How Are B2B Marketers Optimising Their Funnel? (from MarketingSherpa)

MarketingSherpa recently published a fascinating infographic from their upcoming 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Study. Their study focused on identifying the most effective strategies and tactics for attracting and converting the modern B2B buyer – and I suspect that some of their findings might intrigue and surprise you…

You can read their original article here and download a full size version of the infographic below here. But I wanted to highlight a handful of their conclusions. The first is the absence of telemarketing from their top 5 most effective demand generation strategies. Frankly, this surprised me: many of my clients – particularly those with high-value B2B solutions with complex sales cycles – have found intelligent telemarketing to be highly effective. What’s your experience?

The second is the number of B2B organisations – a staggering 68% - who claimed not to have identified their sales funnel. If true, it suggests a major alignment problem between B2B Marketers and their sales counterparts. You’ve got to wonder: if one of the primary purposes of B2B marketing isn’t to help fill the sales funnel and facilitate the buying process, then what on earth are marketers doing with their time and budget?

There’s much more to mull over in these statistics. If you’re planning to be in Boston in September or Francisco on October you might want to attend the MarketingSherpa B2B Summit 2011 and find out more. But I’m interested in your opinions – and your comments. Please share your thoughts and your reactions below the image.

So - what do you think of MarketingSherpa's data?