Anne Holland and the team at MarketingSherpa recently conducted a massive study on techniques that work in B2B Marketing. They collected data from 1000+ B2B Marketers and 4600+ business technology buyers.

The results are very interesting, and definitely a must-hear. Some of the key highlights:

1- Over 6.5 people are directly involved in the decision-making process of firms even with 100-500 employees (i.e. small firms). 17 or so for larger firms!

2- More Decision-Makers are actively putting in an effort to find companies and vendors to solve their problems, and more influences are stopping going out and signing for webinars. This is contrary to the belief one may have that you would want to push through the influencer to get to that smug decision-marker who sits around waiting for customers to get to them

3- Most B2B Professional Websites look EXACTLY the same, and heat-maps become misleading as a way to judge usability. The Lead Conversion from the website should involve a serious look at how well your website answers customer queries.

Take a listen here – a must-hear. [via Start With a Lead]