Friend or Foe? 5 Tips for Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

I’m always amazed when I hear Clients say “my sales team complains that marketing leads are terrible – but they want more!”

We’ve all heard this right?

Being on the Agency side – I, unfortunately, hear this all too much.

You’re not alone.

• According to the CMO Counsel Survey – 53.4% of respondents said their company has no formal process for generating, clarifying and validating leads.”
• And, according to a report published by GlobalSpec, “business acquisition experts estimate that 80% of leads are typically lost or ignored…”

But what have you, as a marketer, done to resolve this conflict? What can you do to ensure your organization is not wasting 80% of your marketing investment? The answer is not simple – and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, you can develop an iterative process that can help you be a hero in within the Marketing AND Sales teams. The five tips outlined below can provide you with a good framework to begin this process.

Tip #1: Define “Lead”

Brian Carroll recently wrote an article on this topic in Target Marketing Magazine. According to Carroll, “less than 10 percent [of companies he’s interviewed] have a definition of what a lead means that is clear, written down and unanimously agreed on by sales and marketing.”

So, how do you beat this statistic?

A Client of mine recently scheduled a summit of these two opposing forces – and invited our team to facilitate the discussion. The Sales team was thrilled, but interestingly, only 1 person from the Sales team showed up for the meeting (vs. the 5 people invited). We canceled the meeting.

The following week (after elevating this issue up the Sales food chain), all 5 designated Sales team members showed up – and were ready to talk (side note: sales people hate meetings – so keep your meetings short, to the point and action-oriented. When all else fails, use Senior Sales Management to ensure attendance).

We discussed “what is a lead” based on key BANT criteria: Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe. While the details within these questions vary based on the products/solutions you’re selling, the qualification questions should start with these criteria.

Defining key BANT criteria can also be helpful for Marketers to consider UP FRONT when defining WHO they should be targeting with a lead generation marketing campaign.

Tip #2: Determine How You Will Close the Loop

We see Clients do this in a variety of ways – from custom CRM solutions to simple “tracking codes.” The complexity of your system likely depends on the complexity of your sales process.

The trick here is to think through the marketing and sales process by asking yourself a few basic questions:

• Based on the BANT criteria (identified above), where are leads being sent?
• Who is following up on the leads?
• How will we confirm the leads are being worked? (SFA Tool? Survey? Monthly Update Meetings/Reports?)
• And what bad thing happens to that person if they don’t follow up on the leads?
• Where do the inquiries go?
• Where are sales tracked?

Clearly, a robust lead management system will enable Marketing to focus on the MOST cost efficient and effective marketing tactics.

Tip #3: What About “Inquiries” – Cultivation & Re-qualification

Hundreds of lead generation campaigns have shown that as little as 10-20 percent of inquiries generated are ready to be passed along to the sales team. This percentage can vary greatly by tactic (with direct mail being most targeted and several online marketing tactics being least targeted).

However, cultivation campaigns can transition over 25% of marketing inquiries to leads. This is especially true with products/solutions that have a long sales cycle (6-18 months).

In addition to providing a foundation for re-qualifying inquiries, cultivation campaigns also allow you to position your organization as a thought leader in a particular area of business/vertical.

Cultivation programs can be easily and cost-effectively executed with online and email marketing.

Tip #4: Educating & Rewarding Sales

When you ask your children to clean up their room, do they do it?

But what if you offer to wash their clothes if they’re picked up? And, you offer them a new video game for each 2 weeks they continue with the regime?

Amazingly – they do it!

Sales people are no different.

Educate them about the benefits of the marketing programs you’re about to employ BEFORE they go to market. Show them the program materials you’ve developed and remind them of the Lead Qualification process that all inquiries go through (and of course remind them that THEY helped define a Lead).

As simple as it sounds, this type of education can get a Sales team excited about following up on leads.

And, a small incentive to reward follow-up is never a bad idea. A Client of ours offered a $20 Starbucks gift cards to sales folks who followed up on leads. Sometimes a small gift can drive huge returns.

Tip #5: Re-Evaluate “Lead” Criteria

There’s a good chance that the Lead criteria (defined in Tip #1) require some adjustment after your first campaign. Re-engage with your Sales team (a formal discussion within 2 weeks of a campaign going to market – and again at the 2-3 month mark is suggested). Talk through their experiences with the leads they’ve been given to date. Are they properly qualified? Should the BANT criteria be more or less stringent? If an inside sales team or telemarketing team has been involved, are there alterations for these folks?