B2B down on CRM

Results have been released by Extraprise, the B2B database marketing services and CRM systems integration provider, and the news is … not so good. Not so good at all, in fact. The key statistic showed that an insanely high eighty-seven percent of B2B respondents have little or no confidence in their customer data. The survey was undertaken at the 2006 Extraprise DM Days New York Conference and Expo.

“Unfortunately,” Extraprise chief marketing officer Chad Gottesman analyzed, “data problems continue to grow resulting in insufficient customer knowledge that leaves the B2B salesperson at a complete disadvantage when interacting with their customers.” Fifty-four percent of B2B companies surveyed indicated that the lack of sales and marketing collaboration is their chief challenge. Fifty-two percent of companies surveyed claimed to have integration between sales and marketing systems.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents indicated that data-related issues were the biggest problem. “Marketing executives are waiting for a magic wand to make their investments worthwhile,” said Gottesman. “Yet most marketing departments are still facing a huge internal challenge integrating two major components of marketing performance – sales and marketing.” The findings are based on responses from a sample of attendees interviewed at DM Days New York Conference and Expo 2006.

Other topics covered within the survey included how many disconnected data sources cover some aspect of their customers; the numbers here were 59, 18, 23 percent respectively for firms which have data in at least four, five to ten, and over ten systems. Boston, Mass.-based Extraprise specializes in B2B database marketing and CRM implementation services. Extraprise focuses on the B2B marketplace. The Extraprise Insight-to-Interaction platform combines data management, business insight, demand generation, and customer management and is available as a turnkey hosted service or on-premise.