Bullying by major MarTech suite vendors is definitely a thing. My colleague Jarrod Gingras first captured the essence of this phenomenon a couple years ago. Then we recorded a rollicking podcast episode about it. 

I regret to inform you that two years later, the same vendors still try to bully their prospects and licensees. You should be forewarned, though, that the game has changed somewhat in substance. Vendors like Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle, and SAP are responding to the same threat--the almost universal advent of the composable MarTech stack--but they're doing so with a different message....a new and quite predictable AI twist.

Bully Meets AI

Vendors understand what you the MarTech leader keenly feel every day: that you are sandwiched in-between executive demands for rapid results from AI on one hand, and the ground truth that real business value comes only after significant investments in core capabilities on the other.

Given a choice between solving complex business and technology problems versus waving magic wands in front of your executives, MarTech suite vendor reps will always fall back on the latter. The story will feel familiar because it is. Vendors will bypass you and spin tales to your execs looking for straightforward answers. RSG corporate members have reported these example vendor pitches:

• We can solve the foundational integration challenges that AI presents, owing to the breadth our comprehensive suite
• We have simplified the problem to a collection of tactical AI features that you can light up right away and get immediate value
• Our AI services are just as good as [OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc.]
• Our agent frameworks will readily connect the rest of your stack to our capabilities
• Our consulting partners can prove 400% ROI on your investment
• Your MarTech and Ops teams are resisting us because they're Luddites with no vision

Absolutely none of this is true.

The Willie Sutton Motive

The notion of vendor bullying can sometimes become a tough story for you to communicate internally (though we do see enterprise MarTech leaders successfully push back). In describing a glowing AI future, these vendors may not seem like schoolyard bullies. Just know that they're after your lunch money all the same, and have no shame regarding the methods required to get your firm to fork it over.

One thing we've noticed at RSG is that the most sizable enterprises frequently get bullied the hardest. You might think scrawnier firms would get picked on first, but that's not the case. I chalk this prioritization of large enterprises up to the famous aphorism by American bank thief Willie Sutton: "Because that's where the money is..." Also, counterintuitively it can prove harder for larger firms to overcome a multi-pronged vendor assault.

You Don't Have to Accede

If you work for an enterprise experiencing this phenomenon, feel free to get in touch confidentially. You can win this fight.