Sunday, August 15, 2010 Forrester and IDC think Sales Enablement is a Big Deal. new role has emerged at many leading B2B companies, Sales Enablement, and recent research from Forrester and IDC proves this new sales enablement practice as the key linchpin required to help a B2B company bridge the gap between their business strategies and how they execute in the field. According to Forrester, companies are spending worldwide, on average, 19% of their SG&A costs, some $135,262 per quota-carrying salesperson, in sales support-related activities. and We Agree! MORE >>

Now, it’s official – or at least corroborated by a Forrester Research Inc. Vendor use of jargon and their lack of simplifying issue complexity often keep business-oriented buyers from grasping the nuances of how technology can help to solve their problem,” says a post on the Marketing Interactions blog. Only 15% of the exec surveyed by Forrester felt their meetings with salespeople are valuable and live up to their expectations, and only seven percent usually accept a follow-on meeting. report. My emphasis.). That’s a good idea. If they can’t, fix it. MORE >>

Attending the Forrester Sales Enablement Forum, one research metric was presented that just blew me away. According to Forrester, the average company spends more than $135,000 in sales support costs per year for EACH salesperson. For many organizations, Forrester reports that Sales actually has quite a low ROI – that when examining corporate financial statements, for every dollar of incremental revenue, too much is being spent on Sales to justify the gains. In order to get these buyers to advance you have to help them answer key concerns: a. M each year. Why Change? MORE >>

We recently surveyed 101 of our customers in the small and medium-sized business category about their online marketing practices. The questions we asked were taken from an Act-On and Forrester Consulting Report titled “Driving SMB Revenue in a Down Economy,” in which those initial results revealed a new model for successful companies, referred to as “Top Performers.”. Act-On customers experienced better revenue performance, and didn’t cut or freeze budgets as readily during the recession in comparison to the SMBs surveyed by Forrester. The findings were compelling. MORE >>

Executives continually point to the need for Sales and Marketing to align, with 90% of Senior Marketers indicating to Forrester that indeed alignment is a high or very high priority. Sales leaders currently rank Sales Enablement as their number one requirement from Marketing, besting the need for more Demand Creation, Solution Marketing help and Channel Support in studies by SiriusDecisions. Sales execs are now more pleased with the number and quantity of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) going to sales, and now are indicating they need help to better engage, sell and close. MORE >>