Demand Gen Practices Expanding Globally: SiriusDecisions, Annuitas Open European Offices
- Written by Andrew Gaffney
- Published in Feature Articles
If the world is flat, as author Thomas Friedman has suggested, it should come as little surprise that the adoption of demand generation best practices and processes are spreading across the globe. Both SiriusDecisions and The Annuitas Group rang in the New Year by announcing plans to open European offices.
SiriusDecisions, a leading source for BtoB sales and marketing best practice rearch and data, will be opening an office in the London metropolitan area, in recognition of “the considerable focus and attention the international markets are giving to the need for demand creation effectiveness,” according to Rich Eldh, Managing Director and Co-Founder.
The Annuitas Group, a leading provider of lead process and management consulting services, announced the expansion of their operations globally with the opening of their European Headquarters in London. The European presence is positioned to allow Annuitas to better serve their international clients and further their position globally. Karen Bradshaw has been appointed
Managing Director of European operations for The Annuitas Group. Bradshaw has over 25 years experience specializing in international B2B direct marketing, marketing automation and product management with companies including Symbol Technologies, PitneyBowes MapInfo and Experian.
“Organizations are moving to a more process and value-based demand generation/lead management approach so whether they have international operations or constricted by regional boundaries, we will continue to see more interest from all areas of the globe,” said Carlos Hidalgo, President of The Annuitas Group. “With more of our clients looking to develop these practices globally, opening a European office is a natural extension to allow us to meet these needs. Also having the support of our strategic partner, Silverpop, we are extremely optimistic about our European expansion.
Since a large number of US organizations have a presence in the United Kingdom, Hidalgo predicted that would likely emerge as the biggest international growth market, but he said other global markets are emerging. “We are seeing the UK interest cascade down into other European countries and regions such as Germany. We are also seeing an increase in discussion from some area in Asia/Pac including Australia and New Zealand.”
While part of the global expansion is being driven by US companies looking to replicate programs around the globe, Hidalgo said some companies are incorrectly assuming the exact same blueprint will work in all markets. “We have seen the temptation of North American teams to set things in place and then pass them onto their counterparts abroad. Some of the biggest challenges are getting to know the buyer behavior in each region and/or country in which you are going to market. Knowing the buying patterns, how they want to communicate and the language they use will vary from country to country and across regions.The other aspect is internal in that the resource allocation will vary.”
A recent report from SiriusDecisions also reinforced the need to address the nuances of each marketing around the globe. "At the country level, most times sales and marketing are aligned, but also very 'siloed' and removed from industry and even company-wide best practices and standard processes such as SLAs (service-level agreements)," said Alden Cushman, SiriusDecisions' Research Director and Benchmarking Analyst.
The SiriusDecisions benchmark data also showed variations in terms of pipeline performance across different regions. "When viewed over a 12-month period, we learned that 1,000 inquiries produce about six closed deals in the Americas, roughly 3.5 closed deals in EMEA and 2.5 deals in APAC,” Cushman said. “Organizations beginning to collect and analyze their regional demand creation conversion ratios should understand that there will be differences. Rather than benchmarking each region and comparing them against each other, we recommend using these benchmarks as a baseline from which improvements are measured within the region."