skills gap surveyresults

Marketing Skills Gap

April 2012

© 2012 Focus, Inc. All rights reserved.

Methodology

Objective

• To understand the gap between an organization’s marketing

capabilities and the training it needs to achieve its goals

Parameters

• This data was collected via email surveys sent to marketers between

March 1 - March 28, 2012

• More than 450 marketers completed the survey


Executive Summary

B2B Marketers still have a long way to go in order to gain the skills

necessary to succeed and excel in today’s business environment. Among

the many findings in the study, the research revealed some of the following

from our respondents:

70% either receive no training or are self-taught

Less than 50% receive any kind of regular formal training

Over 65% spend less than $1,000 per year in developing marketing skills

Over 50% stated there is no plan to address the training or they

encourage their marketing personnel to acquire the skills on their own time


Executive Summary

The role of B2B marketing has never been more important due to the

change in the B2B buyer and the need to impact revenue. Yet, many

marketers are struggling to acquire the right skills in order to do their jobs

effectively. This study reveals the impact that these lack of skills are having

on revenue, the sales and marketing alignment gap, and how little these

organizations are doing to change the dynamic within their organizations.


Respondent profile

57%

12%

13%

18%

How many people are in your marketing organization?

1-5

6-9

10-20

21+

31%

32%

5%

5%

6%

4%

16%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Less than $1M

$1M-25M

$26M-$50M

$51M-$100M

$101M-$250M

$251M - $500M

$501M+

What is the annual revenue of your company?


Less than 20% of marketers rate themselves as “highly effective”

18%

6%

14%

63%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Highly effective

Marketing is not looked to for demand generation & revenue

Not at all effective

Somewhat effective

How would you rate the overall skill and effectiveness of your marketing organization in terms of creating demand and contributing to revenue?


Demand generation strategy matters most

22%

23%

17%

13%

9%

5%

8%

3%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Content marketing

Demand generation strategy and execution

Development of process – sales funnel management

Developing measurements and metrics

Properly operating our marketing automation/marketing technology

Ability to staff appropriately

Knowledge of social media

Other

Which skills in your marketing personnel are most important to contributing to revenue? (Choose up to 3)


There’s not a clear consensus on the source of the skills gap

15%

14%

15%

15%

15%

10%

12%

3%

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%

Content marketing

Demand generation strategy and execution

Development of process – funnel management

Developing measurements and metrics

Properly operating our marketing automation/marketing technology

Ability to staff appropriately

Knowledge of social media

Other

Which skills are most lacking in your marketing personnel? (Choose up to 3)


74% of respondents believe lack of skills affects sales-marketing misalignment

13%

13%

24%

50%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Have no way of knowing

It doesn’t affect lack of alignment

It significantly contributes lack of alignment

It somewhat affects lack of alignment

Does the lack of skills contribute to marketing and sales misalignment?


Most marketers are forced to “figure it out” themselves

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

From our marketing vendors

Live events/workshops (Example: MarketingProfs, DemandCon)

Online educational programs

Self-taught through reading blogs, books and on the job learning

We do not currently get skills training

Where does your marketing personnel get their skills training?


Organizations are not investing in skills training

38%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Once every 6-months

Once per quarter

Once per year

Training is formal but on an ad-hoc basis

We do not receive training

How often does marketing personnel receive formal training or educational skills development?


46% of all respondents spend less than $500/year on formal training

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

$1-$500 per year $501- $1,000 per year $1,001 - $2,000 per year

$2,001 - $5,000 per year

$5,001 + per year

1-5

6-9

10-20

21+

This percentage is still extremely high for companies with large marketing organizations

Annual marketing budget broken out by size of marketing department


Only 21% of respondents plan to address the skills gap with formal training

21%

30%

24%

25%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Invest in formal training

Supplement internal skills with outside partners

Encourage employees to acquire new skills on their own time

We are not addressing the gap this year

How do you plan to close the gap between needed skills and current capabilities?


Respondents want to tackle demand generation training first

This is consistent with respondents previously stating that demand gen is most important to contributing to revenue

17%

11%

24%

5%

13%

6%

10%

5%

9%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Better education on how to use marketing automation/marketing technology

Content marketing

Creation and execution of a demand generation strategy

Education on the changing buyer & Buyer 2.0 purchase approach

Lead management and funnel management

Marketing operations

Metrics and benchmarking

Other

Social media

What education would be most helpful to improve marketing?


75% of respondents believe that the marketing skills gap impacts revenue

24%

51%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Have no way of knowing

It doesn’t affect revenue

It significantly affects revenue

It somewhat affects revenue

Is the lack of marketing skills impacting revenue?


What’s next

Discussion

Customer examples

Recommendations

Q&A

skills gap surveyresults

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