On Thursday May 14, I will have the pleasure to present the results of a benchmark of sales and marketing for ITC companies in Quebec, as part of the AQT Big Bang event. What is it? It is research and analysis that enables companies in the same industry and / or territory to compare themselves with each other.
ExoLab, a marketing research laboratory dedicated to the B2B business market conducted a marketing research in partnership with AQT looking into the information technology and communication (ITC) sector in Quebec, in order to meet the following objectives:
- Measure the use of various marketing tools
- Measure the level of use of management tools
- Measure the level of integration of sales and marketing functions
- Measure the best ways to generate leads
- Measure the sales forecast in the various markets
Without going into details of the research, because they will be announced on May 14 at the Big Bang conference, it’s interesting to note that 39.5% of respondents have both a marketing function and sales function and, 38.1% have one department which serves both functions.
Subsequently, we compared the businesses that have a sales department and a marketing department to all respondents. Are these companies closer to their sales targets?
- Only 13% of respondents, across all respondents, reached or exceeded their sales targets.
- While 72% of respondents who have both a marketing department and sales said their sales were in line with their forecasts.
After more than 13 years working with B2B companies, we found several other benefits resulting from the integration of sales and marketing functions and that are within the reach of businesses:
- An increase in sales (up to 300%, as per DemandCon – Conference dedicated to the request – October 2012)
- An optimized sales and marketing budget
- A calculation of ROI marketing
- Continuous improvement of the sales and marketing activities
- Micro-segmentation and precise targeting
- An undeniable competitive advantage
Overall, this benchmark allowed us to contextualize the data of American studies that industry’s used, to serve a clearer a picture of the situation in Quebec. If you want to know more, join us at the Big Bang event May 14 and 15!
