In other words, leaders only saw a smoldering platform for change, not a flaming one. Instead of orchestrating marketing and sales as a continuous process, executives viewed digital marketing and lead generation deliverables as separate and distinct from sales execution. In this perspective, B2B marketing is relegated to the role of generating awareness, whether through digital campaigns or analog channels such as trade shows and brochures. These companies have yet to transition this capability to digital, automated lead generation, nurturing, and scoring.
A BCG study revealed several reasons why companies hesitate to adopt technology platforms like demand centers, even when they recognize the positive opportunities of the platform and the negative risks of waiting. These reasons include a lack of talent, a technology-driven mindset, and outdated ways of working.
Suboptimal marketing and sales processes increase the costs of identifying, qualifying, and converting leads. They also reduce profitability for companies that serve certain customer segments, especially those that may be underserved, such as SMB customers. A fragmented tools and data landscape exacerbates this problem, as salespeople lack a comprehensive overview of up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and increased risk of churn in their customer base.
But management’s reluctance to create demand centers, including functional integration, will have broader implications in time. Maintaining traditional sales approaches and siloed relationships between marketing and sales hinders B2B companies’ ability to respond quickly and proactively to profound changes in the market.
Our recent experience shows us that there is a platform on fire. The consumerization of the B2B buying process, the growing importance of parts and service, and the potential efficiencies brought about by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are creating opportunities for the next wave of fast adopters to gain market share, deepen customer relationships, and reap the benefits. Increased efficiency will benefit from lead generation, qualification, and conversion.
Advances in martech and the growing role of millennials and Gen Z in business decision-making mean that the B2B buying process is becoming increasingly familiar to consumers, with an omnichannel presence, intuitive interfaces, and positive user experiences. According to a 2023 report from Forrester, these generational cohorts will make up 64% of business buyers, and their “digital literacy” will lead them to seek out self-service transaction channels and information from a variety of third parties rather than the seller. The scale and impact of these changes are so far-reaching that B2B companies need to embrace them as the known, not as a new or passing trend.
The consumerization of B2B marketing and sales requires the marketing function to upgrade from simply generating awareness to a role as co-owner and primary driver of the entire sales conversion funnel. This requires a new marketing and sales operating model that covers the entire funnel, with the demand center as the new function for lead generation, qualification, and nurturing.
