How Marketing Can Solve the Big Data Problem for Sales

Marketing carries a big role in the B2B world.

Its success hinges on making sales as productive as possible. In many organizations, that success boils down to guiding reps to the most promising opportunities, while providing them with the story and messaging most likely to resonate with decision-makers and influencers. And that's key in today's selling environment.

Marketing needs to capitalize on the power of information to help sales teams make better use of their selling time, especially since some sales reps spend nearly a quarter of their time researching accounts (according to an Aberdeen study). Selling more effectively means targeting the right accounts most likely to purchase at the right time with the right messaging. Ultimately, marketing needs to enable this without further blocking the sales cycle.

In the era of Big Data, selling is less about the data. It is about the insights that come from the data. Marketers who are not generating or receiving insight from data aren't using that data to the best advantage. On the other hand, sharp marketers are using up-to-date insights on their prospects, customers and targeted industries to craft compelling messages that lead to conversations. All this is good and well, but without supporting technology, this can be a huge time suck.

Marketers at the most successful organizations are beginning to apply predictive analytics to all that is knowable about customers and prospects, identifying patterns, and serving up those insights to their sales reps. Big Data contains hidden but invaluable intelligence about clients and decision makers for front line sales professionals.

Big Data can play a role in improving:

• Sales effectiveness
• Targeting and messaging
• Sales results

In the coming weeks, we are releasing The Marketer's Guide to Spurring Sales Growth with Big Data. Subscribe to our RSS feed so you don't miss any updates.