Focus.com - thanks to Craig Rosenberg and Sarah Miller - invited 14 Focus Experts to share their picture and definition of the B2B sales and marketing pipeline funnel. Instead of a contraction in the middle, mine bulges as multiple influencers on the buying committee converge to reach consensus.   Christopher Doran , from Manticore Technology, depicts his living funnel that evolves in parallel with changing business conditions. Steve Woods , from Eloqua, created a funnel to analyze marketing's impact on revenues. Yesterday, I wrote about static value. MORE >>

My new obsession with Twitter (follow me as @draab) has led to several messages from people who seemed to have trouble choosing between Eloqua and Marketo. This is a bit perplexing, since those products are at the opposite ends of the spectrum: Marketo being relatively low cost / limited functionality / easier to learn, and Eloqua being higher cost / richer functionality / takes more training. But even including that, the first year cost for most of these will be less.) : Manticore Technology : a full-featured demand generation product. Just kidding.or Maybe next week. MORE >>

Better post a job for someone with experience in the software you use such as Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop, Act-On, Manticore, Aprimo, etc., The foundation of lead nurturing and scoring is buyer personas, buying processes and agreed lead definitions. Coming up tomorrow: We reintroduce our superb white paper and explain what Sales really needs from your marketing team. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers. B2B Demand Generation | Lead nurturing and scoring. right? WRONG! MORE >>

think we’ll see one of the two marketing automation leaders – Eloqua or Marketo – emerge as a billion dollar company and own 40% market share. While we’ll see some fantastic flameouts of VC-backed players that don’t make it, bootstrapped companies like Pardot and Manticore will continue to be stable, because of their pragmatic approach to building a company. Complete the sentence: C-level executives will buy Revenue Performance Management solutions when: They trust Marketing to be as accountable for revenue as Sales is currently. Wow, what an honor! MORE >>

If you ask them what benefits they hope to gain, they'll likely talk about the goals for the program in relation to the number of sales opportunity conversions or revenues produced from marketing-driven customer acquisition. Buying path (stage) definition. Marketing and sales alignment. Seamless sales enablement. Companies like Genius.com , Marketo , Manticore Technology , Silverpop , Eloqua — and others — are the engines behind nurturing programs. Many B2B marketers will tell you they have a nurturing program. Segmentation opportunities. MORE >>