Are Marketer's Priorities Skewed?

I just read an article on DemandGen Report that discusses the highlights of a recent survey done by Silverpop, Survey Shows Converting Leads Into Opportunities Tops B2B Priority List. From the title I thought, wow, they're really getting it. Marketing needs to prove contribution to downstream revenues. Yeah!

But, what I learned instead was that their intentions may be great, but their strategy for getting there leaves me wondering how they ever will.

One of the things that told me they won't overwhelmingly prove their value is this:

"When asked what metrics they report to senior management, 59% said email opens and clicks and 49% said number of inquiries."

Say what? And then I came to this:

"18% said filling the top of the sales pipeline with as many “inquiries” as possible would be their top goal going forward. More concerning, of those who plan to focus on the top of the pipeline, 53% don’t score leads and 69% don’t nurture them."

Oh, my. There's definitely lots of work to be done. How is it possible in this day and age that jamming as many contacts as possible into the top of the funnel is a valid goal? Then again, since they don't score or nurture, what else would they focus on achieving?

Okay, I'm being a bit tough here, but staying rooted in status quo tactics is only costing your company potential growth, goodwill and, yes, bigger—and more—deals.