Are B2B Marketers Missing the Point?

Marketing Sherpa released this chart today about the processes B2B marketers are using to manage prospects across their buying cycles. What concerns me is the percentage of marketers who've labeled these processes as non-priority items and assigned them to purgatory.

In my opinion, these marketers may well be the next to experience purgatory.

Let's take a look at why a few priorities need to shift:

• Collaborate with Sales to define sales-ready leads.
  This one always leaves me a bit perplexed. In essence, one of marketing's most important jobs is to generate and qualify leads worthy of sales pursuit. Yet they don't seem to care what sales people consider to be a qualified lead. Thankfully, 20% are planning to change this but 35% don't seem to think it matters enough to make it a priority. I'm sorry, I just don't get it.


• Measure lead generation contribution to revenue.
  In the age of increased demand for marketing accountability, it makes zero sense not to be able to account for marketing program contribution to revenues. Nada, zilch. For all the marketers out there whining about your budgets, start measuring this metric. If marketing is wants to be considered a contributor to driving the strategic direction of the company, they need to start learning how to prove their impact to business objectives.


• Have system for rating "qualified" and "warm" leads.
  If you want to keep that divide between marketing and sales nice and healthy then keep tossing contacts over the wall to sales. As it is now, salespeople spend more time on administrative tasks and research than they do on selling. This is not the best use of their time. And yes, marketers, this one's on you. Salespeople need help prioritizing leads so that their selling time can be maximized for best results. Spinning their wheels trying to talk to prospects not ready to talk with them isn't productive and it just irritates your prospects.


• Have a process for nurturing leads not sales ready.
  Considering that only about 20% of leads generated are ready for a sales conversation—if you're lucky—this means that 38% of marketers are fine with wasting 80% of their lead generation budgets. That just does not make good business sense. With buyers in control of their buying process, the growth in self-education opportunities and the increasing complexity of the problems they're charged with solving, the need for nurturing has never been higher. But, never fear, if you don't do it, your competitors will be glad to take those future buyers off your hands.


• Closed-loop tracking from source to conclusion.
  This one goes back to measuring lead generation contribution to revenues. But, beyond that, it also means discovering which sources provide the highest quality leads and which you should eliminate due to poor quality leads that don't convert. Given that 43% of marketers say this is not a priority added to the 31% that said they don't track lead gen to revenues, 74% of marketers don't think that monitoring what happens over the entire course of the buying process is important. Considering how much farther across the buying process marketers must now reach to get sales people in the game, this could be one of the biggest mistakes being made today.


• Have a process for handing leads back to marketing.
  The fact that 53% of marketers think that once they toss leads to sales they have been absolved of any further responsibility in the buying process is just frightening. If you tie this result with the 38% of marketers who don't have a nurturing process for leads not sales ready, it gets to be a really scary statistic of 91% of marketers who are not engaged in facilitating the entirety of the buying process.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see a disconnect here between what should be priorities given today's business environment and what marketers think is not important?

Comments

[Laura]

Interesting info. I am not surprised with your analysis. As a lead generation company ourselves, we always encourage our customers to streamline their processes and most importantly marketing and sales. And sadly enough most businesses aren't doing it right! In fact I am surprised that 45% in your case still said that they have marketing and sales aligned...

Thanks for posting!
Laura

[Basebot]

Ardath - great analysis and I can't argue with a word of what you have said. Truth is though that many of the marketers I know don't have time to focus on everything you have mentioned. Some may see your points as B2B marketing best practice, while to others it is B2B marketing utopia – a kind of unreachable perfect state if they had an infinite budget and 48 hours in the day.

Granted, many should make more of an effort, and at least be aware of the issues you raise. But to be able to address each one fully is a tall order!

But then if people like you keep bringing it to their attention, it can only help to achieve more.

Thanks for posting - great content as always.

John

[Ardath Albee]

@Laura - thanks for your comments. I'm hoping we see more companies get it right in the future.

@John - I always love it when you drop by! As for marketing utopia, I think technology goes a long way toward making this possible. Marketing automation integrated with CRM can provide a lot of these insights. And getting marketing and sales into the same room to define sales-ready leads should NOT be that hard to accomplish.

The basic point for me is that such a high percentage of marketers don't consider these issues priorities. I understand that it will take time to get here, but without recognition of these issues as necessary for improvement and accountability, success will prove elusive. Especially true as more buyers hold vendors at "digital arm's length."

[B2bmarketing]

Bravo, Ardath. Terrific analysis.

The only thing that's worked for me is to get marketers out of the office and in front of prospects and customers. Tradeshows have been an ideal -- and less threatening -- opportunity for doing this.

I've found that reading an e-mail about what's working and what's not (or hearing it on a conference call) just doesn't seem to have the same impact. When the marketing staff is forced to participate with live, breathing human customers, they seem to finally get religion.

John Fox
http://www.marketing-playbook.com/blog/

[Dacota Dirk - Marketing Expert]

Lead generating companies are very helpful, as they will provide you with good quality business contacts that will best fit your business. There are different techniques that will provide your business with very good prospects.