Who Is Responsible for B2B Revenue?

Who is responsible for revenue within a B2B organization? The classic answer is the sales team.

The right answer is everyone. From the CEO down, every member of the team needs to take responsibility for generating revenue. In particular, it's time for the marketing team to take a seat at the table and turn into a revenue-generating resource.

The traditional B2B model

For decades, the model for B2B sales was for the C-suite to set sales goals and turn responsibility to the sales force to convert those goals into revenue. Sales representatives were responsible for researching potential customers, cold calling to get a foot in the door, finding the right people within a company to make decisions, setting up a meeting with the right parties to present your product, and closing the sale.

While quotas still largely land on the sales department, the global market and online research tools have antiquated that model and put more responsibility for meeting sales quotas into the hands of the marketing department. And marketers are feeling the pressure.

Considered Content recently commissioned a study of UK B2B enterprises and found that 52% of mid-market (<1,000 employees) and enterprise (>1,000) marketers feel like they are under "a lot of pressure" to deliver pipeline and revenue. The percentage jumps to 56% when factoring only enterprise marketers. What's more, a whopping 86 percent say that pressure has increased in the past 12 to 18 months.

These findings cannot be seen as an anomaly. It's the reality of the new digital economy that marketers need to take more responsibility for the pipeline and ownership of revenue targets. They must be held to the same rigorous measurements as sales. We're not talking about "likes and shares;" revenue measurements are the new reality for marketing.

Creating relevant marketing measurements

Sales may be easier to measure, at least in the oversimplification of "Here's your quota. Go make it!"

I understand that marketing traditional has encountered softer measurements, but it's time for them to put more rigor into their KPIs.

As your potential customers take on the research role through inbound marketing, the marketing department has the opportunity to put more teeth into measuring their responsibility for meeting revenue. Marketing needs to be able to answer for their role in managing the revenue stream:

●????? What is the revenue goal?

●????? How many new customers do we need to reach to meet the goal?

●????? Who are our ideal customers?

●????? What are the best routes to market?

●????? What is a realistic MQLs to SQLs ratio?

●????? What is the typical ratio of SQLs to customers?

Of course, marketing and sales need to agree to their definitions of MQL and SQL, but with the growth in available data, that definition becomes easier to reach.

Breaking down the silos

Pressure remains strong on sales to be accountable for revenue, which is evidenced by the average tenure of B2B tech companies:

●????? VP Sales – 19 months

●????? VP Marketing – 40 months

●????? CEOs – 64 months

By taking ownership of the above revenue-generating figures, marketers will be able to respond to the growing pressure to get results. That ownership also will help companies to break down the silos between marketing and sales that leads to little more than finger-pointing.?

With both departments pulling in tandem, sales and marketing will go a long way toward meeting their revenue goals. Ultimately, marketing will take its place at the table of business decision-making based not on some fuzzy numbers that others feel were pulled from thin air, but as a true partner who is meeting realistic, measurable goals.

I'd love to continue this conversation with your company about this shift in the B2B sector. To discuss this or other sales facets of the B2B business,? call Jim Hale at 303-697-6416 or email [email protected]