Summit 2013 Highlights: A Balanced Approach to Innovation Investment
- 10th May 2013
“The best way for us to look at an organization’s strategy is to look at its budget,” said Jeff Lash, research director for SiriusDecisions’ Product Management service, in introducing the final presentation of Summit 2013. “56 percent of organizations we surveyed reported that more than half of their new offerings fail to meet financial and performance objectives,” Lash noted. “That’s an astounding number. So why does this happen? Because only 11 percent of organizations align their process for investing in new offerings with marketing and sales budgets.”
Continue Reading...Summit 2013 Highlights: The Unified Integration Model for Marketing, Sales and Product Functions
- 10th May 2013
When polled about the state of integration among b-to-b product, sales and marketing functions within their organizations, 98 percent of Summit 2013 attendees agreed that at least one of those functions was not well integrated with the other two. Twenty-six percent of those polled said that product functions were not well integrated with sales and marketing, 11 percent said sales was not well integrated, 9 percent said marketing was out of sync, and 53 percent said their companies’ integration problems were generalized across all three functions. To address these issues, the SiriusDecisions Unified Integration Model was introduced today at Summit 2013 by Jay Gaines, vice president and group director of the b-to-b research firm.
Continue Reading....Summit 2013: Day 2 Recap
- 9th May 2013
Today’s Summit proceedings included a full day of presentations on b-to-b sales, marketing and product strategies and best practices. Here are some of the highlights.
Continue Reading....Summit 2013 Highlights: Inciting a B-to-B Content Revolution
- 9th May 2013
Fully 60 to 70 percent of content churned out by b-to-b marketing departments today sits unused. This stark statistic underscores the urgent need for a content revolution in b-to-b organizations. The SiriusDecisions Content Model, a new framework introduced today by SiriusDecisions’ Summit 2013 event in San Diego, aims to help companies launch such a revolution. “Our revolutionized perspective is that content is an enterprise-wide strategy requiring the alignment of product, sales and marketing in order to optimize the factory that produces content,” said Marisa Kopec, vice president and group director at SiriusDecisions.
Continue Reading....Summit 2013 Highlights: Apply Productivity Analysis to Improve B-to-B Sales Results
- 9th May 2013
Time is the most valuable resource a sales rep has: “A salesperson has, typically, 50 hours in the week in which to work. It’s the job of both marketing and sales to ensure that those 50 hours are spent as productively as possible,” said Jim Ninivaggi, service director of Sales Enablement Strategies at SiriusDecisions, who spoke at Summit 2013 this morning. B-to-b organizations often struggle to keep reps focused on higher-yield activities that lead to closing deals and bringing in revenue. This was borne out by the results of an instant poll of the Summit 2013 audience: Only 1 percent of participants polled felt very confident that their reps are fully productive vs. 41 percent who are very confident that their reps are not fully productive.
Continue Reading....Summit 2013 Highlights: Has Your Demand Waterfall Evolved?
- 9th May 2013
Are organizations taking full advantage of the new phases and stages offered by the revised Demand Waterfall? Instant poll results at Summit 2013, which is currently underway at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, revealed that 43 percent of respondents have implemented or are in the process of implementing the rearchitected version of the Demand Waterfall, while another 31 percent are planning to make the switch in the future.
Continue Reading....SiriusDecisions Summit 2013, Day 1 Recap
- 8th May 2013
Today SiriusDecisions kicked off its eighth annual Summit, which drew a sell-out crowd of attendees eager to focus on b-to-b marketing, sales and product issues and best practices, at the San Diego’s Manchester Grand Hyatt. Today’s highlights included:
Continue Reading....Bridging the Marketing Skills Gap
- 6th May 2013
As the complexity of the b-to-b marketing landscape grows, one of the challenges that marketing leaders face is identifying the skills needed across the marketing organization. The infusion of technology in marketing has introduced the need for a specialized technical skill set in areas such as digital, social, mobile and CRM.
Continue Reading....Why Your Staff Needs to Go on a Sales Call Today
- 26th April 2013
Most reps adhere to the adage “Plan your work and work your plan.” But does your staff fully appreciate what that involves? From time to time, field marketing, sales operations and sales enablement should go on rep ride-alongs to observe and discover new ways to enable sales success. Here are some pointers to help you make the most of these ride-alongs (and to make sure you’re asked back).
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