There has been a good discussion brewing over the past month in the B2B Technology Marketing Community in LinkedIn around one word to describe the biggest challenge facing B2B marketing.

Some responses have included:
Data
Noise
Choice
Personality
Content
Value
Trust
Engagement
Measurement

While there are many great one-word answers, my perspective of the biggest challenge for b2b marketing is the same as it is for marketing in general: It is you. You are the biggest challenge that you will face.

I say this because over the years I see the same patterns over and over again. People in marketing often do not know important things like who they really are, who and what their company is about, who their customers are, what their customers want, or what they want or where they want to go. The answers are often right there in front of them (customer feedback, internal questions, poor market performance, etc), but something inside these people prevents them from being able to see it or from being able to listen to others.

In my view, all the challenges a marketing professional will face pale in comparison to the battle one will wage against him/herself.