The Pathetic State of B2B Demand Generation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on July 19, 2011

Marketo shared this post of Jeff Ernst of Forrester on Facebook. It was so damning, I had to share it here. Thanks to Marketo for bringing it to our attention and to Jeff for his brutal candor.

Senior executives need to wake up. Their businesses are struggling and it is their own fault!

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By Jeff Ernst of Forrester Research

Jeff Ernst, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

In several of my recent reports, I’ve made claims about the current state of B2B demand generation. Call me Mr. Doom And Gloom, but from my perch, and from my experience in B2B sales and marketing, it’s not a pretty picture. To back up my claims, I decided to survey B2B marketing and sales leaders to gather some data points on the real state of affairs.

Just for kicks, I asked people to give a word or phrase that summarizes their view of the state of demand generation, and the word that appeared most frequently in the responses was “disjointed.” Hmmm, how fitting. And there’s no shortage of contexts for how that word fits. Disjointed between sales and marketing, disjointed channels, disjointed messages. Shall I continue or enough said? Some of the other words and phrases offered are:

Challenging
Chaotic
Confused
Evolving
In flux
In transition
Too much noise

Some of the other findings?

In 42% of companies, marketing creates leads and sales tools and throws them over the wall to sales.
Fewer than one-fourth of respondents have defined a lead-to-revenue management process that their marketing and sales teams follow.
Forty-four percent of respondents say that prospects view communications from them as “disjointed” or “hit or miss.”

The good news is that B2B marketing and sales leaders are planning to make big changes over the next 12 months to address many of today’s shortcomings. For more stats and insight into what their plans are, see my report The State Of B2B Demand Generation: Disjointed.

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Amen, Jeff. Thanks for throwing some cold water on business.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. He’s determined to help companies get out of their funk and fix what really ails them.

Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

The Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics by Marketo

Posted by Jeff Ogden on July 19, 2011

B2B Demand Generation | Marketing Metrics

If you increase your marketing budget by 10%, how much will profits increase?

According to The Lenskold Group (Good friends of Find New Customers, by the way), the largest majority of marketers (44%) cannot answer that question.

What does a business need to answer that question?

Rock-solid marketing metrics on key measures that drive revenue results, such as (What percentage of marketing source leads closed? or How Much Did our Marketing Database Grow last month?). But how do you create these metrics?

You’ll find answers in Marketo’s just released Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics. Written by Jon Miller, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing at Marketo, this white paper shows why Jon has one of the sharpest minds in B2B marketing today. We congratulate him.

Definitive Guide to Marketing Metricsco-founder and VP of Marketing at Marketo, he shows us again why he is one of the most respected minds in B2B marketing today. I'm an unabashed fan, Jon.

This superb white paper covers every aspect of B2B metrics in a clear and easy to understand manner. If you want to prove the value of marketing to your CEO and Board, you need to read this.

Here’s what Marketo says about it:

The Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Marketing Analytics shows marketing professionals how to talk the talk of C-level executives in terms of forecasting and reporting, and walk the walk to the revenue table by leveraging metrics that matter. With compelling graphics and real examples of Marketo’s own metrics and tactics, this guide offers best practices for harnessing data to not only prove, but improve ROI.

This 70-page, all-encompassing guide will show you:

The right metrics for understanding and interpreting marketing results
Why measuring marketing programs is difficult, and how to do it correctly and efficiently
Revenue metrics that get the executives’ attention and prove marketing ROI
The critical elements of a marketing dashboard
And much, much more!

I strongly suggest you click on the image above, which takes you to the Marketo landing page to download this terrific new document. It’s a great guide for CMOs and VP’s of Marketing.

As the author of three superb white papers (all available at Get Customers), including the Marketo-sponsored How to Find New Customers, I wish to congratulate Jon on a terrific document. I know firsthand the blood, sweat and tears that go into creating something like this. Great job, Jon!

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers is honored to be listed as a “Marketing Mogul” by Marketo.

To learn about Jeff, please click Who is the Fearless Competitor?

The Power of B2B Blogging in 2011

Posted by Jeff Ogden on July 19, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | The Power of Blogging

Blogs are a great tool for organic search (every blog post is a new webpage), demonstrating thought leadership, and sharing great content with prospective clients. They can even make you famous - sort of.

Recently, I picked up the phone and cold-called the CMO of a fast-growing software company - a prospective client. I had seen his bio, but I had never met him. I was ready to gently introduce myself, but he stopped me. “Jeff, I’m honored to meet you. I’ve followed you a long time, so I know your great work and am a big fan.“

My conclusion: Blogging is not just for companies, it is for people too.

Every B2B company should have a good blog filled with great content and updated at least 2x per week. (Fearless Competitor generally posts about 14 times a week.) We are among the most prolific bloggers on Earth.

A great blob example is the 21st Century Supply Chain blog by Kinaxis - filled with great articles, expert contributors and photos of smiling, happy people.

Two good friends - Authors: Tony Karrer and Tom Pick - wrote a white paper earlier this year which shares insights and ideas from top B2B bloggers, including me, which I share today.

It’s free, so download it today! (Click the picture or the words below)

(By the way, in the next few weeks, some famed B2B bloggers will be contributing guest posts here.) In fact, content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 just published a guest post here - Developing an Integrated Content Marketing Strategy that Works. Kenny Madden of SPICEworks also wrote a great guest post - What would IT buyers say if they were named CMO?

But most companies struggle with their blog - updates are few and far between, and they struggle to create interesting content. In the case of our former client, OneSource, they simply pulled the plug. The B2B Sales Lounge is effectively dead. We consider this a major blunder.

Need help with your blog? Want frequent updates with great posts?

Contact the Fearless Competitor. Several ways to do it. Just pick one.

Send an email to jeff dot [email protected].
Send a Direct Message in Twitter to @fearlesscomp
Send a message in Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/findnewcustomers

B2B Blogging Trends in 2011

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers and is one of the most prolific bloggers in the B2B marketing space with over 55,000 readers.

For more about Jeff, visit Who is the Fearless Competitor?

Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities for sales teams, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.