Leadspace-Forrester Roundtable Helps Marketing Execs Navigate Beyond 'Funnel Thinking'

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- B2B predictive lead targeting pioneer Leadspace, Inc., together with analyst firm Forrester and  global consulting firm DemandGen, co-hosted the first-ever Rethinking B2B Marketing Executive Roundtable, aimed at uncovering the tips, tools and strategies marketers need to be successful in 2014 and beyond.

Led by Forrester Principal Analyst Lori Wizdo, DemandGen Founder and CEO David Lewis and Leadspace Founder and VP Products Amnon Mishor, the Nov. 13 event brought together executives from some of the most forward-thinking companies in the B2B space, including NetSuite, GoodData, NICE Systems RingCentral and Ellie Mae, to address the challenges marketers face in the "post-funnel" era.

"One thing is clear: buyer behavior is changing dramatically, and it's time to move from the old 'funnel thinking' toward a more modern lead-to-revenue management strategy built around the buyer journey," Lewis said. "Our goal in hosting this event was to challenge traditional sales and marketing assumptions and to discover new ways to position marketing as a strategic lynchpin within the company."  

According to recent Forrester research, acquiring and retaining customers and growing overall company revenue are the top priorities for global business decision-makers. While 79 percent of companies are using CRM and 50 percent are using lead management strategies (Forrester), significant gaps remain when it comes to conversion and revenue generation. In fact, despite the growth of automated marketing and lead generation solutions, average B2B conversion rates are less than 1 percent, with just over 1.5 percent conversion among the top performers.

"Automated leadgen is one solution, but it's not the only solution," Mishor said. "Rather than just playing the numbers game by assuming that, by sheer probability, more leads will generate more buyers, it's time for a new strategy—one that maximizes lead quality to generate not just more leads, but better leads, then repeat that process hundreds or thousands of times. It's not just about filling the funnel, but instead about scaling up the engagement of quality leads."

"It was a great opportunity to learn about the 'customer journey' and discuss marketing and sales best practices with thought leaders from other companies," said Vince Canobbio, Sales Enablement Manager, Americas  at NICE Systems.  "Leadspace plays a critical role in helping us understand the customer journey by giving us tools to quickly and easily target ideal buyer profiles and immediately operationalize this data directly within our CRM systems." 

For more information, or to participate, join the conversation on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, hashtag #leadspaceexecbreakfast.

To learn how Leadspace can help identify targeted prospects and get more from existing leads, visit www.leadspace.com/schedule-demo to request a live demo.

About Leadspace
Leadspace is the first solution to help sales and marketing teams find new sales prospects and enrich and rank leads based not only on job titles, but also on what they do, and how closely the prospects resemble the people they have already successfully sold to. Founded in 2007 by experts in web mining and semantic analysis, the company received funding from top-tier venture capital firms, including Battery Ventures, JVP and Vertex. Leadspace has offices in the U.S. and in Israel. Learn more at http://www.leadspace.com.

SOURCE Leadspace