British companies spend an average of £28,187 on business-to-business marketing campaigns but many are wasting this money by failing to investigate and qualify new business leads.

That‘s the conclusion of research by business information company Marketsafe, which claims that in almost one in four (23%) companies 50% of annual turnover comes from new business opportunities.

But despite spending on marketing, many companies do not do their homework properly when approaching a new business target, Marketsafe claims. The survey found that fewer than half (43%) of company‘s go to a potential target‘s website before contacting them and a similar proportion don‘t even check who is the most appropriate contact to approach. A staggering 16% admit to doing no research whatsoever into a prospective business customer prior to approaching them.

The most common excuses for failing to win new business were a lack of time (42%) and money (39%), too much competition (24%) and poor quality marketing data (13%).

“British businesses pour billions of pounds into their sales marketing campaigns but staggeringly many do not take the time to learn about the companies they are targeting,” said Andrew Harris, managing director of Marketsafe UK.

“There is an attitude, particularly with direct marketing, to target as many businesses as possible and wait for the ’2%‘ to reply,” he added. “Investing more time and money in developing ’customer intimacy‘ can help firms get more from their sales and marketing activity, maximising the value of their investment.”

The amount of money spent on sales and marketing varied considerably depending on the size of the business with small ’one-man bands‘ spending around £1,100 compared to large companies which spend an average of £119,000 per year, the survey revealed. Each new business client won in the UK costs an average of £472 in sales and marketing activity alone.