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GTM Benchmarks That Matter: Aligning Revenue Attribution for B2B Growth - An Interview with Steffen Hedebrandt

Picture of Nicholas Page   Nicholas Page  ·  2 minute read

In this episode of Tech Marketing Trends, Jakob Löwenbrand welcomes Steffen Hedebrandt—co-founder and CMO of Dreamdata. With years of experience in B2B marketing and revenue operations, Steffen unpacks why revenue attribution is critical to aligning go-to-market teams. Together, they explore what the data reveals about today’s customer journeys and which signals matter most for growth-focused B2B organizations.

 

 

Building Dreamdata from real-world frustration

Steffen explains that Dreamdata was born from the persistent challenge of measuring what really drives revenue in B2B marketing. Too often, marketers lack the visibility to understand which activities contribute to actual sales. Dreamdata solves this by collecting all known digital “reflections” of the buyer journey and analyzing them at the account level—not just individual level—to find the repeatable patterns behind closed deals.

“The purpose of doing marketing is that it’s actually an investment in producing revenue. If you don’t have proof of whether it’s working or not, it’s hard to convince people it is.” - Steffen Hedebrandt

 

 

Attribution must reflect the full journey

Most companies measure customer journeys from opportunity to close. But Steffen stresses that real journeys start much earlier—with untracked research and marketing touches long before sales gets involved. Dreamdata’s models show that B2B journeys average 192 days and involve over six stakeholders. Attribution should therefore connect early marketing signals with pipeline outcomes, enabling marketers to influence revenue more predictably.

“If sales has a target in Q4, marketing needs to start in Q2. Maybe even Q1.”

 

 

From silos to unified insights

Dreamdata pulls touchpoint data from CRMs, ad platforms, marketing automation tools, and websites, then organizes it around the account rather than the individual. This enables more accurate attribution and shows which combinations of channels and content actually move deals forward. With these insights, marketers can stop wasting spend on underperforming tactics and double down on what works.

“We take all the touches from creation to sale and let customers ask: Is it better that it came from this channel or that campaign?”

 

 

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Inbound, signals, and shifting GTM trends

Dreamdata itself runs an inbound-heavy model, with over 80% of deals originating from content, search, and matched audiences on LinkedIn. But beyond tactics, Steffen sees a wider trend toward signal-based selling—using account-level engagement to trigger sales actions. Meanwhile, Google Ads is losing favor due to poor targeting control, and AI-powered outbound is struggling with low quality and spam fatigue.

“More companies are shifting to signals—if an account is active on your website or seeing your ads, that’s when to reach out.”

 

 

Attribution that builds trust

Attribution data doesn’t just guide spend—it builds trust across departments. When marketing can show the impact of awareness campaigns or LinkedIn ads on revenue, it changes the conversation with sales. Dreamdata’s clients often discover that previously “invisible” touches were crucial in triggering deals, helping to align teams around shared performance metrics.

“Attribution lets you say, congrats sales, you closed the deal—but some of our activities made that company come to us. That’s how you build a trusted, efficient go-to-market engine.”

 

 

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