While you were hustling, we were busy curating the most insightful stories around sales, marketing, and what your clients are thinking from the week that was.
This week, find out what two of the biggest research firms in the industry recently discovered, what intent data can do for you, and more.
Intent Data Turns a Buyer-Centric World From a Curse into a Blessing (Sales Hacker)
We all know that intent data is the information captured about user’s online behavior, but are you utilizing it correctly? Are you even using it at all? According to one recent report, just 25 percent of companies are using intent data, and that boggles our collective minds. This piece from Sales Hacker gets into the nitty-gritty of how you should be leveraging it, why it matters, and how you can derive value from it to drive sales.
8 Top Findings in Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2018-19 (Gartner)
Gartner recently released its CMO Spend Survey for 2018-19, and they saved us a lot of trouble by putting together their biggest takeaways from the results. More than 600 marketing leaders shared their thoughts about the state of their martech spending—and what their marketing dollars are being spent on. Perhaps the best news for salespeople? Marketers are spending more on technology across the board.
Predictions 2019: CIOs, Don’t Put The Cart Before The Horse (Forrester)
Gartner wasn’t the only research company to drop knowledge last week. Forrester released a pretty compelling study of their own, in which they declared that back-office technology will experience five percent growth, as Chief Intelligence Officers take a relatively modest approach to innovation. Forrester also predicts that a quarter of companies will be hanging for-hire signs for new CIOs in 2019. Money quote? “The upshot is that successful CIOs will be seen as rising stars.” That can mean more budget for them—and more appetite for IT solutions.
Experience Sells: How to Build an Audience-Centric Event Strategy (Yesler)
As salespeople, it’s important to keep in mind how attendees experience the event from their point of view, particularly considering where they are in the buying journey. This can include overwhelming all five senses (yes, even smell), and that can have an effect on whether the buyer continues on or strays from the purchasing path. If you’re representing your company and giving product demonstrations, this story has things you can do to make sure that you’re properly engaging your leads and showing value at your next event.
B2B Buyer Survey Respondents Say they Take 40-plus Hours Researching Products and Services (B2B News Network)
The Belgium-headquartered firm Snowcap released The New B2B Buyer Experience, which draws on a survey of more than 656 B2B buyers across the U.S., the U.K. and Germany. Our favorite takeaway was around sales content. The Showpad survey stated that 45 percent of buyers prefer a personalized content portal, followed closely by ROI calculators.
