What Sales REALLY needs from Marketing in 2025
Survey Results
QUESTION 01
Which of the following do you believe will be the most crucial evolution in marketing support for sales?
Summary of Responses
31% Greater sales-marketing alignment
31% Better quality leads/opportunities
15% More accurate account prioritisation
15% Improved content personalisation
8% Enhanced buyer intent data
The equal focus on quality leads and sales-marketing alignment highlights how intertwined these elements have become. While account prioritisation and content personalisation received equal attention, the lower priority for intent data suggests it's now considered foundational, with teams looking toward more advanced applications.
QUESTION 02
Which alternative to MQLs do you think will be most valuable for identifying real buying opportunities?
Summary of Responses
46% Predictive account scoring (AI)
23% Buying group engagement signals
8% Anonymous web visitor insights
8% Third-party intent data
15% Combined approaches
The strong preference for predictive account scoring demonstrates sales leaders' confidence in AI-powered opportunity identification. Support for buying group signals and integrated approaches indicates a desire for more sophisticated methods that acknowledge the complexity of modern B2B buying.
QUESTION 03
Which type of account-specific insight from marketing would be most valuable for personalising your outreach?
Summary of Responses
46% Real-time content engagement data
23% Competitive intelligence
15% Predictive next-best-action
8% Multiple selections
8% Buying group profiles
The clear preference for real-time content engagement data shows sales teams prioritising immediate, actionable insights over static account information. Competitive intelligence emerges as the second most valued insight, reflecting the need for contextual information in sales conversations.
QUESTION 04
Which capability do you most want your marketing team to provide to help engage accounts effectively?
Summary of Responses
46% Real-time alerting for high-intent accounts
23% Cross-channel engagement tracking
15% Personalised content recommendations
15% Account data enrichment
Sales leaders strongly favor real-time alerting capabilities, highlighting the importance of timely engagement. The significant interest in cross-channel tracking indicates growing recognition that buyer journeys span multiple touchpoints.
QUESTION 05
Which type of content do you anticipate needing most from marketing to engage buyers effectively?
Summary of Responses
46% Industry-specific thought leadership
31% Tailored case studies/success stories
23% ROI calculators/value assessments
The dominance of industry thought leadership reflects sales teams' need to establish credibility early in buyer journeys. The combined preference for case studies and ROI tools shows the importance of both social proof and value demonstration.
QUESTION 06
Which aspect of sales-marketing alignment do you think will be most critical to improve?
Summary of Responses
54% Joint KPIs and success metrics
15% Integrated tech stack and data sharing
15% Unified account targeting strategy
8% Collaborative planning process
8% Shared opportunity definitions
The majority support for joint KPIs underscores the recognition that shared metrics drive collaborative behavior. Equal emphasis on technology integration and account targeting suggests these are viewed as key enablers of alignment.
QUESTION 07
Which buyer behaviour insight from marketing would be most impactful for your sales approach?
Summary of Responses
54% Buying group dynamics and influences
15% Predictive purchase timeline
15% Cross-channel engagement patterns
8% Topic affinity analysis
8% Competitive consideration
The strong preference for buying group dynamics insights reflects sales teams' focus on understanding decision-making units. Equal interest in purchase timelines and engagement patterns indicates the value of both predictive and current behavior data.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.