B2B buyers hate waiting for demos. They’d rather poke around the product themselves, form an opinion quickly, and then decide whether a sales call is worth their time. It’s a trend reshaping nearly every software category, from PLG startups to enterprise giants.

Consensus—best known for pioneering AI-powered demo automation for sales teams—is now taking that philosophy upstream. Today, the company unveiled Consensus for Marketing, a new layer in its platform designed to give marketers the same interactive, self-service product experiences that sales teams have been leveraging for years. The goal: turn B2B websites, campaigns, and events into always-on, personalized demo engines.

If that sounds like a page pulled from the playbook of product-led growth, you’re not wrong. The difference here is that Consensus is pitching it to traditional marketing teams that want the conversion power of PLG without overhauling their entire go-to-market motion.

And based on early data—6–8x higher conversion rates for these Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) compared to classic MQLs—it seems the pitch might land.

Why Marketing Is Suddenly Obsessed With “Self-Serve Everything”

The shift toward self-service product research isn’t new. But over the past few years, B2B buyer behavior has essentially completed its metamorphosis. Prospects now operate like well-informed consumers:

• They search independently.

• They compare vendors before speaking to anyone.

• And they expect the product to prove itself before a calendar invite ever hits their inbox.

Traditional marketing assets—PDFs, landing pages, gated guides—haven’t just aged poorly; they’ve become almost irrelevant to buyers who want to experience value, not just read about it.

This is the demand gap Consensus is aiming to fill. Marketers need more than static content; they need interactive product touch points that qualify leads in real time.

As Betty Mok, SVP of Marketing at Consensus, puts it: “Interactive product demos are the number one resource buyers want when they land on a website. This is now table stakes.”

So What Exactly Is Consensus for Marketing?

Think of it as a marketing-grade layer built on top of the company’s established Demo Automation Platform. Sales already uses Consensus to automate and personalize pre-sales demos at scale. Marketing now gets its own toolkit—designed specifically for demand generation, inbound funnels, website experience, and event engagement.

Here’s what’s new under the hood.

Mobile-First, Browser-Native Product Walkthroughs

Buyers no longer sit at a desk browsing product pages. They’re researching across devices, especially mobile, and they expect experiences—not static screenshots.

Consensus for Marketing delivers responsive demos and tours that adapt cleanly across screen sizes. This is particularly relevant in crowded SaaS markets where design polish and user-friendliness aren’t just aesthetic perks; they can influence purchase decisions and brand perception.

If your competitors offer a “book a demo” button and you offer a full click-through experience on any device, prospects feel the difference.

Always-On Product Experiences

Here’s where Consensus diverges from traditional PLG tools. Most SaaS companies gate access to product trials or tours behind sign-up walls. Consensus flips the model by treating the product tour as part of inbound engagement—something that can appear:

• directly on the website,

• inside outbound nurture flows,

• embedded in ads,

• or even at in-person events.

The company positions it as a 24/7 interactive product layer, allowing marketers to “capture demand the moment interest sparks,” rather than waiting for prospects to request a meeting.

In practical terms, it means that every buyer gets their own personalized test drive, on demand, without the delays of scheduling.

Automated Lead Capture and Buyer Intelligence

This is arguably the feature that transforms these demos from “cool interactive content” into a revenue engine.

Consensus integrates with major MAP and CRM platforms (think Marketo, HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.) to capture behavior signals as prospects explore demos. It identifies:

• high-intent actions,

• areas of interest,

• time spent,

• friction points,

• and readiness to engage sales.

Instead of handing sales teams generic MQLs, Consensus produces PQLs—prospects who have already interacted deeply with the product and shown pre-sales level intent.

This isn’t a new category (PLG companies have done this for years), but bringing PQL logic to traditional, marketing-led funnels is a noteworthy advancement—and one that could help hybrid GTM teams modernize without ripping and replacing their strategy.

AI Content Studio: A Marketer’s New Best Friend

One challenge with interactive demos is the labor required to update them. Product screens change. Messaging evolves. A new feature drops two days before a major launch. Consensus tackles this friction with the AI Content Studio, which lets teams:

• generate new demo flows,

• update videos or clickable tours,

• personalize versions for campaigns,

• keep content aligned with product updates,

• and drastically reduce production overhead.

For marketing teams tired of version-control chaos, this is a welcome change. And considering how fast SaaS products shift, the ability to update demo content in real time could be a deciding factor for adoption.

Why This Matters in the Bigger B2B Landscape

The launch of Consensus for Marketing lands at a pivotal moment. A few major industry shifts are colliding:

1. Buyers increasingly distrust vendor claims.

They want to see value firsthand—not via hyper-polished marketing promises.

2. PLG set the standard for self-service evaluation.

Even non-PLG companies are expected to match that bar.

3. AI is enabling scalable personalization.

What once required designers, video editors, and product specialists can now be delivered automatically and updated instantly.

4. Marketing is being measured further down the funnel.

Pipeline generation—not just lead volume—is becoming the core KPI.

Against this backdrop, Consensus's pitch is straightforward:
If your product is the primary selling point, give buyers the product upfront—naturally, automatically, and with context.

Competitive Landscape: Where Consensus Fits

The market for interactive product tours has exploded. Tools like Navattic, Reprise, Storylane, and Walnut all focus on demo creation, often targeting both GTM and product teams.

Where Consensus differentiates is its origin story. It didn’t start as a marketing-focused tour builder; it started as a sales performance platform designed to automate demos and empower pre-sales teams.

This gives it three edges:

1. Enterprise-grade personalization logic already proven in sales workflows.

2. Deeper analytics tied to buyer intent, not just tour completion.

3. Stronger integration with CRM and MAP systems, aligning marketing and sales around one demo engine.

If competitors are demo builders, Consensus is positioning itself as an end-to-end demo lifecycle system spanning marketing, pre-sales, and sales—with AI as the connective tissue.

From MQL to PQL: The Funnel Evolution

Marketing teams have long relied on MQLs—leads who fill out a form or download a white paper—as early buying signals. But those signals are increasingly weak indicators of true intent.

Consensus argues that the future is the Product Qualified Lead, a signal generated not from surface-level content engagement but from genuine product interaction.

And the numbers back it up: early adopters report PQLs convert at 6–8x the rates of traditional MQLs.

This isn’t simply better lead scoring. It’s a fundamental recalibration of how marketers measure demand, prioritize budgets, and evaluate campaign performance.

What Analysts Will Likely Watch Next

Although Consensus’s marketing expansion is impressive, success will hinge on three areas:

1. Adoption among non-PLG enterprises

Can Consensus convince traditional enterprise marketers—many still reliant on heavy sales cycles—to embrace interactive product experiences?

2. Integration depth

Consensus must continue to play well with Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, and a growing suite of analytics platforms to maintain its advantage.

3. Cross-functional buy-in

Because the platform touches both marketing and pre-sales, organizations will need alignment to deploy it effectively.

If Consensus can execute on those fronts, it could carve out a unique space that bridges marketing automation and product-led selling.

The Bottom Line

Consensus for Marketing is less an incremental product update and more a statement about where B2B buying is headed. Buyers want to explore products independently. Marketers want higher-intent leads. Sales wants prospects who already understand the product before the first conversation.

This new offering attempts to satisfy all three.

As Mok puts it, “Buyers want hands-on experiences, not just headlines.” And increasingly, they want those experiences on their own timeline.

If Consensus can help marketers deliver on that expectation—while feeding sales teams a more qualified pipeline—the company might just redefine what “top of funnel” means in the modern B2B stack.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.