How Are B2B Marketers Optimising Their Funnel? (from MarketingSherpa)

Posted by Bob Apollo on August 3, 2011

0 comments | 1478 reads

MarketingSherpa recently published a fascinating infographic from their upcoming 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Study. Their study focused on identifying the most effective strategies and tactics for attracting and converting the modern B2B buyer – and I suspect that some of their findings might intrigue and surprise you…

You can read their original article here and download a full size version of the infographic below here. But I wanted to highlight a handful of their conclusions. The first is the absence of telemarketing from their top 5 most effective demand generation strategies. Frankly, this surprised me: many of my clients – particularly those with high-value B2B solutions with complex sales cycles – have found intelligent telemarketing to be highly effective. What’s your experience?

The second is the number of B2B organisations – a staggering 68% - who claimed not to have identified their sales funnel. If true, it suggests a major alignment problem between B2B Marketers and their sales counterparts. You’ve got to wonder: if one of the primary purposes of B2B marketing isn’t to help fill the sales funnel and facilitate the buying process, then what on earth are marketers doing with their time and budget?

There’s much more to mull over in these statistics. If you’re planning to be in Boston in September or Francisco on October you might want to attend the MarketingSherpa B2B Summit 2011 and find out more. But I’m interested in your opinions – and your comments. Please share your thoughts and your reactions below the image.

So - what do you think of MarketingSherpa's data?

Republished with author's permission from original post by Bob Apollo.

Bob Apollo

Bob is founder of Inflexion-Point - applying a systematic, evidence-based approach to help B2B clients generate customer value, eliminate wasted effort and improve marketing and sales performance. UK-based, Bob previously held senior sales, marketing and C-level global positions in the high-tech sector.

About Bob Apollo |
Connect:

Categories:

Digital Marketing

1478 reads
Print
Email

0 comments »

Post new comment

Your name: *

E-mail: *

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Homepage:

Subject:

Comment: *

Input format

Filtered HTML

Allowed HTML tags: <a> <img> <hr> <table> <tr> <td> <th><ul> <ol> <li> </li><blockquote> <colspan> <rowspan><object>
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

Post

Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

Notify me when new comments are posted

All comments

Replies to my comment

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image?: *

Enter the characters shown in the image.

MarketPlace

Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program

[May 30-31, Frankfurt; July 25-26, Hong Kong] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 34 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.

Join us on May 29th in New York City. Stuart Ryder, SVP, Mobile Research Lead for Ipsos IOTX & Roxana Strohmenger, a leading Forrester analyst, will be in attendance to share best practices and new trends in mobile market research.

[June 12, Sir Francis Drake Hotel] Gregson Siu, Vice President, Ariba Business Operations, Ariba and Bob Thompson, CustomerThink, will be in attendance to share best practices, new trends and latest research to help you develop your customer experience program.

Social Networking and sCRM International Congress in Colombia

[June 25-26, Bogota] Thirteen international thought leaders will present, from different perspectives, the trends, the uses, and the magic - as well as the reality - of Social Networking and how it impacts the way customers are doing/will do business.

Driving ROI With VoC

Walker has identified multiple ways to measure ROI – there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. This paper will address each and conclude with some recommendations to help B-to-B practitioners evaluate which ROI approach will work best for their particular business need.