April 27, 2010
Chart

New Chart: Marketers Rank B2B Challenges

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SUMMARY: What are the greatest challenges that B2B marketers are facing? From generating high-quality leads and a high volume of leads to generating public relations buzz, see which challenges topped the list.
By Jen Doyle, Research Analyst

Today's Most Significant Challenges for B2B Marketers to Overcome

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The call from the sales force is not "Give us more leads" -- it’s "Give us better leads." As you can see in the chart, marketing teams are aware of this issue and are responding to the challenge.

Depending on your lead generation process, lead quality may be the result of either the original state of the lead or of a nurturing process to determine if and when the lead is sales-ready. The latter case -- a nurturing process -- also addresses the second most significant challenge shown in the chart above: marketing to a lengthening sales cycle.

A strategic nurturing process not only identifies when a lead is sales-ready, but can pinpoint at which stage of the buying cycle the prospect is in, to forecast timely opportunities.

When the quality of a lead is dependent on its original state, it usually means that all but the most obviously disqualified leads are handed off to the sales force as they are generated. Surprisingly, this practice is still very common in B2B marketing.

For additional research data and insights about B2B marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2009-2010 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.


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