This week I’m publishing a four-part blog series — based on research I’m doing as part of the updated focus for my marketing book project. This series takes a look at B2B demand generation today. I’ll put up a new post each day, and then I’ll link all of the articles together once I’m done posting the series. Today’s post is part one, which serves as the introduction for the series. ~ABN
There is no question we are in the midst of a seismic change in the B2B demand generation model. This is a topic I’ve covered in my blogging over the last 12 months and some of the best and brightest in B2B marketing have detailed in their own research and writing.
In fact, it’s more than just change; it is fundamental evolution of the B2B demand generation model. But as with any theory of ‘evolution,’ there often is debate – both around origins and also the current state of being.
The über-smart folks at SiriusDecisions presented at their SiriusDecisions 2010 Summit on a view of this evolution they call ‘The Second Sea Change’ in B2B sales and marketing. “We have witnessed the charter of marketing – and thus its relationship with sales – change twice in a decade,” commented the firm.
Their assertion is that best-in-class B2B organizations shifted their focus from B2B marketing’s historic emphasis only on top-of-funnel ‘Inquiries’ in the 2000 time frame to an increasing focus on B2B marketing’s role in incubating leads from the Inquiries stage through to delivering ‘Marketing Qualified Leads’ by the 2005 time frame. They call this the first sea change. And now they assert that from that period to the current period we’ve seen a second sea change. It is one in which B2B marketing’s role has shifted further down the funnel — today focusing on marketing’s impact throughout the entire demand generation process, from Inquiries all the way to ‘Closed/Won Business.’ (See graphic below; used with permission.)
Source: SiriusDecisions; click to enlarge
This is a useful model for the evolution of B2B demand generation – both for understanding current change and also for setting aspirations. It further helps to shift our thinking from traditional B2B marketing silos to true integration.
My synthesis from the SiriusDecisions model is that best-in-class B2B demand generation organizations increasingly seem to possess four common characteristics:
- Common definitions: Common agreement between B2B marketing and sales teams around the definitions and stages that a prospect goes through from initial engagement to final sale (from a lead management perspective), as well as common definitions around targeted buyer personas and their buying-stage information needs (from a content marketing perspective)
- New, integrated processes: Based on common definitions, an integrated set of B2B marketing and sales processes aligned to this model and focused around moving buyers from Inquiries to final Closed/Won business
- New infrastructure: Existence of closed-loop data infrastructure – particularly CRM and marketing automation – that supports the process and enables the realignment of B2B marketing and sales roles around this process
- New roles: Adjusted roles for B2B marketing and sales that align with new processes (versus legacy domains) and that ensure holistic nurturing and hand-off at all stages of the demand generation process
So the natural next question: How many B2B organizations look like this?
SiriusDecisions believes that, among adopters of marketing automation technology, “fewer than 10% of them are deploying those tools to address programs later in the buying cycle,” according to analyst Megan Heuer in an email to me. “While marketers have a newer mandate to support more task families later in the buying process, there is still work to be done to get them comfortable with the changes that marketing automation brings to top-of-the funnel demand creation. Sea changes are evolutionary, not revolutionary, but no less inevitable when change has to happen. It just takes a while.”
How are those 10% doing? A 2008 report by Aberdeen Group gives us some insights: “Illustrating the impact lead nurturing is having on leading companies, the Aberdeen report found that Best-in-Class organizations see double the bid-win-ratio on nurtured leads compared to peers who also have nurturing programs,” noted an article in DemandGen report. “Further, the Aberdeen research also found nurtured leads in Best-in-Class organizations delivered 47% higher average order values than non-nurtured leads.”
But this leaves a large group of B2B marketing organizations that are not best-in-class and that are not performing at this level – an estimate that is somewhere between zero and 90%. There also seems to be a greater chasm than ever between best-in-class organizations and the reality facing most B2B marketing organizations today.
So what does that average B2B marketing organization look like today? And what are the challenges that organization must overcome to get to best-in-class?
We’ve clearly advanced over the last decade, yet many obstacles remain. And if we are going to take our game as B2B marketers to the next level – becoming more buyer-centric and achieving more holistic nurturing of prospects – it’s important to get focused on what is holding us back.
Parts two through four of this series examine the three major challenges facing B2B demand generation today. [update] Part two looks at why technology, alone, is not enough to improve B2B demand generation. Stay tuned …
Great post but I do have a couple questions. If only 10% of those using marketing automation are targeting buyers later in the buying cycle, is it really a best practice yet or is it still an experiment? Not that I don’t believe it is a great idea but the level of aligment between marketing and sales would have to be extraordinary.
Second question… can we take research from Sirius and then cross reference it with research from Aberdeen? How do we know they use the same definitions for best in class, nurtured leads etc? Interesting discussion and I look forward to the rest of the series. Thanks for listening.
I like the post and love the idea of the series too. I’m really looking forward to the remaining posts.
One thought occured to me as I read your post, if the current state of B2B demand generation is building towards the Marketing function having input and some responsibility on all stages from inquiries to closed business, why do we still think about separate marketing and sales functions at all? Why not think about something like “The Business Generation” function within which there are roles that map to certain areas of responsibility. e.g. target audience awareness, lead nurturing, buying process management (a.k.a. sales) etc.
That way we could strip out artificial demarcation of responsibility and focus on a fully integrated business generation function that includes the full funnel from inquiry to closed deal.
@ Trish – Thanks for the comments. My first obvious note would be that some of your questions will play out over the series, but the point is to drive dialogue, so I appreciate the engagement.
On your question about early adopter/best-in-class organizations, I think that the whole point is that the model IS evolving, and it may not be 100% clear yet where it’s going. Your point is well-taken that we need to assess what is experimental and what is best practice. The next few posts should dig into the inverse of this a bit more — talking about the barriers B2B marketing still faces. Hoping to get your feedback as we continue the thread.
On your question about comparing analyst studies. Obviously, I’ve spent some time digging into these, so I felt comfortable that they were both talking about similar types of B2B marketing orgs, albeit w/ different criteria and methodologies for analyzing the market. But the point isn’t so much the classification of what is best-in-class but rather to point out that those who are doing great things are doing REALLy great things, but that this contrasts with the majority of B2B marketers, who aren’t. That’s what I wanted you to take away — that there is a high bar and it’s not the majority of B2B demand generators. Looking for us to dig into why this is the case over the next three posts.
@ Russell – You make a great point about getting to a uniform org. To me, that’s exactly one of the vectors we need to embrace — a uniform ‘demand generation’ organization where there is atomization both of marketing and sales roles and re-alignment of these roles to the buying process.
Great call-outs from both of you. Thanks.
I had an interesting conversation with Jim Burns of Avitage today which matches this post. Jim said “Comprehensive buyer personas, understanding buyer pains, matching the overall buying process, tracking buyer behavior. How many people do that today? No one.”
Jim’s right in that almost all businesses think they’re doing well, but almost all are not. Buying marketing automation without the plan and research means nothing.
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor
Find New Customers
http://www.findnewcustomers.com
[...] focus for my marketing book project. This series takes a look at B2B demand generation today. The first post provided an introduction to the series. Parts two through four examine the three major challenges facing B2B demand generation. [...]
[...] according to SirusDecisions, less than 10 percent of B2B businesses have successfully redefined the necessary role of high-impact role of lead generation and nurturing that will be required in sales and marketing in 2010 and [...]
[...] This post was Twitted by jepc [...]
[...] focus for my marketing book project. This series takes a look at B2B demand generation today. The first post provided an introduction to the series. Parts two through four examine the three major challenges facing B2B demand generation. The [...]
[...] focus for my marketing book project. This series takes a look at B2B demand generation today. The first post provided an introduction to the series. Parts two through four examine the three major challenges facing B2B demand generation. The [...]
[...] point is also very timely for me because this week I published a series on my personal blog, Propelling Brands, digging into “The Unspoken ‘Real State&… The focus of my series was on identifying why there is such a gap between [...]
[...] August 16, 2010 by Adam Needles On Friday I published a new post to the Silverpop Demand Generation (DG) blog — one that responded to the comment thread on Jep Castelein’s Lead Sloth post, “Will Marketing Automation Be Free?” My DG post placed this dialogue in the context of what I believe really are the major challenges facing B2B demand generation today. I also linked this back to the very-timely four-part series on the ‘real state’ of demand generation I published on this blog this past we…. [...]
[...] it any wonder that in spite of progress, Propelling Brands says that sales and marketing still have a long way to go to align their processes? Share and [...]
[...] just re-read sales and marketing blogger Adam Needle’s 4 part series on the “Unspoken ‘Real State’ of Modern B2B Demand Generation,”… I once again cannot commend enough the value of the data and analysis he presents. If you have any [...]
[...] to take a closer look at this concept, because as sales and marketing teams continue to evolve, and move ever closer in alignment, at some point the “culture war” between the two will spill over into the corporate [...]
[...] are at a critical – and challenging – moment in the evolution both of modern demand generation practice and of the discipline of B2B marketing. More than ever it is critical for us to close the [...]
[...] automation technology or that are not using it successfully – a reality I covered in parts one and two my ‘Real State’ of modern demand generation series – then you’ve got bigger fish to [...]
[...] as Adam Needles at Propelling Brands reports, a 2010 research study by SiriusDecisions showed less than 10% of companies are deploying [...]
[...] recently ran a series on my Propelling Brands blog analyzing the ‘real state’ of modern B2B demand …. one of the key callouts was the increasing scope of B2B marketing [...]
[...] automation technology or that are not using it successfully – a reality I covered in parts one and two my ‘Real State’ of modern demand generation series – then you’ve got bigger fish to [...]