Business to Business Key Findings – September / October 2011

Websites Need Improvements

One goal of marketers is to effectively convert website visitors into buying prospects. However, 84% of U.S. B2B marketers say their ability to generate new sales leads using their website needs moderate to strong improvement. Other desired website improvements are listed in the following chart.

Ways Their Company Website Can Be Improved According to U.S. B2B Marketing and IT Professionals, May 2011 (% of respondents)

B2C and B2B Marketing Priorities

According to Focus Research, business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are more likely to concentrate on improving client understanding and retention this year than their business-to-business (B2B) counterparts, who are placing a higher importance on filling the sales pipeline with leads.

The following chart shows the differences and similarities between B2B and B2C marketers’ efforts.

Highest Strategic Priorities of B2B and B2C Marketing Professionals Worldwide, May 2011 (% of respondents)

Emerging Majority Business Ownership Rising

There were 5.8 million emerging majority-owned businesses in 2007, the most recent year for which data is available. The number of emerging majority-owned businesses grew 45.6% between 2002 and 2007, compared an 18% increase in the number of U.S. businesses overall. Most of these emerging majority-owned businesses (5.0 million) did not have any employees besides the owner. The 0.8 million businesses with employees had a total of 5.9 million workers.

Bullets

• Twenty-five of the 100 highest paid U.S. CEOs earned more in 2010 than their companies paid in federal income tax, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. Many of these same companies spent more on political lobbying than they did on taxes.
• Almost one-third (31%) of office managers do not take any additional vacation days (aside from employer-provided vacation time) between Thanksgiving and New Years. Some 25% only take an extra day or two, while fewer than 25% take an additional week or more.
• Only 46% of business owners have considered a succession plan for when they retire, and of those, only 20% have identified who will replace them. Businesses with more than 50 employees (78%) than those with fewer employees (42%) are more likely to say a succession plan is important.

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