B2B buyers are “hungry” for content that aids their decision-making according to a new study by Skout, which states that informative digital output should be viewed as an “integral part” of the sales cycle.
The new research is largely focused on the dynamics of marketing and sales in the workplace and the ongoing challenges of aligning marketing plans and strategies with the latter’s own targets and objectives.
Overall, enterprises are struggling, as just 40% said they managed to a certain degree to dovetail marketing with sales. However, only 27% said they had done this successfully.
Marketers believe sales teams’ lack of knowledge about the power of content may be the problem as 56% said their content is not valued. This suggests sales teams are missing out by not using blogs, articles and whitepapers to generate leads and seal the deal.
Despite this, 28% of sales want more content produced. Skout managing director, Rob Skinner, said potential clients and customers want content when they begin researching products and sales during the formative stages of the sales cycle. He added that content marketing is now “essential” to a buyer’s journey.
“Marketing and sales own two sides of the same process – attracting and generating new business – so it’s imperative that they work effectively together to this common goal”, Skinner said.
He added: “It’s great to see that over half of sales and marketing teams now have healthy working relationships but it’s disappointing that almost three quarters still believe that their attempts at aligning the plans with sales strategies aren’t working.”
