Hasta La Creative!

When the dust settles from IBM’s acquisition of Silverpop, b-to-b companies should pause to consider the full story surrounding the automation market. Solutions that enable outreach to b-to-b targets by automating more personalized user experiences have become the hottest item on the auction block — in addition to Silverpop, ExactTarget, Unica and Eloqua have all been acquired within the last few years. What these automated solutions lack is real-time personalization and an investment in the way companies prepare their salespeople for interaction with prospects and customers. Without it, companies are only addressing one side of the sales equation.

The need to scale marketing efforts to drive organizational growth is critical for companies to compete in today’s market. It’s no secret that marketing automation is and has changed the face of business by allowing organizations to broaden the reach of key messages to generate leads and drive growth. Yet time and again I hear earnings calls citing “extended sales cycle” and “sales execution” challenges as ongoing reasons why companies aren’t growing or making their numbers. Why is this? Because automation does not always account for the human factor behind b-to-b engagement.

Before the Silverpop acquisition, IBM acquired Unica to help satisfy its need for marketing automation. The automation market continues to evolve so rapidly, however, that IBM needed to take on additional capabilities to try to address the need for personalization. This brings me to my main point: Are we, as b-to-b companies, too stuck on the concept of automation for the sake of automation?

Continue reading at AdAge.com