The Crisis of Disconnection: Why It’s Time to Rethink Your Growth Strategy [HubSpot Data]

This post is part of a thought leadership series looking at the latest research and insights to uncover how businesses can meet their growth goals.

This is the topline conclusion from the research that prompted us to call The Crisis ofDisconnection. Growth challenges you faced in the last decade won't be the growth challenges you face in the next decade

We're glad you're back. We are glad you are here now.

Here are four things that keep the savviest leaders awake.

• Businesses once in hyper-growth mode are now struggling to grow. One in three businesses are already citing “slowed growth” as a top challenge going forward.
• Painfully high expenses and increasing costs are leading businesses to re-evaluate their software spend, the tools in their tech stack, and how that impacts their bottom line
• Tried-and-true methods for generating demand are becoming less reliable and more expensive. Nearly two-thirds of businesses agree that sales engagement is struggling more now than pre-pandemic.
• 81% of businesses agree that COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and connect — and “the new normal” is still largely TBD.

You know the data. The trends are being tracked. How will the crisis of disconnection affect your business?

Disconnection in Context: Challenges for Go-to-Market Teams

There are three overarchingDisconnects with material impact on scaling companies.

Adding a sense of urgentness to it all is what is not pictured. There are macroeconomic fluctuations that seem here to stay. Uncertainty in supply and demand, rumors about an impending recession, and decreased access to capital are causing leaders in industries and functions to reexamine how to invest in growth.

The consequences of each core complexity need to be considered.

1. Disconnected Data and Systems Leads to Decreased Efficiency and Value to Your Business

If having a streamlined tech stack with clean, connected data feels like an increasingly pressing priority, you are likely to be re-examining theirCRM solutions.

According to a survey, one in four businesses have disconnected data and systems. There are problems with the point solution approach.

Take into account the effects on your people.

Proliferating tools are making tech stacks that are hard to use, integrate, and maintain.

There are more martech solutions in 2020 than in the previous year. New sales productivity research has been released.

• Sales reps use just 62% of their tech stack.
• Sales reps spend 41% of their average workday not selling, costing companies approximately 38% in revenue per quarter.
• 74% of CRM buyers feel their teams have to switch between too many tools to get the job done, and 76% are using 3 or more applications to manage their relationships with customers
• Only 27% of marketers say their marketing data is fully integrated with the tools they use, and 22% of them find it difficult to share data across teams.
• Marketers spend an average of 3.55 hours each week collecting, organizing, and analyzing marketing data from separate sources.
• Psychologists have found that switching gears and logging into disparate tools can eat up as much as 40% of an employee’s productive time.
• A lack of unified data can block progress for individual contributors and make reporting an all-day affair for managers.
• It’s harder for both individual contributors and team leads to deliver tangible ROI.

Teams spend more time searching for answers and less time focusing on high value activities as a result of the impact of disconnected systems.

Productivity loss is a result of frequent context-switching.

The impact on your bottom line should be considered.

Our research shows that companies with less connected data are disappointed in their tech stacks.

When data and systems are more connected, companies see a greater return on their investment.

Connection and integration of your tech stack makes a difference to your return on investment. Let's take a look at how the return on investment is calculated.

As you can see in the equation above, total cost of ownership is a big factor in the return on investment.

Having more point solutions leads to higher cost of ownership due to increased personnel costs associated with using multiple tools

If a business is getting the same gains from their tech stack, using too many point solutions is likely going to decrease theirROI compared to a company that has consolidated more of its tools on a single platform

Enhancing your tech stack does more than make your systems and data easier to use. The cost of ownership is reduced. Despite the current state of the economy, more than half of businesses with excellent data connectedness report they feel well-equipped to grow and thrive. Your sales, marketing, and service teams are connected by it.

2. Disconnected People Leads to Decreased Sense of Community and Satisfaction

It is known that disconnected systems lead to disconnected data and also contribute to feelings of disconnection between teams.

The way many of us work took a turn for the worse in 2020. More than 80% of US employees say the crisis affected their work lives. In a year, the company generated $4 billion in revenue, with meeting participants increasing by 29700%.

There are some positives, including access to more diverse talent, time saved commute, and meetings in pajama pants.

This means what? The way in which to attract, support, and retain employees is changing.

Employees are more likely to be dissatisfied if they don't feel connected. Is it true that the same thing is true? In an increasingly remote world, it's more difficult to create moments of connection. The consequences of ignoring how employees feel will not be insignificant.

3. Disconnected Customers Leads to Decreased Interactions and Opportunities to Delight

You aren't wrong if you're getting the sense that these challenges are compounding Brand are facing more hurdles as they try to connect with their customer base due to disconnected systems, data, and people.

Here is a high level summary of what worked and what won't work now.

If you don't want to take our word for it, we'll let you know.

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is up. 49% of those who track CAC say it has increased in the past year.
• 42% of businesses cite increasing costs to reach prospects/customers as the main obstacle standing between them and continued growth.
• Organic growth is diminishing. The average SaaS blog grew -1.6% last yearand Google takes more than 65% of clicks.
• More than 30% of marketers say that they are experiencing average-to-no returns on their digital marketing investments.
• 80% of marketers report that getting rid of cookies will have a mild to major impact on their advertising strategy, and just 36% of marketers overall feel completely ready for impending data privacy changes.
• Businesses have already spent an average of $1.3 million on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance and are expected to spend $1.8 million more.

Do you know what this means for your business? It is more difficult to reach potential customers. It is harder to exceed their expectations if you do not have a single source of truth about them.

Where do the go-to-market teams go now?

Next Steps

We have already covered the "what" and "so what" associated with The Crisis ofDisconnection.

The most important question will be covered in the last part of the series. What are you going to do now?

In the meantime, learn how you can use HubSpot to connect all the dots.