Are You Getting the Most Sales from Your Marketing Efforts?

While we often lump sales & marketing together – the truth is that all too often there are significant gaps in terms of how companies manage the process of turning a B2B prospect into a qualified lead, and passing that lead successfully to the right sales rep. Many factors can come into play that can cause sales and marketing disconnects – however, the good news is that by following a few simple rules, organizations can get sales & marketing teams in sync and keep them that way.

So, here are a few sure fire methods for driving more alignment in your sales & marketing organizations as well as driving more revenue out of every qualified lead:

Agree on Terminology

It seems basic – but without mutually agreed upon definitions of what is – and what is not – a qualified lead, sales can suffer. Many marketing organizations are measured on metrics like lead volume, not lead quality. But by understanding that quality leads are what matters most – sales and marketing staff can come to common terms around lead status (such as a marketing qualified lead versus a sales qualified lead) and adjust marketing activity and expectations accordingly.

Use Data from Sales to Improve Lead Quality

Many times marketing is seen as a one-way street. The marketing team generates leads, throws them “over the wall” to sales, and that’s it. However, it is important to for marketing to both capture post-conversion behavior in addition to demographic and other telling data points. By creating a rich set of data after the lead is qualified, marketing can learn even more about what makes some leads more likely to close, and refine and re-tune marketing efforts to increase effectiveness and reduce overall spend, driving ROI and revenue.

Integrate Marketing and Sales Tools

When performing CRM deployments at even the largest and most sophisticated organizations, we’re often surprised at the lack of cohesion between the tools generating leads and the software sales reps use every day to close those leads. Fortunately, today integration technologies and the design of modern software tools make it easier than ever to create tight-knit, bi-directional integration. This allows marketing to better nurture and re-nurture leads that take time to close, and gives sales better insights into the behavior and information gathering lead go through before engaging in a sales interaction.

So, these are just three tips and tricks any organization can make in order to better align sales & marketing teams. Ultimately, shared goals and well thought out approaches to process can lead to success, aided by the proper use of technology of course. To see even more tips on driving even more sales from your marketing efforts, check out our free eBook by clicking HERE.