• by Laurie Sullivan , January 30, 2024

Given advancements in analytics and automation and the availability of customer data and AI tools, marketers should be doing a lot better at driving customer acquisitions, but nearly two-thirds of lead-generation and engagement strategies are underperforming, according to the latest CMO Council report.

The CMO Council found that marketers are falling behind in lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing.

Key findings from the Q4 survey of 150 of B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand-generation and campaign execution leaders include show that 63% of marketers say they must own and optimize their company’s revenue-generation engine, and 64% say their lead-generation and engagement strategy underperform.

A year-end scorecard ranks proficiencies in critical areas of B2B marketing execution and demand-generation operations.

And after “exhaustive research,” the CMO Council gave marketers a C- grade for moving deals from contact to closure, a C for scoring actionable leads, a C for finding buyers already seeking a specific product, and a C- for account-based marketing when it comes to finding, winning, and growing big customers, and moving deals more efficiently from contract to making a sale.

The report is based on a survey of 150 B2B marketing and sales leads driving revenue, growth, demand-generation and campaign execution in Q4 2023.

It also included content from in-depth interviews with executives from Netline, Autodesk, T-Mobile, NTT, ABM Consortium, TechTarget, IBM, B2B Marketing, Reachdesk, Momentum ITSMA, and Xometry.

The CMO Council segmented the study in three sets of factors that make up a model for better identification, engagement and conversion.

There are metrics for tracking and measuring performance, ways to compare one company to another, strategic demand-generation initiatives, and more.

The top skill sets contributing to improved ABM-driven business outcomes include:

1. Better segmentation and precision targeting of buyers and influencers
2. On-demand customer business intelligence and personal buyer insights
3. Tighter integration of demand generation, channel, direct sales, and support teams
4. Greater utilization of tools and data sources for richer prospect profiling
5. Proactive and timely pre-sales follow up and cultivation strategies