Research Services

Demand Creation Strategies

One of marketing's most critical roles is to develop demand. Through a combination of business processes, integrated marketing campaigns and lead development tools, a demand center must be established to drive demand in quantifiable measures and to clearly demonstrate the impact on topline revenue.

Demand creation is constantly evolving, and requires unique operational insight to ensure that all its elements are fully optimized. New strategies, technologies and tactics are available for marketing evaluation; best practices are ready and waiting to be explored and implemented; benchmark data is a necessity to demonstrate the success of the demand center against industry peers; and finally, innovative strategies should be considered to effectively integrate with and optimize sales.

Demand Creation Strategies™ (DCS) from SiriusDecisions provides senior marketing management with operational intelligence on demand creation to support today's strategic and tactical lead development initiatives. DCS compliments Executive Edge™, our flagship advisory service, by combining benchmark data on lead development, analytic decision models designed to assist in the evaluation of your lead development programs, and thought-provoking research to support effective decision-making.

COVERAGE AREAS
DCS research focuses on industry best practices, vendor evaluations, practical analysis of the demand creation process, and cutting-edge strategies that are driving best-in-class marketing organizations. Key questions DCS addresses include:

Vendors:

Which are the most appropriate vendors your organization should consider?
What are the key strategic strengths and weaknesses of these vendors?

Best Practices:

How are best practice companies approaching lead development?
What conversion rates are industry standard and what are best practices?
What lead-to-close ratios do high-growth companies achieve?

Benchmarking:

What strategies and tactics do other like companies use to generate and develop leads?
How does your cost per lead compare to your peers?
How does your marketing mix compare?

Strategies:

How can sales and marketing effectively work together to develop leads?
How should a lead be defined?

Models:

What tools are available to analyze your demand creation issues?
What is the right inside sales model to consider?
What does an integrated sales and marketing model look like?
What are the elements of the demand center?

DELIVERABLES
Incorporating DCS into your workflow is easy. Interact with SiriusDecisions research analysts in the manner that suits your needs. You may contact our analysts by phone, send an inquiry by e-mail or participate in interactive webcasts and in-person forums with analysts and peers. You will also have access to published research, presentations and rich media-based content on demand via the client portal.

Research: SiriusDecisions offers a variety of research formats to deliver a comprehensive view of today's most pressing sales and marketing issues:

Research Briefs: Monthly research notes that frame executive-level sales and marketing issues in a concise layout. Three to four briefs are delivered to you each month, and are archived on the research portal.
SiriusPerspectives: A monthly newsletter in a concise layout that provides a high-level overview of a sales and marketing topic dealing with demand creation, sales optimization or reputation development.
Vendor Profiles: Reviews of emerging suppliers who may be beneficial to your demand creation efforts. SiriusDecisions also plots suppliers on our vendor matrices, allowing you to analyze and narrow your choices.
Core Strategy Reports: Provides key observations and commentary on SiriusDecisions presentations introducing critical models, frameworks and strategies. Tackles more complex sales and marketing issues, and introduces new areas of research in a white paper format.
SiriusTools: Frameworks, models and issues spectrums that allow you to more easily visualize and communicate your challenges, and to determine the most appropriate courses of action.
Rich Media: Webcast archives in rich media format that can be replayed at your convenience, shared with team members or used for training purposes.

Analyst Inquiry: Interacting with SiriusDecisions' DCS analysts is as easy as picking up the phone or scheduling a meeting. Discussions with an analyst may be centered on best practices, a review of data from a SiriusDecisions analytic tool or a review of vendors you may be considering.

Annual Lead Audit: Every year, SiriusDecisions analysts will benchmark your lead development performance against our SiriusIndex of business-to-business companies and provide an independent perspective on the industry and your performance compared with companies like yours.

Events: Peer interaction is a valuable way to understand how others are solving similar issues, and an opportunity for you to build your network of peer connections. As a member of DCS you may attend monthly webinars and quarterly half-day research forums, and receive client pricing for all SiriusDecisions conferences.

Below, please find a partial list of recently published DCS research.

Brief
Dynamic Profiling: The What and How

In this brief, we identify the technological advances and enhanced buyer experiences necessary to dynamically profile buyers, focusing specifically on what’s required to qualify visitors as potential leads.

Brief
Teleprospecting in the Rearchitected Waterfall

In this brief, we explore the evolving role of the teleprospecting function in the context of the demand waterfall’s four broad phases: inquiry, marketing qualification, sales qualification and close.

Brief
Demand Waterfall Stage Velocity: Prerequisites

In order to accurately measure waterfall stage velocity – the speed with which leads progress through the various stages of the demand waterfall – several conditions must be met. In this brief, we discuss four prerequisites that affect waterfall stage velocity measurement efforts.

Core Strategy Report
Perpetual Demand Creation

This SiriusDecisions Core Strategy Report presents best practices and key observations that will help make perpetual demand creation (PDC) a reality for more organizations.

Brief
Events and Last-Mile Pipeline Acceleration

In this brief, we examine the use of events for a form of pipeline acceleration that we refer to as last-mile.

Brief
The Role of Public Relations in Demand Creation

In this brief, we explore six opportunities for PR to contribute to demand creation success.

Core Strategy Report
The SiriusDecisions Demand Creation Framework

This SiriusDecisions Core Strategy Report reviews the key components of the SiriusDecisions demand creation framework, including strategic, organizational, infrastructure and process considerations required to support demand, as well as execution approaches that work in concert to create demand.

Brief
Field Marketing: Campaign Interlock With Centralized Marketing

In this brief, we present an approach for decentralized field marketing teams to interlock with centralized program planning using the SiriusDecisions Campaign Framework.

Brief
A Marketer's Guide to Defining Lead Quality With Sales

In this brief, we examine the factors that must be considered in order for sales and marketing to agree on a definition of lead quality.

Brief
Marketing Automation: Central Creation of Regional Programs

In this brief, we outline the four stages required to create and customize centrally developed marketing automation programs for regional use.

Brief
Events and Intra-Pipeline Acceleration

In this brief, we examine the use of events for a form of pipeline acceleration that we refer to as intra-pipeline.

Core Strategy Report
The SiriusDecisions Campaign Implementation Process

In this SiriusDecisions Core Strategy Report, we identify the steps involved in developing and implementing integrated campaigns and highlight operational considerations for each step.

Brief
Demand Waterfall Stage Velocity

In this brief, we describe the concept of waterfall stage velocity and how it’s measured, detail why it’s so critical and specify several waterfall stage velocity dependencies.

Brief
Events and Rapid-Entry Pipeline Acceleration

In this brief, the first in a three-part series, we examine the use of events for a form of pipeline acceleration that we refer to as rapid-entry.

Brief
Managing Outsourced Teleservices Providers

In this brief, we identify three common mistakes that b-to-b organizations make when working with teleservices vendors, and share ways that these pitfalls can be avoided.

Brief
Small-Net Fishing: Planning and Preparation

Small-net fishing programs are typically designed for, and executed by, a teleprospecting team to accelerate new leads into the demand waterfall. In this brief, we explain how to plan and prepare for these programs.

Core Strategy Report
Mobile Marketing Adoption Framework

In this SiriusDecisions Core Strategy Report, we present a mobile marketing adoption framework and checklist to guide organizations in selecting and integrating mobile tactics that align with the access and delivery preferences of their audiences (prospects, customers, sales, channel).

Brief
Inside the Demand Waterfall: Small-Net Fishing

Small-net fishing is outbound teleprospecting focused on sourcing new leads based on defined targeting criteria, touch sequences and messaging. In this brief, we define how small-net fishing efforts differ from other multi-touch marketing programs, and classify the three types of small-net fishing efforts that companies can undertake.

Core Strategy Report
Service-Level Agreements for Effective Demand Creation

In this SiriusDecisions Core Strategy Report, we offer a set of five basic service-level agreements (SLAs) used by leading b-to-b organizations to build and continuously improve demand creation and lead management processes that drive sales productivity and accelerate revenue growth.

Core Strategy Report
Advanced Lead Scoring

In this SiriusDecisions Core Strategy Report, we discuss advanced lead scoring and outline several ways that organizations can take advantage of it.