• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 17, 2023

Some pundits argue that B2B sales teams are switching from using third-party data to first-party intent data.   

They have, in part, but they are utilizing many forms of third-party data, judging by The 2023 C-Suite Go-To-Market Benchmark Survey, a Demand Gen report, sponsored by Demandbase. 

Specifically, they are using: 

• Contact data — 49%
• Account hierarchies — 39% 
• Company firmographics — 37% 
• Intent data — 37%
• Technographics — 37%
• News and social insights — 34% 
• Unknown account identification — 16% 

They are using this data for: 

- Competitive intelligence — 61%

- Account prioritization — 55%

- Personalizing messaging and outreach — 54% 

- Account selection — 43% 

- Timing engagement — 28%

Email marketing would clearly fall under personalizing message and outreach. The problem is that B2B teams face several general data challenges:

- Data quality (dirty, out of date, duplicated) — 55%

- Missing or incomplete information — 50% 

- Disconnected/siloed data sources — 40% 

- Actioning data — 34% 

- Inability to digest data the way they want — 34%

- None — 6% 

Brands are dealing with data issues in tandem with the age-old problem of sales-marketing alignment. Of those polled, 52% do not struggle with alignment. 

But there is one slight disconnect: 53% of salespeople say they are aligned with marketing, while 51% of marketers agree they are connected with sales. Those numbers are up from last year, when 44% of marketers felt they were aligned with sales. 

For their part, sales development/business development reps say they:

- Report to sales — 55%

- Report to marketing — 20%

- Inbound marketing and outbound to sales — 19%

There are several issues that may get in the way of sales-marketing alignment: 

• Looking at different data/operating in different systems — 45%
• Measured by different metrics — 37% 
• Poor handoffs — 33% 
• Lack of communication — 25% 

Meanwhile, firms are evolving their CTM to support the increased demand by buyers for self-service experiences. They are providing:

• Demo videos — 48%
• Interactive demos — 41%
• Online calculators — 40%
• Product tours — 39%
• We are not catering — 29%

Demand Gen surveyed 200 high-level B2B sales and marketing leaders.