This is a genuine benchmark study with 2061 companies participating.  Some interesting findings:

• 50% say they see no increase in qualified leads. (SLMA comment: that tells me they are doing the same tactics year after year which justifies salespeople’s complaints.
• 29% are not tracking marketing performance at all.
• Only 18% track leads completely through the funnel.
• There is a skills gap, short term marketers with only 21% comfortable with marketing automation.
• Budgets are growing.
• Use of outside consultants/agencies is at 20% (SLMA: Stupid is as stupid does, if you are low on skills find the talent to make you excel)
• History will repeat itself without proper training.  (SLMA: Is it training or leadership that is needed?)
• 38% have zero methods for tracking leads at any point of the funnel (page 7 is loaded)
• 81% of the respondents are sending out at least four figures worth of emails every month.
• 50% said marketing automation has drastically improved qualified leads.
• Salespeople don’t rate the quality of leads very high (6%).
• Sales lead tracking is miserable. (See the numbers on page 12).
• Lots more information about budget, what’s working, processes and lead qualification methods.
• 96% say they want to focus on lead quality over quantity (SLMA: if that’s reality , which we doubt, why are so many of the performance numbers so dreadful?)

SLMA Comments:  Justin Gray continues to bring the message, but we wonder if anyone is listening.

Why it’s Important:   

“Any good marketer should read the results of the LeadMD 2016 Benchmark Study and take action to be competitive.   Bad marketers continue to give excuses and repeat the previous year’s performance; when salespeople do this they are fired.”

Sales Lead Management Association

Recommended for: 

• President
• CFO
• CSO
• CMO
• VP Marketing
• Director of Marketing
• Marketing Operations Management
• Lead Generation
• Digital Content
• MarCom
• Sales Managers
• Sales Operations Management

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This review was conducted independently without the advice or consent of the publisher.    

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