In several of my recent reports, I've made claims about the current state of B2B demand generation. Call me Mr. Doom And Gloom, but from my perch, and from my experience in B2B sales and marketing, it's not a pretty picture. To back up my claims, I decided to survey B2B marketing and sales leaders to gather some data points on the real state of affairs.

Just for kicks, I asked people to give a word or phrase that summarizes their view of the state of demand generation, and the word that appeared most frequently in the responses was "disjointed." Hmmm, how fitting. And there's no shortage of contexts for how that word fits. Disjointed between sales and marketing, disjointed channels, disjointed messages. Shall I continue or enough said? Some of the other words and phrases offered are:

  • Challenging
  • Chaotic
  • Confused
  • Evolving
  • In flux
  • In transition
  • Too much noise

Some of the other findings? 

  • In 42% of companies, marketing creates leads and sales tools and throws them over the wall to sales.
  • Fewer than one-fourth of respondents have defined a lead-to-revenue management process that their marketing and sales teams follow.
  • Forty-four percent of respondents say that prospects view communications from them as "disjointed" or "hit or miss."

The good news is that B2B marketing and sales leaders are planning to make big changes over the next 12 months to address many of today's shortcomings. For more stats and insight into what their plans are, see my report The State Of B2B Demand Generation: Disjointed.