News

As more people weigh in on buying decisions, the B2B sales cycle continues to grow into a prolonged process. Demand Gen Report's 2014 B2B Buyer Survey shows 34% of respondents stated the number of team members involved in the B2B purchase process increased over the past year. Also, 40% of B2B buyers waited longer than the year prior to contact B2B vendors when making a purchase decision.

Equinix, a provider of data center and colocation services to companies in the advertising, cloud services and healthcare industries, is addressing longer sales cycles by implementing TouchChat, a live-chat tool provided by customer engagement solutions provider TouchCommerce.

Adobe unveiled a partnership with Microsoft, a move designed to help companies better manage their marketing, sales and services to enhance customer engagement throughout the buyer’s journey.

Announced at the Adobe Summit in London, the partnership includes the integration of Microsoft's Dynamics CRM with the Adobe Marketing Cloud, positioning users to leverage all of their customer engagement data for every aspect of the buying funnel — including customer retention.

More than 90% of marketers believe that account-based marketing is a “must-have,” but only 20% have fully implemented programs, according to SiriusDecisions’ 2015 State of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Study, which was unveiled at Demandbase’s Marketing Innovation Summit for B2B.

The survey resulted indicated that wider adoption is expected, with more than 60% actively investing in technology for ABM to better align sales and marketing over the next twelve months.

Cintell, a customer intelligence platform provider, has raised $800,000 in a successful round of financing. The funding is intended to help enhance product development, while also continuing the company's employee growth.

Launched in early 2015, Cintell has signed on several notable advisors, including Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions; and Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs. The company also hired Shyam Vaidhyanathan as the company's CTO, and opened a new office in Boston.

Staples has acquired Makr, a design and print mobile app for small businesses, for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition positions Staples to offer companies a tool for designing and uploading logos to create branding materials — such as business cards and event t-shirts.

Available for iOS devices, Makr is designed to offer SMBs a branding tool that can help create items that help promote their business at events such as conferences and trade shows. The app boosts Staple's mobile offerings and expands its design services. Makr will continue to operate under its original name and in its current location.