Column: Why Demand Generation Shouldn’t Be Focused on Marketing Qualified Leads

Column: Why Demand Generation Shouldn’t Be Focused on Marketing Qualified Leads:
My latest column on DemandGen Report, “Why Demand Generation Shouldn’t Be Focused on Marketing Qualified Leads,” appeared today.
It opens:

We’re at a crossroads in modern B2B demand generation.
Fifty-eight percent of marketing automation adopters cite “generate more leads” as a key motivator, according to Gleanster.  Similarly, 78% of B2B marketers report “generating high quality leads” as their greatest B2B marketing challenge in MarketingSherpa’s “2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.”
Yet a 2011 joint study by Vorsight and The Bridge Group noted, “On average, Sales Reps report that only 31% of all leads generated fit their Ideal Customer Profile.  Said another way, Sales Reps believe roughly 70% of the leads they receive have a low probability to purchase.”  And data from a recent IDC Technology Marketing Barometer Study indicates that year-over-year, between 2011 and 2012, our marketing and sales alignment around demand generation has actually gotten worse.
What’s going on?

The column looks at our challenge as B2B marketers aligning with sales and maintaining a strategic focus on revenue, and it examines how this relates to our frequent over-focus on marketing qualified leads (or MQLs, a term coined by SiriusDecisions) in our demand generation programs.
Click here to read the entire column.
As always, I appreciate your feedback on the piece.

Filed under: Demand Generation Tagged: Adam Needles, B2B buying process, B2B demand generation, B2B lead manaement, B2B marketing, buyer-centric demand generation, demand generation, demand process, DemandGen Report, lead generation, lead management, lead-to-revenue, Lori Wizdo, marketing automation, Marketing Qualified Leads, MQL, Sales Developed Leads, Sales Ready Leads