It has become a truism that we live in unprecedented times, and in fact we can now see the impact of digital trends, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the way companies make buying decisions.

B2B selling has become increasingly virtual, which means marketers must in turn rely on digital technologies to help them do their jobs and to connect with their customers. The number of digital touchpoints has increased, the number of decision-makers has grown, and buyers are choosing to interact with salespeople later and later in the cycle.

This means that marketers need to react more quickly than ever, target prospects more effectively, and even launch ad campaigns seamlessly with as few points of friction as possible.

As I've noted in an earlier piece, the current CRM systems simply don't work in this context. Fortunately, we've built something that does meet our needs as marketers.

We've just introduced a new product called Oracle Fusion Marketing that unifies B2B marketing and sales into a single end-to-end business flow. It automates the process from audience segmentation all the way through to generating a conversation-ready opportunity in your CRM, and in doing so, replaces all the disparate applications we used to have to rely upon for a holistic view of the entire process.