MARKETING & SALES FRUSTRATIONS
MARKETING & SALES FRUSTRATIONS
Most IT decision-makers (87%) say disconnects between marketing and sales from tech vendors erode trust (by the way, this statistic rises to 97% for the most senior roles of CIO / CTO). And that’s not their only frustration with the two departments.
Over half (54%) think marketing is too generic and irrelevant, and over a third (36%) think sales is often too scripted. A considerable number (37%) also think marketing is too intrusive or interruptive whilst 32% think sales is too aggressive.
So, what’s the answer? 35% think that marketing content from tech vendors could be improved by being more interactive and engaging. The same number agrees that marketing could be more focused on their business rather than on the vendor and their products. And 33% want marketing content to be more comprehensive – which is why taking them on a ‘journey’ is perhaps the best approach.
The top five improvements requested of marketing content:
expect more interactive and engaging experiences.
want more focus on their business rather than on the vendor.
would like marketing to be more comprehensive.
want content that’s led more by emerging issues (rather than product-focused).
would like content to be more concise.
Relevance and context are really key.
The top frustrations with both marketing and sales are damning really – too much content is created without thinking about its direct relevance, helpfulness, and appropriateness to the customer – and it still seems that we’re aggressively breaking down doors just to have generic conversations with people that we’ve not bothered to get to know.
It’s also interesting to note that (as you’ll see later) the more personalised and contextual approaches afforded by things like Account-Based Marketing (ABM) are welcomed. This therefore shows a disconnect, with ABM being a significant sales and marketing play for many organisations, but the customers themselves not seeing the benefits.
It comes back to our methodology of context, answer, credibility – and the crucial nature of the context part. To make it relevant, the context has to be about the customer’s world, and better still demonstrate empathy with their situation. There are so many tools available to us that can provide us with data that can inform the context (such as 1st to 3rd party intent data, technographic and firmographic data, and social media data). Many organisations have invested in these, so we need to make sure they are fully leveraged – from the marketing content to the sales enablement.
One key element of this research concerns how people would like to be initially contacted. Most people think that traditional contact methods no longer work as well and that social media and social selling are really the only way forward. However, a whopping 76% of those we surveyed would prefer initial contact to be made by email.
The next largest preference is by phone at 35%, followed by invitations or messaging on LinkedIn in third place at 29%. So, in reality, methodologies such as social selling are only a part of the optimal contact and relationship-building methodologies that organisations should employ.
Finally, it's a common misconception that gated content is an issue or unnecessary barrier, with, on average, only 17% of people finding them frustrating (it's a bigger frustration for CIO / CTOs, and least frustrating for IT Director level). A generic and intrusive approach is considered much worse, as you can gate too much but also give too much away. Gating should be reserved for genuinely valuable information as based on the results we can see that if customers want valuable and relevant content, they will mostly be willing to give their date to access it.
