According to a recent survey, B2B sales and marketing professionals rely heavily on virtual conversations with prospects and customers, yet few of them have the training or tools necessary to make the most of these interactions.

The survey, conducted by sales and marketing messaging company Corporate Visions, polled more than 600 salespeople and marketers about their business practices in virtual environments – including phone, email and web-based formats. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they usually conduct virtual sales calls to group audiences, and 42% of those surveyed said their audiences typically include high-level executives.

A lack of information available to channel sales executives accounts is resulting in an extreme loss of revenue and potential opportunities, according to the findings of a survey of senior channel sales and marketing executives. The research, conducted by cloud-based channel management solution provider Channelinsight, revealed that incentive program performance, partner and end-customer identification and segmentation information are vital to channel program success. 

The survey found inaccurate incentive payments and a lack of a simple, automated system for managing incentives were damaging confidence in channel programs, as only 33% of survey respondents are somewhat or very satisfied with their current incentive program performance. On average, respondents believe they overpay on incentive programs by 6%, and only 40% of indicate that company channel incentives are calculated and processed automatically.

The majority of marketers are increasingly turning to virtual and hybrid events as part of an overall marketing strategy, according to Unisfair, an InterCall company and provider of virtual events and business environments. The company recently announced new research that shows virtual engagement are emerging as “the new normal” in marketing, training and collaboration.

Based on responses from more than 550 marketers nationwide, the second annual Unisfair survey reveals 60% of respondents plan to increase spending of virtual events and environments this year.