Corporate Visions Survey: Most Used Insight-Driven Content Deemed Least Effective by Marketers and Sales Professionals

New Data Finds Companies Rely on ‘Anecdotal’ Instead of ‘Visionary’ Insights to Create and Deliver More Effective Lead Generation Assets and Sales Conversations

Corporate Visions, Inc., a leading sales and marketing messaging, tools, and training company, announced the results of a survey that polled 400 business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales professionals worldwide regarding the use of insight selling in their marketing and sales assets. The results revealed that the type of insight-based content created most frequently is believed to be the least effective in generating engagement and closing deals with prospective buyers.

Insights are defined as context-based facts specific to a prospect that companies use to shape their marketing messages and sales conversations, and differentiate from the competition. Overall, the survey found that 81 percent of respondents use an insight-based approach as part of their marketing and sales strategy.

The four specific insight types include:

• ​Anecdotal insights – Content created in-house focusing on tactical day-to-day issues such as best practices, lessons learned, and features and functionality.
• ​Authoritative insights – Content leveraging the work of respected third-parties, such as analysts and external subject matter experts, used to reinforce key company messages around trends, problems, challenges, risks, opportunities, and requirements.
• ​Current insights – Content centered around original research and surveys produced by the company as supporting facts for campaigns and selling messages.
• ​Visionary insights – Content leveraging in-house expertise but looking to the future of the industry and defining what is next.

Respondents were asked to review and rank these four insight types based on how frequently they appear in marketing collateral and sales tools. The rankings were:

1. 1.Anecdotal insights
2. 2.Authoritative insights
3. 3.Current insights
4. 4.Visionary insights

Respondents were then asked to rank those same insights in order of how effective they believe they are at generating more engaging conversations and driving sales decisions. The rankings were the exact opposite:

1. 1.Visionary insights
2. 2.Current insights
3. 3.Authoritative insights
4. 4.Anecdotal insights

Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions, commented: “What’s surprising about the survey results is that the insights marketers and salespeople feel are the most effective are exactly the opposite of the insights they believe their companies produce. Regardless of the category, however, the real power of insight comes from using it in proper context – identifying relevant market data points and then interpreting that information to make it meaningful to the challenges prospects are facing. In order for companies to be truly successful, they must take these insights and turn them into provocative questions and a distinct point of view that breaks the status quo bias and differentiates their solution.”

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, differentiate their solution, justify a purchase decision, and protect margins;
• ​Deploying that message through tools and visual stories to enable salespeople to engage multiple decision-makers across the buying cycle;
• ​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.