How to Cut Through the Noise by Making Better Bets

I recently joined the $4M Strategies podcast to talk about a challenge I see in almost every B2B and technology-led business I work with:

How do you cut through the noise when markets are crowded, tools are plentiful, and everyone is “doing marketing”?

The short answer isn’t more activity, more channels, or more content. It’s about making better bets — and being clear about what those bets are meant to change.

This post expands on that conversation and lays out how I think about strategy, technology, and execution when the goal is real impact rather than surface-level metrics.

The noise problem isn’t new — but it is amplified

Every few years, B2B goes through the same cycle:

• A new tactic, platform, or framework emerges
• Early adopters see results
• Everyone else copies it
• The signal gets diluted
• Teams add more layers to compensate

Right now, AI has accelerated this pattern dramatically. The result is organisations doing more while understanding less about what’s actually working.

The issue isn’t a lack of effort. It’s a lack of strategic framing.

Noise is what happens when activity is disconnected from decisions.

Better bets, not louder tactics

One of the key points we discussed on the podcast is this shift:

Stop asking “How do we get attention?” Start asking “What decision do we want someone to make after they’ve engaged with us?”

That distinction matters.

• Attention leads to impressions, clicks and engagement.
• Decisions lead to pipeline, prioritisation and revenue.

If you don’t define the decision you’re trying to influence, you’ll default to activity that looks productive but doesn’t change outcomes.

What a “bet” actually means in practice

A strategic bet isn’t a gamble. It’s a testable hypothesis about behaviour.

A good bet has four parts:

1. A clear hypothesis

What do you believe will change if this works?

For example: “If we focus on a narrower set of accounts with a clearer narrative, we’ll see earlier sales conversations and shorter cycles.”

2. Context

Who is this for?

If you can’t name the customer, role, or segment the bet applies to, it’s too vague to be useful.

3. A meaningful signal

Not vanity metrics — but behaviour that indicates progress.

That might be:

• accounts engaging across multiple touchpoints
• improved quality of sales conversations
• movement through pipeline stages

4. A decision rule

Before you start, decide:

• what success looks like
• what you’ll do if you don’t see it

Without this, bets turn into permanent experiments that never resolve.

How noise creeps into B2B organisations

From experience, noise usually shows up in a few predictable ways:

Siloed optimisation

Marketing optimises for engagement. Sales optimises for meetings. Product optimises for usage.

Everyone is “winning” their own metrics — but the business isn’t moving forward in a coherent way.

Copying without context

Borrowing tactics from competitors or thought leaders without understanding why they worked in that situation.

Context is the strategy. Without it, copying creates noise.

Over-reliance on tools

Tools amplify whatever thinking you bring to them.

If the strategy is fuzzy, tools just help you scale confusion faster.

A practical framework for making better bets

If you want to apply this thinking immediately, here’s a simple way to start:

1. Name the decision you want to influence Internal or external — a buying decision, a prioritisation decision, a behaviour change.
2. Identify the signal that precedes that decision What happens before the decision is made?
3. Design one focused bet One narrative, one segment, one motion.
4. Align teams around the same signal Sales, marketing and leadership should all recognise it.
5. Review and decide Scale it, adapt it, or stop it.

This approach reduces noise because it forces clarity at every step.

Where technology fits (and where it doesn’t)

Technology — data, automation, AI — plays an important role, but it’s not the strategy.

Used well, technology helps you:

• spot patterns earlier
• shorten feedback loops
• reduce friction in execution

Used badly, it creates:

• dashboards without decisions
• alerts without priorities
• activity without insight

The difference isn’t the tech. It’s whether you’ve framed the bet properly.

Alignment is a strategy choice

One of the themes that came through strongly in the podcast is alignment.

If teams don’t share:

• a common definition of success
• a common set of signals
• a common decision they’re trying to influence

then noise is inevitable.

Alignment isn’t a soft concept. It’s a strategic choice about what you’re optimising for.

Final thought

Cutting through the noise isn’t about being louder or faster.

It’s about being clearer.

Clear about:

• what decisions matter
• which signals indicate progress
• which bets are worth making

Once you get that right, activity starts to feel lighter, teams feel more aligned, and outcomes become easier to predict.

That’s the core idea I shared on the $4M Strategies podcast — and it’s the lens I use across product, marketing, and business strategy work today.