• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, November 6, 2017

According to a recent study by Heinz Marketing, marketers are under more scrutiny than ever, and increasingly more accountable, for their company’s revenue results. Sales and marketing teams need to effectively partner in order to achieve revenue success, says the report.  “Revenue is the ultimate metric; the CMO who shows accurate impact to revenue will have career success,” concludes the report.

Heinz Marketing research, with over 250 B2B marketing and sales executives, shows how to measure success, revenue accountability, and responsibility that impacts overall sales performance, requiring skills, tools, process, and accurate data. Marketers have access to tools to measure past performance, with attribution models which can help direct future efforts. These models can be used to help guide resources to the highest performance channels, campaigns and content, says the report.

The study highlights include these findings:

• 71.3% of marketing organizations have increased accountability for revenue goals
• 61.8% responded that their company achieves or exceeds revenue goals as a result of increased marketing accountability and responsibility
• 75% said that their companies do not achieve revenue goals without increased marketing accountability
• The #1 ranked success factor in achieving revenue goals is an effective marketing and sales partnership
• 66.7% report revenue pipeline opportunities as the #1 marketing success metric
• Less than 8% of sales management, and only 12% of representative sales execs, believe their marketing organizations effectively use revenue performance metrics

Over 60% of companies see improved sales performance from marketing teams with increased revenue responsibility, says the report, and 62.5% of sales managers believe sales performance improved because of marketing’s increased revenue responsibility.

The surveyed sales and marketing organizations all show increased levels of revenue accountability. Potentially, says the report, this is a leading indicator that drives closer alignment to achieve a common goal.

Revenue Responsibility And Accountability Increased For Your Marketing Organization

• Over 70% reported their company’s marketing organization has increased revenue responsibility and accountability
• Nearly 80% of marketing management responded they are under increasing revenue responsibility
• 66% of sales management respondents recognize that their marketing organizations are under increasing revenue responsibility

Nearly 65% of respondents reported that their company experienced improved sales performance from increased accountability placed on their company’s sales organization.

Concluding, the report notes that Marketing Performance Management provides navigational discipline to achieve or exceed revenue goals. The discipline is based in data and metrics that lead to one goal – revenue. Marketing Performance Management gives B2B marketers credibility and strategic influence. Focusing on where revenue comes from and how much it cost is what executives want to know. The research indicates the biggest contributor to strong sales performance is a strong partnership between marketing and sales.

For the complete report, search via HeinzMarketing.docx