guest-led tactical conversation maps cleanly onto a webinar built around a playbook.

---
AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/