The buyer dictates the method of sales. Ages ago, salespeople didn’t start calling leads until the leads had phones. They didn’t email before leads had email. But a shift in B2B has happened. Potential buyers can now do a ton of research online without the help of salespeople.

This time, the buyer advanced quicker than the salesperson. According to a recent Televerde survey of B2B sales and marketing professionals (from the cited post on MarketingProfs):

· Over 60% of those surveyed stated incomplete data and poor data hygiene as their biggest marketing challenge when it came to data.

· Only 29% stated that more effective and relevant customer touches should be the highest priority for lead nurturing. (For that 29%, conversion rates ranked the highest. This indicates that  more effective and relevant touches lead to higher conversions.)

· 83% described their definition as providing educational and collateral (i.e., one-way communication).

Key Takeaway: The salesperson is still critical, but having a robust online profile of your goods/services is critical for the large end of the sales funnel.

Read more at MarketingProfs