B2B Marketers Pick Up New Skills During the Pandemic

December 11, 2020

MarketingProfs New B2B Skills During Pandemic Dec2020This year has brought about a lot of changes for B2B marketers, with a new survey from MarketingProfs finding that in the last 6 months B2B marketers have had to deal with balancing work and changes to home life (58%), working more hours than ever before (42%) and finding ways to motivate themselves while working from home (41%). Here’s what else the survey reveals.

About two-thirds (65%) of the more than 800 B2B marketing professionals surveyed report that they have learned a new skill during the pandemic. The majority of those learned skills that were no doubt related to having to interact with colleagues and customers online more than before. Some 7 in 10 (72%) learned new tech tools for collaboration, while close to 6 in 10 (57%) learned how to present in a virtual environment.

These skills can only help, especially considering that earlier research found B2B buyers reporting seeing a variety of virtual selling mistakes, such as problems with technology, unpreparedness, and lack of presentation skills, to name a few, when dealing with sellers during COVID-19.

Meanwhile, respondents to this latest survey who have picked up new skills also report that they’ve learned remote motivation/ coaching skills (28%), social media (23%) and, unfortunately, virtual job hunting (14%).

Along with learning new skills, marketers are also relying more on their marketing education. Four in 10 say they are either much (17%) or somewhat more (25%) reliant on it to stay on top of their current job, while close to one-quarter are much (13%) or somewhat more (10%) reliant on it to prepare for their next job or personal development.

In order to keep connected and current at a time when in-person interactions are discouraged, most respondents are turning to webinars (70%) and virtual events (64%). They are also taking online courses (44%) and connecting with marketers outside their company to learn and share ideas (26%).

A recent report from RollWorks revealed that half of the B2B marketing and sales executives surveyed have experienced burnout at some point in recent months. However, when MarketingProfs asked respondents if they were feeling fulfilled at work, 6 in 10 answered positively — either yes, more so than ever (28%) or yes, but less so (32%). Some 3 in 10 did say that they were not really fulfilled at work but that they were happy to still be employed.

About the Data: Findings are based on a survey of more than US B2B 800 marketing professionals. The survey was fielded in October 2020.

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