Last week, 850 B2B marketers descended upon Boston to attend MarketingProfs’ 2014 B2B Marketing Forum” and discover what some of the best speakers in marketing had to say about “marketing for what comes next.”

It was the largest crowd for the B2B Forum yet, and the entire conference was jam-packed with actionable B2B marketing advice, insights and observations about the future of the industry. There was so much learning going on that Ann Handley dubbed the last day of the conference #FullBrainFriday.

(There was even a surprise visit from Seth Godin – to accept his Bright Bulb B2B Marketer Lifetime Achievement award!)

And while an entire book could be written on the takeaways from this year’s conference, we thought we’d keep things succinct and share 14 of our favorite quotes from the week:

• “After the sale is more important than before the sale. Customer service is marketing.”
  – Scott Stratten [tweet this]
• “Client apathy is the biggest threat to your business there is.”
  – Scott Stratten [tweet this] [Yes, he was so good, he made the list twice.]
• “Customers don’t wake up and think, ‘Gee, I really want to engage with some brands today.’”
  – Kristina Halvorson [tweet this]
• “The next evolution of content marketing is not more content; it’s better distribution.”
  – Christopher Penn [tweet this]
• “When you use the term ‘cost per lead’ you make marketing a cost center. Instead say ‘investment per lead.’”
  – Jon Miller [tweet this]
• “Look for surprising disappointments in your customer insight. They’re often clues to greater disruption to come.”
  – Glen Drummond [tweet this]
• “Don’t be afraid to fail. Go after the things that scare you the most.”
  – Tim Washer [tweet this]
• “There’s an intuition learned through our work. Teaching others doesn’t mean they can just go out and replicate it. Share.”
  – Austin Kleon [tweet this]
• “We’re so obsessed with [big] data, we forget how to interpret it.”
  – Danah Boyd [tweet this]
• “The first thing you should do to transform your B2B marketing is actually speak to your customers.”
  – Carlos Hidalgo [tweet this]
• “LinkedIn is becoming the Wall Street Journal for content consumption in the B2B space.”
  – Neal Schaffer [tweet this]
• “Your audience should always be at the center of your content. It’s about them, not you.”
  – Jason Miller [tweet this]
• “The time is now. Now we can market in real time. Now we can market instantly.”
  – David Meerman Scott [tweet this]
• “Useful x Empathy x Inspired = Great Content. That also happens to be the formula for great marketing.”
  – Ann Handley [tweet this]

Did you have a favorite quote from this year’s B2B Marketing Forum? Or a key takeaway? Let us know on Twitter!