Survey: BTB Marketers Assume ROI Accountability

Business-to-business companies expect marketing departments to strengthen relationships with sales but are reluctant to invest in the resources and technologies required for sales accountability, according to the results of a national survey released Aug. 28 by Extraprise.

An overwhelming majority of BTB marketing departments -- 80 percent -- has assumed an increased responsibility for sales activities and results within the last year. However, only 14 percent are confident in customer data, 20 percent still are not measuring results while 56 percent have a process to prioritize leads.

Marketing's increasing responsibility to deliver ROI for a company as a whole is a step in the right direction versus what has been the traditional model for many, with sales on one side of the organization and marketing on the other. However, in order for the two to be truly integrated, marketing must be able to efficiently deliver leads with the proper intelligence, according to Boston-based Extraprise.

Of the BTB marketers that do measure results, 26 percent track closed business (ROI), 12 percent cite qualified leads as a tracking method, 10 percent use response rates to gauge success and 32 percent measure all three.

Only 12 percent of marketers reported that their companies have been "very aggressive" when it comes to adopting new marketing and sales technologies, 60 percent said they have been "somewhat aggressive" and 28 percent claim that they are "not aggressive at all."

The findings are based on responses from 60 BTB sales and marketing executives from Fortune 2000 companies.