CMO Council Unveils Year-End Scorecard of B2B Marketing Effectiveness in Capturing Key Customer Accounts
Executive Summary
In the ever-shifting landscape of B2B marketing, the process of acquiring, capturing, qualifying, and converting business opportunities remains a cornerstone for growth and profitability across industries and regions. However, a significant portion of lead generation and engagement strategies fall short of delivering desired outcomes.
The CMO Council, in collaboration with WM America, presents a comprehensive report titled “Fire Up Your Revenue Generation Engine.” This report delves into critical aspects of lead generation and engagement, including models and metrics for tracking performance, best practices for demand generation execution, and effective ways to score effectiveness.
Key findings from a Q4 survey of over 170 B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen, and campaign execution leaders reveal significant gaps in marketing effectiveness.
Key Findings
– 63% of respondents believe marketing should own and optimize a company’s revenue-generation engine.
– 64% acknowledge that their lead generation and engagement strategy underperforms.
– 78% of highly evolved marketers express satisfaction with their accelerated pipeline, compared to only 15% of lesser evolved marketers.
The Need for Transformation
The report emphasizes the need for marketers to move away from outdated practices and embrace data-driven approaches that anticipate, adapt, and respond to customer needs and opportunities.
Year-End Scorecard of B2B Marketing Execution and Demand Gen Operations
The CMO Council provides a year-end scorecard that assesses proficiencies in critical areas of B2B marketing execution and demand gen operations:
– Overall ABM effectiveness in finding, winning, and growing big customers: C
– Strategic account-based marketing (ABM) practices: C
– 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
Climbing the Evolutionary Ladder
Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, emphasizes the necessity for marketers to evolve and leave behind outdated practices. Utilizing AI-derived, intention-based buyer data and advanced sales intelligence is crucial for enhancing precision, predictability, and performance in B2B account marketing investments.
Top Five Skill Sets for Improved ABM-Driven Business Outcomes
The report identifies the top five skill sets contributing to improved 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
Widening Gaps in Performance
The CMO Council’s research reveals widening gaps in performance between highly evolved marketers and lesser evolved marketers in four core capabilities: lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing.
The LEAP Model
The report introduces a model for better identification, engagement, and conversion, coinciding with the CMO Council and WM America’s thought leadership initiative to advance lead revenue science practices through a certified Lead Evaluation and Assurance Process (LEAP) model.
Methodology
The report is based on a survey of over 170 heads of B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen, and campaign execution in Q4 2023. It also includes insights from in-depth interviews with executives from various companies and organizations.
About the CMO Council
The CMO Council is a global organization dedicated to knowledge exchange, thought leadership, and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers. With over 16,000 members, the CMO Council’s strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE).
About WM America
WM America specializes in targeted in-market demand generation. Their intent database tracks the intent behavior of over 75 million business professionals globally, 24X7, segmented into 3,300 categories. The company’s deep search ensures accurate and targeted information delivery for successful marketing strategies.
The Path Forward
The report concludes by highlighting the need for marketers to embrace innovation and forward-thinking strategies amid the evolving data landscape. CMOs must extend their visions to drive business growth and success in the face of changing market dynamics.