. New research  from McKinsey & Company  identifies destructive sales practices and prioritizes what customers want from B2B sales organizations. Research on end users and on this scale is relatively rare in the B2B world.   . Raising the Bar on Sales Personnel -  Customers are empowered by online information sources and social networks.      Knowledgeable sales reps who bring a consultative approach and value to customers are a much better fit to today’s customer.      This heightened requirement should help to raise the bar on the calibre of B2B salespeople. MORE >>

Data junkies, stats addicts, web trivia buffs rejoice — here are a deluge of social media, search and other marketing research facts and figures from 50 articles and blog posts published so far in 2010. How do B2B social media marketing practices differ from B2C companies? Third, the survey was heavily consumer-oriented; b2b figures would be different. Senior marketing execs see their companies moving to social media in 2010 by The Viral Garden. In a recent study of high-level marketing executives, 70% plan new social media initiatives in 2010. percent. MORE >>

Below are a collection of B2B social media statistics collected from various sources covering a wide range of topics. We Usage : 86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C. B2B firms aren’t as active in their social media activity with only 32% engaging on a daily basis compared with 52% of B2C firms. Forecasts : Annual growth in US B2B online marketing spend is forecast at 8% in 2010 and is set to reach 14% by 2012. Online accounted for 7% of the B2B marketing mix in 2008. in 2010. Source ). Source ). Source ). MORE >>

Based on the positive feedback from the first 7 B2B Social Media Tools You Haven’t Heard Of article, we felt we’d highlight several more tools that may be helpful for B2B social media marketers. How Visibility Scores are calculated is a bit ambiguous and the last entry on their blog is from 2008, but its still a usable tool to locate the channels in which you or your competition has visibility. Steps For Developing A B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy With today’s post we aim to answer the most common. Spredfast. link]. Samepoint. link]. link]. MORE >>

Really great content around B2B Marketing again this month.  Ten reasons to blog – even if nobody reads it - grow - Practical Marketing Solutions , November 7, 2010 Building an engaged community through a business blog can be extremely difficult — sometimes impossible. Social Media in B2B Marketing - Survey Results - Everything Technology Marketing , November 16, 2010 The B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn conducted a survey earlier this year to explore the rapidly changing landscape of social media in the context of B2B marketing. PR Dept? MORE >>