Inaccurate prospect data hurts B2B organizations

A new report by the CMO Council reveals that 79% of B2B marketers feel their prospect data is inaccurate and needs improvement. Only 16% of those polled feel that their prospect data is reliable, comprehensive and accurate. Many companies only update their prospect data periodically, and lack the ability to update prospect data in real time. One of the inherent challenges is that many marketers are gathering their prospect data from misc. sources and cannot make frequent updates to their prospect data.

Based on the report, the most common source of prospect data comes from internal proprietary databases, trade shows, industry events, and data gathered by internal sales team members. This report shows a gap in a closed loop between marketing and sales, which hurts the effectiveness of lead generation for B2B companies.

Those companies polled reported issues with integrating, maintaining and refreshing their prospect data sources. Basic engagement data, which includes job titles, roles in enterprises and other forms of contact information, are missing for many organizations. Many marketing teams report that they are not confident in the prospect data that they have, as it is unreliable and out of date.

Additionally, competition data needs vast improvement in many organizations. Insights into competition are lacking. Without a clear competitive view, many B2B organizations have a challenge properly positioning themselves in the marketplace and may not be making the right investments. There are common problems with many B2B organizations’ ability to collect timely and useful insights.

B2B Marketing teams are facing pressure to incorporate marketing and analysis tools and systems required to gain the right insights and help close the gap between marketing efforts and sales processes. Many B2B organizations would be served well to employ robust marketing automation systems into their marketing and sales practices to improve prospecting and gather better insights.

Marketing automation can improve lead generation efforts, as well as power email campaigns to nurture leads through the marketing to sales funnel.

Gathering better prospect data and insights are critical to improving B2B marketing practices. The B2B sales cycle can be longer than consumer sales cycles. The B2B sales process can be more complicated as well, with the process to make a purchase decision involving multiple decision makers in an enterprise. Greater insights help shorten the process and allow organizations to invest and nurture the right leads.

SOURCE: CMO Council