Revtech Rises to Meet the Moment
For eight years, Dun & Bradstreet has taken the pulse of B2B sales and marketing organizations to see how they approach data quality and what role it plays in their strategies and results. To reflect the changing times we live in, this year’s 8th Annual B2B Sales and Marketing Data Report looks beyond just sales and marketing teams to reflect the increasing importance of revenue teams across the organization.
When we conducted our 7th annual sales and marketing B2B data survey in late 2019, COVID-19 wasn’t on our radar yet. Our 8th survey is an opportunity to see how sales and marketing teams weathered the storm of the pandemic. Although the seas seem to have calmed, the way we do business has likely changed forever — and sales and marketing teams need to adapt their strategies accordingly.
It’s Not All Doom and Gloom
The good news is that the pandemic didn’t sink every ship. Some sales and marketing teams were able to thrive, not just survive. These teams were better prepared than others to withstand the crises of 2020 and 2021. We explore the reasons why in this report.
In Q4 2021, we surveyed 605 sales, marketing, RevOps, and data decision-makers in midsize and enterprise companies from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. to see how their approach to data quality impacted their sales and/or marketing performance. From the responses, we identified a group of Leaders (34% of our respondents) who reported that their company’s sales and/or marketing performance “improved greatly” in the last 12 months (Oct. 2020–Oct. 2021).
Follow the Leaders
What is it that these Leaders are doing differently than the rest? Our research shows that these Leaders share a set of best practices that rely on a strong foundation of data quality and data governance practices. Specifically, they were more likely to report having “complete confidence” in various aspects of data quality, such as whether their data is current, complete, and structured consistently. This indicates a correlation between having good data quality and/or good data governance policies and weathering major business disruptions such as COVID-19.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, this combination of confidence and performance gains supports what we have been saying for years: Data that is consistent, interconnected, and shared across revenue teams yields better results (even in an uncertain business climate).
Onward and Upward
To win in this environment, revenue teams need to transform their digital engagement strategies, think differently, and deliver value with every buyer interaction. But they can’t be successful without the right data, tools, and support.
It’s time to recognize sales, marketing, RevOps, and data teams as a unified revenue team. To survive, let alone grow and thrive, in this climate, these teams will need to align in goals and purpose. Their technology solutions will also need to work together and be powered by a solid foundation of quality, interconnected data — a single source of truth.
This is where an open and scalable RevTech platform can help. RevTech meets the increasing need to bring together sales and marketing data (both accounts and people) with technology — the martech, salestech, and adtech stacks — to support integrated workflows and teams. By connecting these tools in an open and scalable platform, revenue teams can make more confident decisions based on the data and insights, build more targeted audiences, activate campaigns consistently across channels, deliver more personalized experiences, and drive faster growth for their businesses.
We hope next year’s survey finds us in a more stable business environment. With any luck, the pandemic will be well in our rear view. Until then, revenue teams have plenty of opportunities to adapt and enhance the way they work. Read our report for more insights about the best practices of the Leaders of 2021.