Potato Marketing Statistics: Why B2B Foundations Beat Fireworks

The Potato Marketing Statistics Method In One Line

Phil Bacon’s session at the Software Oasis™ B2B Executive AI Bootcamp framed modern B2B marketing failures with one simple metaphor: fireworks versus potatoes. Fireworks are loud, impressive spikes—ads, webinars, bursts of content—that flare and vanish, while potatoes quietly build unsexy foundations that create reliable, compounding growth over time. His “potato marketing method” can be summed up in one line: unglamorous foundations that grow in difficult conditions, store energy, and feed the business consistently, instead of chasing constant tactical novelty.

This back‑to‑basics mindset strongly echoes the Software Oasis Experts piece Potato Marketing for B2B, which argues that methodical, foundation‑first marketing is a durable unfair advantage against competitors who are addicted to short‑term tactics. Together, Phil’s talk and that article describe a B2B landscape where patience, clarity, and systems quietly outperform the pursuit of “the next big thing.”

Why Most B2B Marketing Fails (And It’s Not Effort)

Fireworks, Panic, And The “Marketing Doesn’t Work For Us” Story

Phil noted that most businesses do not fail at marketing because they lack effort; they fail because they structure their marketing like a series of fireworks. A founder says “we need more leads,” so the team runs ads, posts daily on social, hosts a webinar, buys a list, or outsources SEO and does see a short‑term spike—some inquiries, some movement—but then the spike disappears and the conclusion becomes “marketing doesn’t work for us.”

He likened this to planting a seed in concrete and blaming the seed rather than the surface it was planted into. From his perspective, tactics are rarely the real problem. The real problem is the absence of foundations—no clear positioning, no strategic choices, no systems or consistent follow‑up—which makes otherwise sound tactics fragile and unsustainable.

The Five Potato Marketing Layers

To fix this, Phil laid out a five‑part potato marketing method, mirroring how a potato actually grows:

• Soil (truth and positioning): Who you are really for, what problems you actually solve, why anyone should trust you, what you will not do, and who you don’t serve. Vague claims like “high quality solutions” and “excellent service” are not positions; they are noise.
• Seed (strategy and choices): Real strategy is a set of trade‑offs, such as focusing on two customer types, three channels, and saying no to tempting but off‑strategy markets. A long “we will do everything” list is not strategy; it is anxiety written down.
• Roots (systems, data, consistency): Clean, trustworthy customer data, a CRM that reflects reality, shared definitions of leads and qualification, follow‑up processes, and basic measurement. Without roots, demand generation is like pouring water into a bucket full of holes.
• Shoots (awareness that compounds): Visible activity—content, social, campaigns, events—whose job is to compound trust, not merely entertain or go viral.
• Harvest and storage (demand capture and retention): Clear offers, next steps, nurturing, and relationship storage so the business isn’t constantly starting from zero.

He stressed that most firms jump straight into shoots and harvest—content and leads—without fixing soil, seed, or roots first, which is why their growth feels chaotic and brittle.

The Only B2B Statistics That Matter: Readiness And Demand

“Only 5% Of Buyers Are In-Market” (And What That Implies)

Phil highlighted one statistic that every B2B marketer should treat as a guardrail: at any given time, only about 5% of potential buyers in a category are actively in the market. If a company has five credible competitors, that means roughly 1% of the total market is available to each at the exact moment those buyers are ready to purchase, assuming an even split.

This data point reinforces several conclusions:

• Most of your audience most of the time is out of market, so hard selling everyone you reach is counterproductive.
• Your job in the “potato” layers (soil, seed, roots, shoots) is to become the safe, familiar choice by the time that 5% moves into an active buying window.
• Tactical spikes that chase instant leads ignore the 95% who are not ready yet and do little to shape long‑term demand.

Phil’s emphasis here aligns with empirical work on B2B buying cycles, including research published in journals such as the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, which shows that a large proportion of B2B buyers spend extended periods in problem‑definition and solution‑exploration stages before they are ready to engage with vendors. During that time, consistent, educational communication—not aggressive lead capture—is what shapes preference.​

Foundations Before Spend: Fixing The Bucket Before Pouring Water

In the root layer, Phil made what he called an “uncomfortable truth” explicit: if a business cannot respond consistently to demand, it should not be spending heavily to generate more demand. Low‑quality leads are often a soil problem (unclear offer and positioning), poor conversion is a root problem (inconsistent follow‑up), and pipeline volatility is usually a shoots problem (sporadic awareness), not a sign that marketing “doesn’t work.”

This view is supported by marketing‑effectiveness studies reported in journals like the International Journal of Research in Marketing, which show that firms with strong internal processes and clear targeting consistently realize higher returns on the same or lower media spend compared with peers lacking those foundations. In other words, foundations are multipliers on tactics; they are not optional extras.

Awareness, Trust, And The Long Game

Compounding Trust, Not Impressions

In the shoots stage, Phil warned that most organizations sabotage themselves by treating awareness as sporadic bursts. They post only when they feel like it, constantly change their messaging, chase trends, and aim to “be clever” rather than to steadily build familiarity. Potato marketing, by contrast, is about compounding trust by saying the same valuable things in many useful ways, teaching the market how to think about the specific problem you solve.

He recommended a simple rule: stop creating content to impress strangers; create content that helps your future customers make decisions. The goal is to be present long enough and consistently enough that when the 5% who are in‑market finally raise their hands, you already feel like the safe choice.

Harvest, Storage, And Lifetime Value

Phil also stressed that harvest is not the end of potato marketing; storage is. Potatoes are valuable because they can be stored and used over time, and he argued that B2B marketing should work the same way: keeping relationships warm, following up properly, building retention and repeat business, and designing systems so you are not always starting pipeline from zero

He pointed out that many businesses are obsessed with net‑new harvest and underinvest in expanding, reactivating, and maximizing the lifetime value of the customers they already have. In maturity, he suggested, customer service and success teams become integral parts of the marketing mix, feeding the system rather than operating in a silo.

From Fireworks To Potatoes: What To Do Next

One Foundation At A Time

Phil closed his talk with two diagnostic questions: is your marketing built on fireworks or potatoes—and which single foundation do you need to strengthen next? He urged leaders not to attempt all five layers at once but to pick one:

• Soil, if clarity on who you serve and what you do differently is missing.
• Seed, if you are doing too much and lack real strategic choices.
• Roots, if systems, data, and follow‑up are shaky.
• Shoots, if your awareness is inconsistent.
• Storage, if you keep winning customers and then “disappearing” until you panic about pipeline again.

He argued that the strongest B2B marketing machines are rarely the loudest. They are the ones that show up consistently with clear positioning, solid systems, and a patient willingness to let trust compound—turning growth from a gamble into a crop, just like the humble potato. That is the core of the potato marketing method: in a world obsessed with speed, the real unfair advantage is doing the basics properly for long enough that it becomes extremely hard for anyone else to catch up.