What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

Summer’s here!

Wow – can you believe we’re halfway through the year already? Feels like just yesterday we were working through our 2023 sales and marketing plans! Are you sailing into the summer with confidence, or are you constantly under pressure?

Give this song by Queen (and David Bowie) a listen as we hear what the experts are saying this week.

Stats/Trends – Knowing what this world is about

Q2 is almost wrapped. How are your sales and marketing activities trending?

As you know, I started this weekly email/blog during the pandemic to share stats, successes, and trends during turbulent times. I feel like it’s been too long since I’ve shared some actionable and tactical sales and marketing stats from my sources.

So here are some quick data points that you may find useful:

• The most effective channel for RDR (Revenue Development Rep) to engage a B2B buyer? Phone – 53%. Email – 36%. InMail, Social Media, and Website Chat all under 5%. Text (SMS) still under 1%.
• B2B buyer’s journey continues to stretch out. More than half of B2B purchases take longer than four months, and buyers engage in an average of 17 interaction types. Compared to just a year ago, 67% of B2B marketers say buyers are taking longer to commit to a purchase!
• Only 53% of sales professionals said that their organization’s sales tech stack aids productivity and positively impacts results. WOW! That’s a depressing statistic – with all the marketing and sales tech out there, how is this possible?

(Thanks to #forrb2bsummit and my awesome colleagues here at Virtual Causeway for sharing their data.)

Do these surprise you? What are you finding in your organization? Longer buying cycles, more buyer interactions, under-appreciated tech stacks… That’s a lot of pressure on people – how are you coping?

More Catalog Sales – Never rains but it pours

I’ve been closely following artists as they’ve sold their song catalogues over the past few years – seems like a way for many (aging?) artists to capitalize on the revenue potential of their songs as their touring and recording years dwindle.

Looks like Queen is in talks to sell their catalogue for the largest sum yet! As of now, Bruce Springsteen is the leader, having sold his song catalogue for around $500 million last year. If the rumours are true, Queen could sell their catalogue for over $1 billion!

Are these valuations getting ridiculous, or is there really that much value in their catalogues? In B2B, we see company valuations (especially in tech) that sometimes make us shake our heads, but if someone is willing to pay…

Many artists and bands might be feeling pressure pushin’ down to sell their catalogues. But with this price tag? Seems like a pretty easy choice!

Want to see the whole list of artists who have sold all or some of their catalogue? Here’s the running list compiled by fellow Canadian Alan Cross.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post B2B Trends: When it Rains, it Pours! appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

Congratulations on making it to December 2021! Some of us have had a rough time of it, others have been able to successfully adapt. Regardless – what can you do to keep moving forward and make it to the other side?

Give this Red Hot Chili Peppers song a listen with me as we see what the experts are saying this week…

HubSpot Data – I Don’t Believe It’s Bad

It’s time to look at the HubSpot data – one of my favourite things to do! How have things played out over the last year?

• While Deals Created and Deals Closed have seen ups AND downs, they’ve ultimately seen more ups, and are ending 2021 well above the pre-COVID benchmark.
• Contact Growth has also varied, but in the last month or so had a major uptick! Perhaps a result of the ‘Great Reshuffle’ of 2021 – fresh faces (and fresh points of contact) coming into a lot of organizations.
• Sales Calls and Conversations have seen steady increases monthly.
• Likewise, Sales Emails Sent have increased, but the Response Rates continue to drop.

How long will responses slide? I see a lot of people preach email outreach vs. phone, but these numbers indicate that email alone isn’t enough. It just brings us back to what we always talk about here at Virtual Causeway: the multi-pronged approach, with a combination of human AND digital touches!

Opportunity? Spotify’s Year-End Streaming Stats

Have you shared your ‘Spotify Wrapped’ yet? Well, Spotify themselves shared theirs! Do any of your top streams match up?

• Most-Streamed Artist: Bad Bunny (a repeat from 2020)
• Most-Streamed Song: “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo (who has two songs in the Top 5!)
• Most Popular Podcast: The Joe Rogan Experience (another holdover from 2020)
• Most-Streamed Throwback Song and Album: Both nabbed by Fleetwood Mac, with “Dreams” and Rumours

Coming in a close second to Bad Bunny is Taylor Swift. If you’ve been paying attention to anything she’s been doing over the last two years, then that shouldn’t surprise you at all. With so much buzz around her, she’s been able to reel in quite the audience of new and old fans alike.

Are there any ways your business can take advantage of a captive audience like that? Perhaps test out some content that taps into your target audience. Where is the opportunity for you? Don’t be afraid to think outside the box to reel in your own customers – stranger things COULD change their mind!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post B2B Data According to the Great Reshuffle appeared first on Virtual Causeway.