The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, in collaboration with WM America, has released a comprehensive year-end scorecard evaluating the effectiveness of B2B marketing in finding, winning, and growing major customer accounts.
Titled “Fire Up Your Revenue Generation Engine,” the report sheds light on crucial aspects of lead generation and engagement. It also reveals some significant challenges within the industry.
Challenges in Lead Gen and Engagement
The report underscores the pivotal role marketing plays in the process of acquiring, capturing, qualifying, and converting business opportunities. However, a startling revelation emerges: nearly two-thirds of lead generation and engagement strategies are currently underperforming. The CMO Council’s Q4 survey of over 170 B2B leaders reveals that 64% believe their lead gen and engagement strategies fall short of expectations.
One key highlight is the assertion by 63% of respondents that marketing must own and optimise a company’s revenue-generation engine. In an era driven by data and competition, the report suggests a need to abandon outdated practices and adopt more efficient, effective, and modern approaches to meet customer needs and seize opportunities.
Key CMO Council Findings and Rankings
The CMO Council provides a year-end scorecard based on research findings. It ranks proficiencies in critical areas of B2B marketing execution and demand gen operations. The scores include:
- Overall ABM effectiveness in finding, winning, and growing big customers: C-
- Strategic account-based marketing (ABM) practices: B
- Scoring the most actionable leads and prospects: C
- Moving deals more efficiently from contact to closure: C-
- Finding buyers already seeking your type of product: C
Path to Improvement
The report identifies widening gaps in performance between highly evolved and lesser evolved marketers. Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of CMO Council, emphasizes the need for marketers to embrace evolution. He says, “Using AI-derived, intention-based buyer data and advanced sales intelligence are among the ways growth marketers bring more precision, predictability, and performance to B2B account marketing investments.”
The CMO Council’s research pinpoints the main skill sets contributing to enhanced ABM-driven business outcomes.
- Better segmentation and precision targeting of buyers and influencers.
- On-demand customer business intelligence and personal buyer insights.
- Tighter integration of demand gen, channel, direct sales, and support teams.
- Greater utilization of tools and data sources for richer prospect profiling.
- Proactive and timely pre-sales follow-up and cultivation strategies.
The report advocates for innovation and forward-thinking strategies, suggesting marketers take a few “LEAPs of faith” in the coming months. The CMO Council and WM America have initiated a certified Lead Evaluation and Assurance Process (LEAP) model to advance lead revenue science practices, emphasizing the increasing importance of data in driving B2B marketing success.
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