New Corporate Visions Survey Reveals Nearly Three-quarters of Companies Lack a Formalized Marketing Messaging Process for All Employees to Follow

The Startling Findings Result in a Lack of Consistency and Customer Focus Across Marketing Campaigns and Sales Content

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Jan 21, 2015, 10:00 ET

LARKSPUR, Calif., Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company, today announced the results of a survey that polled more than 500 business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales professionals worldwide regarding the alignment of their marketing campaigns and sales content development processes. Surprisingly, the data revealed that nearly three-quarters of companies do not have a formalized marketing messaging process for all employees to follow. This results in a lack of consistency and an abundance of product- or company-focused content, which ultimately impedes an organization's ability to connect with customers.

New Corporate Visions Survey Reveals Nearly Three-quarters of Companies Lack a Formalized Marketing Messaging Process for All Employees to Follow

In the survey, respondents were asked how they would describe their company's marketing campaigns and sales content development process. The results highlighted that more than 70 percent of respondents do not follow a clearly defined message development process within their organization, while a shocking 10 percent reported they aren't sure what their company does at all:

Everyone follows a well-established message development process – 28.7 percent
We have an established message development process, but it is not applied consistently – 35.1 percent
We have a message development process, but it is rarely followed because people are unaware or feel unaccountable – 13.2 percent
We don't have a formal process for message development; we hire people and expect them to do the right thing, but it's hit-or-miss in terms of execution – 12.2 percent
Honestly, I don't really know what we do – 10.8 percent

This lack of consistency and customer focus across marketing campaigns and sales content has also resulted in one-third of companies still focusing their campaigns on their own story, rather than that of their customers:

Customer-centric messaging; we focus on our prospects' story – 27.2 percent
Company-centric messaging; we focus on our own company's story – 32.1 percent
Our campaigns contain an even mix of both – 40.7 percent

"The failure to follow a well-established message development process is causing many organizations to miss the mark when it comes to designing content and campaigns that resonate strongest with their customers and prospects. Company-centric messaging often leads salespeople into a competitive discussion focused on distinguishing their organization from other vendors. As a result, prospects and customers tend to stick with their current status quo rather than making a decision to change," said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. "Customer-centric messaging, on the other hand, focuses on identifying customers' and prospects' unconsidered needs along with gaps in their current approach. This method is most effective, as it creates urgency for change that results in more closed deals."

When asked how companies ensure consistency across their marketing campaigns and sales content, the results indicated only 34 percent provide ongoing coaching to help employees stay on track. Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that 20 percent of respondents feel there is no process for ensuring consistency at all:

58.3 percent depend on templates and tools to reinforce training and guarantee consistent messaging company-wide
50.8 percent have provided training to their content creators and expect them to apply the messaging approach consistently
44.3 percent depend on a brand guide to set parameters for consistency
34.3 percent rely on coaches to provide oversight, quality control and feedback for content creators to ensure messaging stays on track
18.7 percent believe it's a free-for-all and everyone just does whatever they think is best

"These unsettling survey results demonstrate the urgent need for companies to develop a marketing methodology rooted in customer-centric messaging and underscored by a unified approach to message and content development," continued Riesterer. "Implementing a consistent, structured methodology that focuses on identifying customers' unconsidered needs and creating a buying vision that defeats their status quo bias will help marketers prepare their salespeople for the conversations that matter most. It will also give them the tools and confidence they need to convert qualified leads into real opportunities, which, at the end of the day, is the most important metric for demand generation performance."

For more information and analysis of the survey findings, please view this infographic: http://win.corporatevisions.com/rs/corpv/images/q4survey-final-pr.pdf.

About Corporate Visions, Inc.
Corporate Visions is a leading marketing and sales messaging, tools, and skills company that helps global B2B companies create more sales opportunities, win more deals and increase sales profitability by improving the conversations salespeople have with customers. Companies engage Corporate Visions to help in three key areas:

Developing compelling messages to break the status quo, differentiating their solution, justifying a purchase decision and protecting margins;
Deploying that message through tools and visual stories to enable salespeople to engage multiple decision-makers across the buying cycle; and
Delivering sales skills training that helps salespeople confidently use these messages and tools to create, elevate and capture more value in their customer conversations.

Corporate Visions helps clients such as ADP, Motorola, Philips, UPS, Cisco and others align marketing and sales with a repeatable approach for developing and delivering winning customer conversations. For more information about Corporate Visions, visit http://corporatevisions.com/ or call 415-464-4400 or 800-360-SELL.

Communications Contacts

Jennifer Smith	Meghan Locke
Corporate Visions, Inc.	Davies Murphy Group, Inc.
[email protected]	[email protected]
267-337-8849	781-418-2434