Sales and Marketing Alignment: How to Streamline the Handover Process

traditionally speaking marketing and
sales have been at odds with each other
yet while this competitive paradigm
exists its existence doesn't really make
much sense if you take a look at the
customer life cycle model
marketing teams are the ones that hand
off leads to the sales teams
so they can be converted into customers
shouldn't this make marketing and sales
best team mates
well surprisingly no for many companies
hey guys it's travia from neighborhood
where we help brands find sell and keep
their people
sales and marketing discourse is fueled
by notions around who is more important
or
vital in the customer's journey
marketing will argue that they are
because they bring the customers in
and sales will say they are because they
close the deals
while yes both marketing and sales play
distinct roles within the customer life
cycle model
where marketing looks after the
marketing qualified leads or for those
playing at home the
mql stage and sales the sales qualified
leads or sql stage
both are equally major parts in this
process
therefore it's time to stop treating
marketing and sales like apples and
oranges and start
seeing them as two parts of a whole it's
time for marketing and sales
to become aligned the terms marketing
refers to the alignment between your
sales
and marketing do you get it sales and
marketing teams via constant and direct
communication
s marketing goals should be formed by
your teams in tandem
and re-evaluate every month to identify
opportunities for improvement
this way handing over leads from
marketing to sales
is as seamless as possible so here are
some tactics to get this marketing ball
rolling
first thing straight off the bat is to
try and get your sales and marketing
teams talking with
each other encourage sales to give
feedback on lead quality each month
doing this will aid marketers in
understanding which types of leads sales
are most likely to close
which means that they can keep an eye
out for better leads
incentivize marketers to sit on sales
calls and help
close deals so each party understands
the value of every lead that's been
generated
have weeklies marketing meetings to
rally sales and marketings and celebrate
the collaboration
and camaraderie undertaking activities
like these will convey to each party
that they are both one on the same side
furthermore
make sure everyone on every level gets
on board with aligning themselves
for instance sales and marketing exeps
should meet regularly to discuss
marketing strategies and communicate it
with the rest of their people
once you get the creative juices flowing
between sales and marketing it's time to
encourage your teams to talk
constructively
about any misalignments or frustrations
between the two groups
one way to avoid hurting feelings and
egos is ensuring everyone backs up
their claims with data to help keep
sales and marketing accountable for
successful alignment
are managing lead flows and percentage
of leads worked
and closed rates marketing should be
measured on the volume and quality of
leads
they hand off to sales this is referred
to as a lead flow
the quantity and quality of the leads
for which marketing is accountable for
should grow month over month in order
for the business growth
the percentage of leads worked will
measure your sales team's productivity
related to the leads marketing provide
sales should be working leads at a
higher steady rate so marketing's hard
work isn't null and void
as sales works their leads the close
rates from lead to customers should also
remain steady
if the worked rates and close rates
decline it may be an indicator of poor
lead quality or
lack of sufficient team members to
handle the lead volume if sales aren't
happy with the lead flow
from the past month start with the
discussion with stats from months prior
rather than fueling the conversation
with feelings
if marketing thinks sales isn't working
the leads properly support claims with
lead data showing the amount of leads
worked in a given month
keeping the discussion fact focused
means that your sales and marketing
teams are data driven and accountable
for their efforts
simultaneously ensuring their feelings
and opinions are validated
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inside your inbox a service level
agreement
also known in the biz as an sla is a all
parties agreed document that defines
an expected level of service in the
context of smarketing
an sla documents goals as well as an
outline of how
each team plans to contribute to those
goals for example
number of leads delivered to sales each
month and a number of
mqls worked by sales within this sla
should be definitions of
mql sql and an explanation around the
lead
accumulation process in a nutshell it
should contain everything that you need
to execute an effective handover
remember that slas aren't fixed
if a process or definition doesn't work
adjust your sla until it's the right fit
for both of your teams
speaking of definitions when you're
carefully defining mqls and
sqls as well as the best opportunities
to hand off from marketing to sales in
your sla
here are some things to keep in mind a
crucial factor differentiating a lead
from an mql or sql is their behavior
on your website or how they engage with
your company certain behaviors or pieces
of information
given by a lead will be weighted
differently depending on your
organization
for example company a might realize that
first time visitors are just as likely
to purchase as a repeat visitor while
company b's leads
need to visit their site three or four
times before converting
actually into a lead no matter how you
weight particular actions
there are some characteristics to look
out for and to consider when factoring
into your mql
and sql definitions first time visitor
versus repeat visitor
conversion count or the number of times
they will fill out a form
stage in the buying cycle as indicated
by the content they consume for example
visiting a products page
channel or source for example are leads
coming from an ad campaign
more likely to become actual customers
lead scoring is the process of assigning
values often in the form of numeral
points
to each lead you generate in the
business it's a system that helps sales
and marketing teams prioritize
leads respond to them appropriately and
increase the rate
in which those leads become customers in
short you rank a whole bunch of
attributes and behaviors and then rank
your leads accordingly to this scale
to be honest it's not imperative that
you have a lead scoring system in fact
you may just need a simple outline of a
customer profile however if your company
requires
a lot of data points to assess a leads
compatibility
with your brand or your sales team is
drowning in leads
putting in place a lead scoring system
just may be the way to go
the ultimate marketing tactic is using
sales and marketing software
software like hubspot salesforce
integration means that both marketing
and sales can share
customer data with each other and see
where their prospects and leads are in
their life cycle stage
marketing can gain a better
comprehension of where the best leads
are coming from
meaning that they can better optimize
the roi truly benefiting their business
automation of the handoff process means
that sales can swiftly notify when a new
sqls are delighted to meet them
with salesforce specifically because of
its closed-loop integration
sales is able to track their leads
online behaviors making a
would-have cold call into a warm core
overall integrating
marketing and sales software into your
operations ensures a smooth
mql to an sql transition nice
so there you have it as any business
knows good leads are hard to come by
so when you do find good ones don't lose
them because your sales and marketing
teams are misaligned
creating alignment by encouraging
collaboration between marketing and
sales
nurture a non-partisan mentality within
your organization
where instead of thinking mql or sql
think mql and sql by streamlining your
teams and optimizing the handoff process
you close more deals quickly
and your business thrives you can visit
this corresponding blog that we've
linked in the description of this video
and check it out for some more helpful
tips and tricks if you found this video
helpful then feel free to share it with
someone that you know that needs a hand
with sales and marketing alignment you
can also subscribe to our blog where
you'll find a bunch more tools
tips and templates to help you find sell
and keep your people
just like neighborhood does and that's
it for me happy marketing and selling
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