If you’re looking for an eloquently written post on how B2B marketing has changed and recommendations on what you should do, you’ve come to the wrong page. What I have done is reviewed the tweets from the latest SiriusDecisions Summit 2009 and captured points that I thought were interesting and categorized them.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go (not without trying!) but as you’ll see from the comments below, some great stats and thoughts 
have been captured by attendees via Twitter (yet another reason to use Twitter).
At some point I would like to come back to each category and focus on them specifically but for now, here is some organized Twitter talk for y’all – enjoy it:
Sales and Marketing Alignment
jblock: Only 32% of sales and marketing orgs work together to define programs for existing customers. @megheuer #sds09
megheuer: Sales is protective of customers and late-stage deals; marketing needs give options, not mandates, to help at this stage #sds09 @tjaros
jblock: 72% of B2B orgs can segment the customers and prospects in their marketing database. @megheuer #sds09
jblock: Management changes served as a catalyst for greater sales and marketing integration at Aspect @thetravelingcmo #sds09
megheuer: #sds09 If leads that marketing thinks are qualified get ignored by sales, find out why/what's changed to fix it @tjaros
megheuer: Question: Marketers, do you understand the compensation structure of the team you feed leads to? No=FAIL #sds09 @tjaros
megheuer: #sds09 "whole sales team is motivated to make this work" so positive changes in marketing really make a difference --Perry Dembner
megheuer: #sds09 If leads that marketing thinks are qualified get ignored by sales, find out why/what's changed to fix it @tjaros
megheuer: #sds09 Ennis: "Get everyone clear on marketing's contribution to revenue" and use a common language to track, explain it
megheuer: #sds09 @joegalvin says sales 2.0 is really about the dominance of buying cycles and increasing productivity through sales readiness
megheuer: #sds09 Goal of sales playbooks is increased productivity: More opportunity, shorter sales cycles, higher win rates
megheuer: #sds09 It's not a new selling paradigm, it's a new buying paradigm, powered by technology @joegalvin says
| cahidalgo: #sds09- 59% of attendees do not believe their sales and marketing are aligned. amyblack: #sds09 how do you increase adoption? Process drives productivity - start with process then implement technology. |
Lead Nurturing
jblock: @tjaros: If you get one deal out of a reconstituted leads program, it's worth the effort. #sds09
| jblock: 5%-10% of leads that are sitting in your CRM system as "dead" can become real opportunities if put into a nurturing program. #sds09 |
cahidalgo: #sds09- Tony Jaros - lead nurturing business rules must be established by BOTH marketing and sales in order to be effective.
megheuer: #sds09 "When leads are actively disqualified, that' a good thing- you can address that lead in an automated way to nurture it" –@tjaros
megheuer: #sds09 21% of attendees have a lead nurturing program in place now; twice that number are "working on it"
Marketing Effectiveness Measurement
| megheuer: Biggest change in marketing results: About a 10% drop in closed deals over the last year @tjaros #sds09 |
megheuer: #sds09 @jneeson reports 55% of marketing inquiries generated via the Web today; email 19%; events 15%, direct mail 11% (averages)
megheuer: Great metrics to track from CyberSource: # of days to close a deal and # of marketing touches to close #sds09
megheuer: "We know that sometimes approximate is good enough to get us where we're going" for marketing reports -Brenda Kring #sds09
megheuer: Need to be able to measure overall ROI and also activities, to align them with your overall strategy #sds09 @lazgonzalez
| MarketingFuel: 52% of attendees dont track conversion rates [in their sales pipeline] and 77% dont track sales cycle lengthi n the sales pipeline #sds09
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kdewitte27: #sds09 Org's that have embraced a closed loop approach=+21% profit and +24% rev growth vs -6% and 0% for those that haven't (3 yr timeframe)
amyblack: Deborah Nelson at HP says that her "best in class" roi target is $70 earned for every dollar spent. #sds09
Sales/Marketing Funnel
stharris: #sds09 Most case studies are after purchase. Why not have one on Why they switched? Case studies across the demand waterfall. (Tony Jaros)
cahidalgo: #sds09: TJaros- "The demand waterfall is as much about human behavior as it is numbers." Human change management is part of process change
megheuer: Omniture improved # of opportunities by 5X, marketing's pipeline contribution by 7X based on linking brand to demand #sds09
megheuer: "Not about how we measure progression of a sales opportunity, but how we impact the progression of an opportunity" -@joegalvin at #sds09
jeffernst: #sds09 @jneeson This year sales is not just telling marketing we need more leads, we need marketing's help advancing our pipeline opps.
jblock: Focus is not so much at the top of the funnel; it has shifted to pipeline acceleration and sales enablememt. #sds09
Channel Marketing
jblock: Partners need guidance from their suppliers to run effective multi-touch campaigns. @lazgonzalez #sds09
cahidalgo: #sds09-common definition of a lead expands beyond direct sales and marketing and must also extend to the channel.
kdewitte27: #sds09 trend in channel demand gen strategy: let the partner create his leads and have the vendor support them with the right tools.
megheuer: #sds09 Channel programs shifting $ to supplier-to-customer programs, delivering message themselves, not waiting for partner @lazgonzalez
MarketingFuel: 83% of #sds09 attendees have absolutely no visibility into Channel marketing campaigns and effectiveness. Do partners really want you to?
Marketing Automation
megheuer: #sds09 Marketing automation is a requirement for best-practice performance says @jneeson
megheuer: #sds09 Prediction from @jneeson is by 2015, up to 50% of b-to-b marketers will deploy marketing automation
Marketing Structure
cedwardbrice: #sds09 more than half of audience making organizational changes to their marketing functions
kingsol: #sds09 Common theme between Deb (HP) and Buell (IBM) on creating single marketing themes for global deployment. Develop Once, Run Anywhere [DORA]
megheuer: #sds09 "Cajoling and good citizenship did not work" to drive use of run-once-use-everywhere programs; Centralized org structure did
megheuer: #sds09 By 2015, dominant marketing model will be an architecture of plays and tactics in an integrated, multi-dimensional approach
megheuer: #sds09 Attendees report marketing ops (38%), field mktg (36%) are areas of marketing programs that will change the most by 2015
megheuer: #sds09 The marketing demand center has advisory, execution and technical resources--more value-add than execution only @jneeson
megheuer: #sds09 Most attendees report their marketing org structure is a hybrid model (43%); 2nd most common is centralized (32%)
megheuer: #sds09 Leading organizations invest in marketing skills and address gaps in technology, process and programs that hurt progress
Social Media
| cedwardbrice: #sds09 B2B organizations with a coordinated reputation strategy gain an average of 40 percent more inquires |
brainshark: #sds09 Create content in smaller chunks that can be reused @jblock Convergence of Social and Traditional Media
megheuer: Need to have a baseline--do an annual audit of communications and social media activities to see what works/doesn't @jblock #sds09
megheuer: "We can't stick our heads in the sand anymore and not monitor what's going on in social media" -@jblock #sds09
megheuer: @jblock: Use a combination of social media and traditional awareness tools to improve leverage and reach of assets #sds09
amyblack: #sds09 Social media is cheap (technology) but expensive from a human resources stand point - it takes time and effort to do it well [ Amen!]
megheuer: #sds09 Only a small number of btob organizations have a coherent strategy for social media says @jblock
amyblack: #sds09 Communities are the fastest growing social media segment within b2b orgs - blog adoption is still higher ( 33% vs. 29%)
amyblack: #sds09 prediction that social media will become more a function of product marketing as that group needs to have a dialogue with customers
Here are some quick thoughts that I’ve jotted down (more later - just went through 25+ pages of Twitter search results and need to reflect more on this):
- Inbound marketing is and will be extremely crucial go forward but marketers need to develop strategies to target leads that are deeper in the sales/marketing funnel – especially in this economy
- Importance of lead nurturing (no need to say more right now)
- No mention of lead scoring - any comment on this from summit attendees?
- Suppliers are looking for ways to help out their partners
- Social media in B2B marketing is still at its early stages but expect this to grow enormously for the next summit
- The key across all of these topics is sales/marketing alignment. It may also be the most difficult part.
Thanks to all of the twitters who passionately twitted at the conference and gave people like me some semblance of being there. Of course, muchos gracias to @siriusdecisions for bringing together great presentations and great people.
Chad H.
@chadhorenfeldt
