Fewer than half (44%) of B2B marketers are extremely confident in their ability to convert prospects at the top of the funnel, and while more have that level of confidence at the middle of the funnel (51%), just 4 in 10 (39%) express extreme confidence in their bottom-of-the-funnel conversion abilities. So finds a report [download page] from Ascend2 in partnership with Revsure.
More confidence may come from better understanding the pipeline, but only about 3 in 10 (29%) of respondents report being able to fully predict pipeline contributions and outcomes, and two-thirds (66%) don’t know where there is funnel leakage and conversion bottlenecks.
As such, some of the main priorities for improving lead-to-opportunity conversion rates in the year ahead (a key goal for revenue marketers) relate to pipeline insight. The second-most cited priority is improving pipeline analysis, as cited by 4 in 10 (39% of) respondents. Close behind, about one-third (34%) want to understand which leads/accounts are converting into pipeline.
Currently, the most common ways of analyzing the quality of marketing pipelines are forecast to actual comparisons (55%) and percentage of pipeline that closes (51%).
As for predicting pipeline, a plurality that are able to do rely mostly on automation with some manual processes. Virtually all respondents feel that the ability to predict pipeline outcomes is important to the overall success of their marketing programs, with key benefits including more efficient use of resources and improved confidence to hit revenue contribution goals.
Meanwhile, the most common priority for boosting lead-to-opportunity conversions is to improve lead quality and nurturing. Indeed, recent research from MarketingCharts and Activate found almost 9 in 10 (86% of) B2B demand gen marketers agreeing that in the future they’ll focus more on the quality than the quantity of leads.
Notably, the Ascend2 and Revsure study suggest that marketing technology stacks aren’t seen as an antidote to lead-to-opportunity conversion difficulties. Only 18% of respondents said that changing their tech stack is a priority to improve conversions.
Other Survey Highlights:
- A slight majority (55%) have real-time visibility into when to pivot marketing strategies and tactics.
- Some 54% share say that their leadership team has full visibility into their pipeline.
- The most significant challenge to successfully generating pipeline is a lack of adequate data to make effective decisions.
- The most commonly used metrics to measure campaign success are ROI or customer acquisition cost (48%) and revenue contribution (47%).
- 9 in 10 are using an attribution model, with multi-touch and custom models the most frequently-cited.
For more, download the report here.
About the Data: The results are based on a January survey of 424 B2B marketers working at North American companies with more than 250 employees.
