Improve Performance with a Common Data Foundation
In today’s highly competitive marketplace, sales and marketing teams are facing pressure to improve performance and grow revenue faster.
However, there is a lot of waste across the funnel that directly impacts the ability to convert leads into customers. This waste takes place across investments in campaigns and technologies and time engaging with poor quality leads. In fact, according to Forrester Research, less than 1% of leads convert into actual sales.1
When it comes to achieving your sales and marketing objectives, waste is the enemy of performance, and those that embrace precision with data and analytics eliminate waste across the funnel, alleviate pressure, and drive revenue for their organizations. In fact, according to McKinsey Global Institute, data-driven companies are 23 times more likely to acquire customers!
That is why access to reliable data and analytics is critical when it comes to influencing the B2B buying process. With vast amounts of fragmented data flowing across organizations, it’s more challenging to segment markets accurately, target audiences consistently, personalize experiences, and empower sellers with the knowledge they need to close business.
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According to our recent B2B Marketing Data Report, 89% of B2B sales and marketing professionals believe data quality drives the right campaigns but nearly 50% of firms are not confident in the quality of their data. This lack of confidence results in slower adoption of key initiatives such as account-based marketing. In fact, 88% believe data is crucial for account-based marketing, but only one-third of firms are executing it.
As pressure for efficiency in revenue generation increases, marketers are aligning more closely with sellers on account-based marketing tactics. The consumerization of the B2B buying process means today’s buyers expect on-demand, digital, and personalized experiences, which require more resources and time to execute. To be successful – and obtain a competitive advantage – sales and marketing leaders must embrace precision with data and analytics, so they can make quicker, more confident decisions that positively impact the buying cycle.
Objective: Analyze and Identify Ideal Customer Profiles
Sales and marketing teams are being tasked with mining their data to clarify and quantify known and unknown market segments, predicting and generating more qualified leads, and accelerating the buyer’s journey to increase revenue. This starts with an understanding of data health and the ability to address any data quality issues.
Siloed data, high rates of data decay, and inconsistent data collection challenge teams to identify their most valuable prospects.
Many firms adopt a manual approach to managing data quality, which is time consuming and rarely results in an accurate view of their best opportunities. In a recent study we conducted with Forrester Research, we found that 80% of firms struggle to manage the volume, variety, and velocity of their business data.3 This can result in missed opportunities and lost revenue, which is why it’s so critical to establish a unified view of your data. Doing so enables both sales and marketing teams to identify ideal prospects and segment key markets.
Marketing needs to quickly and accurately segment markets to identify the best opportunities for faster growth.
Marketing Ops needs to stitch together contact, lead, and account information across platforms to help identify highly engaged targets.
Sales needs to know which accounts they should be contacting.
Solution: Establish a Common Data Foundation
An easy place to start is with removing bad data, enriching healthy records with deeper insight, and more effectively augmenting your database with new prospects that match your target audience. Quality data helps you identify and focus on your best opportunities while empowering better planning, targeting, and sales productivity. In order to successfully achieve these objectives, you need to:
- Create a single view of your prospects and customers
- Analyze and segment key markets
- Prioritize targets based on predictive analytics
We can help!
Dun & Bradstreet’s Sales & Marketing Solutions help eliminate waste and embrace precision across the buyer’s journey with the power of data and analytics. Leveraging data and insights from the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud, our solutions help improve marketing ROI, drive ABM strategies, accelerate the buyer journey, and increase sales efficiency.
Assess your data health and identify opportunities with a free, self-serve Data HealthScan from Dun & Bradstreet.
1 Forrester, ”The New Physics Of Lead-To-Revenue Management,” 2013.
2 McKinsey Global Institute, ”Five Facts: How Customer Analytics Boost Corporate Performance,” 2014.
3 Forrester Research, ”B2B Data Activation Priority,” 2018.