MarketingSherpa, a research firm specializing in tracking what works in marketing (and what does not) has some eye-opening stats in their 2011 Marketing Benchmark Report. The report details how the B2B Marketing community has been humbled by the recent recession and how the economic crisis has forced marketers to operate with limited resources, while facing a need to produce a higher level of quality leads than ever before.
The chart below (part of the report) clearly shows the greatest marketing challenge that B2B organizations face is generating high-quality leads.
The reports goes on to say that through budget cuts and increased expectations, the organizations that persevered were the ones who effectively applied the most efficient marketing tactics for every stage of the sales funnel, from lead generation to sales conversion, and then closed the loop with sound marketing analytics for continual improvement.
Can’t wait to see the 2012 report! You can grab your copy of the soon-to-be-released 2012 report here for $447.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing have changed the way people buy products and services. You can’t ignore it. You can’t bury your head in the sand and pretend it’s not there. You can’t do anything to stop it.
This is especially true if your business follows what is known as a “complex selling cycle” and sells directly to other businesses. Complex B2B sales tend to involve longer buying cycles, higher value and margins, and more of a consultative sale. It simply means potential customers and/or clients will look at many options and do research BEFORE spending money. Any business that has specialized, highly paid sales people generally operates in the B2B complex sales market.
Before the Internet came along and changed the rules forever, this was how most B2B selling was done…
In the old model, the salesperson was king. He (or she) held all the product information, features, prices, etc. and THEY decided when and how prospects were fed the information.
For example, if you wanted to buy a car 10 years ago you had to depend on the salesperson to give you information about the car you were interested in buying. They handed out the brochures, told you the prices, what colors were available, etc. when THEY thought it was the right time. Trying to compare different makes or models was almost impossible.
Real pain in the ass, right?
Fast forward to 2011 and if you want to buy a new car you never even need to speak to a salesperson to get the exact make, model, color and price you want! How cool is that?
Well, the same thing is happening with complex B2B sales… the NEW buying process looks like this…
If your business is still trying to sell the “old way” and needs a “jump-start”, give us a yell or drop us a line. We can help – we are lead generation experts!
