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The survey by Lloyd James Group reveals that 79% of respondents from companies with 250-1,000 employees and 70% of those at businesses with more than 1,000 employees backed the idea of boosting investment in prospecting while cutting spend on CRM activities.

However the survey also found that only 42% of respondents from businesses with 1-10 employees and 49% of those from companies with 11-50 employees supported the idea in the current economic climate.

In between were mid-sized businesses, with 57% of respondents from firms with 51 to 249 employees agreeing that their marketing should lean towards prospecting for new business.

Overall, only 49% all financial directors and mangers surveyed nationally favoured putting more resources into prospecting and fewer into CRM.

The survey covered regions throughout the UK, various key industry sectors and firms of different sizes.

The survey also revealed that, regionally, backing for greater emphasis on customer acquisition was strong among respondents in the north of England, where more than 56% of the financial decision makers favoured the idea, and Scotland, where support ran at 57%. Support was weakest in the Midlands at 40% and Wales at 33%.

In terms of industry sector, the weakest support for putting new business prospecting ahead of CRM came from respondents in retail, education, business services, healthcare, and IT, communications and high-tech, with fewer than 40% of those surveyed backing the idea in each of those five industries.

Support was highest in: media and marketing at 73%; hospitality and catering at 67%; travel and transport at 65%; and utilities and telcoms at 64%.

Darrel Linehan, client services director at Lloyd James Group, said: "Smaller businesses risk losing out to bigger competitors if they don't keep marketing to new customers despite the economic situation -- just hanging onto the current clients is not going to be enough.

"Companies of all sizes need to realise that enticing new customers to switch to their products and services is just as important as ensuring that existing customers remain."