For B2B sales and marketing leaders who want to improve revenue generation, several first-rate research, benchmarking, and advisory firms can offer great ideas and counsel.

This is the second in a two-part series about the top six North American firms of this kind. 

This Part 2 covers CEB (Corporate Executive Board), Aberdeen Group, and Forrester Research. Part 1 considered SiriusDecisions, CSO Insights, and SBI - Sales Benchmark Index.   

Nearly every business-to-business (B2B) sales or marketing leader is asked hard-to-answer questions that deserve careful consideration: 

• Are we doing the right things?
• Do our sales and marketing teams have the skills they need? 
• Does the company have the right performance metrics and motivators in place?
• How much should a company like ours be spending on sales and marketing?
• How should we organize our people and activities? 

When senior executives in your company ask questions like these, you want to think before you respond. 

Fortunately, a handful of advisory firms offer good ideas, backed by survey research and benchmarking studies. This two-part series provides an overview of the top six in North America.

All six firms provide varying amounts of free information online. For a fee, you can also turn to them for counsel and perspective. They get their insights from surveys, benchmarking studies, and experience working with companies like yours. They'll even custom-tailor their recommendations to your situation.  

Part 1 of this series covers Sirius Decisions, CSO Insights, and SBI - Sales Benchmark Index. Part 2 looks at CEB (Corporate Executive Board ), Aberdeen Group, and Forrester Research.

Each firm, you will see, has a somewhat different market focus and business model.