OpenView Releases New Sales and Marketing Research Report
Research Sheds Light on the Miscommunication Between Sales and Marketing
Boston, MA – Last week, Boston venture capital firm OpenView Venture Partners released its latest research report, showcasing its recent partnership with The Bridge Group and Vorsight. The research conducted by The Bridge Group and Vorsight focused on clarifying sales team’s opinions of marketing’s leads that are being presented to them. For this one-page report, OpenView Partners narrowed The Bridge Group and Vorsight’s findings to gather the survey results of sales reps with average deals less than $50,000 selling into SMB or Enterprise companies.
According to the research, the discrepancy over the definition of a quality lead boils down to misalignment between the two teams, and a more statistics and data collected from the survey will be released in eBook form from the Bridge Group and Vorsigh in the upcoming weeks.
The report analyzes 361 responses from the 1,500 sales reps that were surveyed in order to reveal how significant miscommunication between the sales and marketing departments can be for startup or expansion stage technology companies. OpenView focused on comparing the definition of a quality lead and the accuracy of lead data.
“At the expansion stage, companies are figuring out their ideal customer profile over time. It doesn’t happen overnight. But if marketing and sales aren’t collaborating to define it, the gap in perceived lead quality won’t improve,” stated Brian Zimmerman, Managing Director, OpenView Venture Partners.
The research revealed the following:
• 51% of sales reps surveyed feel that less than 25% of marketing leads are quality leads, while only 6% of sales reps feel that greater than 75% of marketing leads are quality
• A total of 44% of sales reps feel that less than 25% of leads are actual decision makers or key influencers
“Quite honestly, that inaccuracy and inefficiency is the byproduct of a miscommunication between marketing and sales departments on what exactly constitutes a ‘quality lead,’” said Trish Bertuzzi, founder of The Bridge Group.
Be sure to visit OpenView Partners for the one-page report.
About OpenView Venture Partners
OpenView Venture Partners is an expansion stage venture capital fund with a focus on high-growth software, Internet and technology-enabled companies. Through its staff of seasoned operating executives, who collectively bring several decades of technology and management experience to the firm, OpenView is able to help portfolio companies with quickly ramping up Product, Go-To-Market, and Organizational and Operational functions to best practice levels. Founded in 2006, the firm has a total of $240 million under management. OpenView Venture Partners is based in Boston and invests on a worldwide basis. OpenView recently released OpenView Labs, an idea site for senior managers at expansion stage technology companies. For more information, please visit OpenView Labs directly.
About The Bridge Group and Vorsight
The Bridge Group works with smart B2B technology companies to build, expand and optimize inside sales strategies, focusing specifically on helping sales and marketing leaders improve strategy, performance, process, technology and tools. Vorsight is a specialized sales training firm based in the Washington DC area. Vorsight specializes in helping sales teams identify qualified prospects, get more meetings, and shorten sales cycles.