B2B Lead Generation: How Long Should Marketing Be Involved?
“Regarding lead generation, when does the role of marketers end?”
A recent blog by Parker Trewin, director of marketing communications at Genius.com, discussed responses to this question found in the 2010 B2B Marketing Skills Survey, a collaboration between Genius.com and BtoB Magazine.
Of 500+ surveyed marketers, roughly four of ten split their responses by saying marketing involvement ended at one of the following milestones: after a program goes live (5%), after a program starts to generate leads (10%), after lead qualification and lead scoring (16%), after lead nurturing (9%), or after a sale has been completed (3%).
By comparison, it’s interesting to hear that the largest group by far—58%—said marketing involvement never ends in B2B lead generation. Commenting on reasons, Parker added that “marketers increasingly remain engaged with customers even after the close to keep them informed about service offerings, company news and cross sell opportunities.”
While this is good news, the survey also showed the need for improved collaboration between marketing and sales with findings like these around data sharing and frequency of meetings:
- 54% of marketers said they share, at most, half their data with sales
- 66% of marketers said that sales shares, at most, half their data with marketing
- 58% of marketers said they met with sales once a month or less
The report summarizes the mixed findings on marketing involvement with a sober assessment:
The lack of interaction and collaboration nonetheless suggests an unfortunate outcome: sales and marketing continued to be as misaligned as ever.
The Marketing Skills Survey is an insightful read, and I think you’d enjoy it. There are six high level findings discussed, several of which may point away from conventional wisdom. For example, the report suggests marketers are moving from top-of-funnel metrics like click-through rates and website traffic to bottom-of-funnel metrics like revenue and sales accepted opportunities to gauge marketing program success.