Legal knowledge is severely lacking in marketing departments, having being cited as the most regularly selected skills gap by 62 per cent of respondents in B2B Marketing’s Professional Development Benchmarking Report 2014.
Perhaps more worryingly, however, core marketing skills such as ‘measuring and reporting’ were the second most flagged skills gap (31 per cent).
Knowledge of ‘product service and lifecycle’ (25 per cent) ‘customer insight, segmentation and profiling’ (24 per cent) and the ability to achieve sales and marketing integration (22 per cent) make up the top five.
Placing legal requirements to one side, this research suggests B2B marketing departments around the country are having to operate with significant skills gaps in areas that should be considered as being essential for modern marketing practices.
This issue is underlined when you consider that the same respondents stated that ‘customer insight, segmentation and profiling’ – the fourth most flagged skills gap – was cited as marketing’s most important skill.
Similarly, ‘sales and marketing integration’ and ‘measuring and reporting’ were both also flagged as being core skills.
Whether as a result of digitisation or a lack of formal training, it seems there are significant skills challenges facing B2B marketers.
We will be exploring this issue throughout the coming week, as we reveal more results from our Professional Development
(Click to enlarge infographic)
