Survey Highlights Contradictions for B2B Marketers

In reviewing the results from the B2B Marketing Skills Survey conducted by Genius.com and BtoB Magazine, I saw a few disconnects that should be flags for concern. Let's talk about two of them.

Contradiction 1:

Driving qualified leads is seen as the most important mission of the marketing department.

Lead nurturing is seen as the least important marketing role.

How does marketing drive qualified leads for a complex sale without nurturing? We know buyers have taken control of their purchasing processes. In fact, Genius.com and DemandGen report did a B2B buyer survey a few months back that showed the value of consistent content from the buyers' perspective.

I just don't see how one is done without the other. It's the "qualified" part that eludes me. How the heck would marketers know?

According to the Custom Content Council, 32% of marketing budgets are now dedicated to content marketing. So, if marketers are not creating nurturing content, what are they creating?

What might be interesting to note is that lead nurturing is not confined to email campaigns sent to your lead database. If B2B marketers are embracing a content strategy, every content asset will be designed as a nurturing piece - regardless of where it's displayed or shared.

Over on Focus.com, I answered a question about the definition of lead nurturing with:

Lead Nurturing: The process of engaging prospects by providing the information and dialogue they need at each stage of their buying process to position your company as the best choice to help them achieve their business objectives.

Nowhere in there does it say that lead nurturing can only be conducted with opt-in lead lists. This said, if you have leads and you're not nurturing, you're content to let them languish? Or are marketers still pushing sales offers?

Contradiction 2:

58% of marketers believe that marketing's involvement doesn't end when the lead is transferred to sales.

However, nearly 1 in 10 marketers admit to never meeting with the sales team.

The report also finds that the sharing of information between the two departments is lacking. If marketers are not talking or sharing with salespeople (or sales isn't talking to them), exactly how is marketing staying involved with transferred leads with any sort of effectiveness that produces a consistent experience?

If marketing never meets with the sales team, how do they know if leads are truly qualified or even learn about ways they could be improving the lead's disposition? What data and insights are they using to improve their marketing programs?

If the marketing-to-sales process has a big, black hole of disconnect in the middle, how will it ever evolve into a seamless end-to-end process?

From the two contradictions above, it seems to me that marketers are compartmentalizing how they think about the components of demand generation and prospect engagement. With the rise of digital marketing there are a lot of moving parts. The thing is that they don't move separately, but rather work best when integrated through an eMarketing strategy to achieve the best outcomes.

It's not that I think marketers are lacking in skills. I think a new way of thinking is required to shift from the way things were done in the past to what will be effective in the future. Happily, I'm beginning to receive calls from companies that have recognized this and are truly interested in learning how to apply a new way of thinking to accomplish bigger goals with measurable outcomes.

Why do you think these contradictions exist?

Comments

[Parker Trewin]

Ardath, you bring up two great points which I pondered when writing the initial overview to the study. It's certainly worthy of a "head scratch."

Over the next several weeks we'll be doing a deeper dive into disconnect between marketing's vision as revenue generator and the solutions and processes they use; we'll also be looking at continued lack of collaboration between marketing and sales. Big issues as marketers look to prove their impact on topline performance.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Parker,

I agree that the responses are a "head scratch." I'm looking forward to seeing the deeper dive. And thanks to Genius for tackling the tough issues!

Ardath

[Leah Neaderthal]

Ardath, you bring up two great points, and I have some thoughts on the second one. As the study says, most Marketers believe that involvement shouldn’t end when the lead is transferred, but many marketing teams don’t know what their role is beyond the lead phase. From what we see in complex sales, beyond the lead phase, marketing’s role becomes that of supporting sales to have a great conversation, and helping salespeople deliver the right content and message. This type of involvement isn’t what Marketers are typically trained in, but as you know, in B2B sales it’s critical.

In light of this, one question I would start with is, are marketers trained in the sales process? Do they know what types of information and materials sellers and buyers need at each phase? Are they mapping content and the elements of their marketing mix to the sales cycle? For example, is Marketing creating content that may be critical to sellers, but may not be beautiful – some examples might be discovery guides early on to help them frame up good early conversations, or objection handling guides for stages where we know certain objections come up. Once Marketers know what conversations look like at different stages of the sales cycle, are they tracking what sales content is being used the most, and at which stage of the sales cycle? What content isn’t being used, and why? Meeting with the sales team is certainly one way to get qualitative feedback, but it’s not simply an event (or series of events). There are ways to get this kind of quantitative and qualitative data, that can benchmark around existing activities and inform how Marketing activities may change to increase performance.

Once Marketing can see their specific role, and how they can truly make an impact beyond the lead phase, it’s easy to get started.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Leah,

As you know, I agree with your insights about marketers participation during the sales phase. Unfortunately, I don't believe many marketers reach beyond the hand off, although I see this changing with efforts designed to better align marketing and sales.

The ability to track which types of content are being used requires a solid technology platform - like SAVO (your company) provides. With the combined ability to monitor content use, sales feedback and shared knowledge, companies have a valid means of accomplishing so much more to improve sales outcomes. Without it, most companies must rely on meetings. Although the second contradiction I speak of above shows that this may be farther from reality than it should be.

Creating an end-to-end seamless process from status quo through purchase, and beyond, is what companies must tackle to create sustainable growth and velocity.