Bridging the Sales and Marketing Divide: Action Items for Success
- Published in Demanding Views
By Lisa Cramer, Co-Founder & President, LeadLife Solutions
It's the age-old battle within any organization – Sales versus Marketing. Why is that? It seems both groups should be working hand-in-hand to create a seamless process for driving leads and revenue. The reality however is that most often, Marketing is motivated not by Sales, but by the number of leads (or suspects) it generates.
Conversely, Sales is driven solely by the numbers: how many sales close and how much revenue is generated. Thus, a large (and age-old) gap exists between Marketing and Sales, which ultimately affects a company’s leads and revenue. The misalignment is costing companies, and it’s up to senior executives to determine how to drive more revenue while spending less.
With the correct leadership, a change in mindset by Sales and Marketing, and with the right supporting processes and automation, it is possible. Not only can Sales and Marketing be aligned, but in doing so, you will be able to drive more business with less cost and effort.
The Cause of the Disconnect Runs Deep
But first, what’s most responsible for this divide? Is it the legacy of thoughts, measurements and processes that we’ve come to follow? The current economic climate and the realization of changing buying patterns have forced companies to look for new ways to drive the marketing to sales process more efficiently. According to a study by Forrester Research, CMOs are working on maximizing budgets by increasing efficiency. How can you be more efficient in lead gen than to pass to the Sales team leads that are bona fide “sales ready” leads versus merely suspects? CSOs are striving for more sales effectiveness – driving more revenue per sales rep. What better way to do that than to focus salespeople on closing sales rather than trying to communicate and work a sales cycle with a suspect that either might never buy or won’t buy yet? What should companies focus on to help the marketing to sales process become more aligned or efficient?
Getting into Alignment: What Marketing Can Do
Marketing should continue to evolve by maximizing budgets and driving marketing efficiency. This usually requires an overhaul in the lead management processes and using automation to deliver on lead nurturing promises. The first thing to do is for Marketing and Sales to get in the same room together and determine the criteria for a “sales-ready” lead. This definition is likely to be refined as processes are put into place to track and analyze which of these sales-ready leads became sales opportunities and which ones fell back into the nurturing system.
With new metrics in place, Marketing effectiveness should be measured on top and bottom-line metrics such as revenue, costs and margin. This will help Marketing measure its impact on sales and help it align its campaigns with business goals. Marketers should ultimately measure themselves on lead generation dollars and the return on the revenue generated from those campaigns, while interim metrics should include the volume of “sales-ready” leads generated per dollar spent.
Getting into Alignment: What Sales Can Do
As always, Sales has to maximize revenue per sales rep. Long gone are the days when the solution to driving more revenue was to hire more expensive feet on the street. With new lead management processes in place, the answer should be clear about whether additional salespeople are really needed or if the existing sales organization simply needs to be more effective.
And now we come full circle because the single most effective way to help the sales force be productive is to provide them only with truly sales-ready leads – those that have a real chance of turning into sales. Wasting time on mere suspects is just not a wise way for high-paid sales reps to spend their days; nor do they appreciate it. Sales reps are bottom-line people, who are at their best when they know they’ve got a good chance at closing the sale. The added benefit to this strategy is that Sales will respect Marketing more if they can trust that the leads they’re given are viable opportunities. All of the others should remain in Marketing’s nurturing system until they’re escalated to sales-ready or declared dead.
By implementing efficient marketing-to-sales processes, including automated lead management, nurturing systems and metrics, companies can stimulate revenue using their existing sales force.
Lisa Cramer is President and Co-Founder of LeadLife Solutions, a provider of an on-demand lead management solution that helps drive revenue by bundling a state of the art marketing automation platform with highly-experienced marketing and sales specialists. In 2010, Lisa was recognized as one of the top ten “Most Influential People” in sales lead management. For more information on lead management or best practices call 1-800-680-6292 or email info@leadlife.com.