Summary
Sales and marketing teams frequently disagree on what constitutes a qualified lead. Marketing may prioritize volume and engagement metrics, while sales focus on lead readiness and fit. This disconnect leads to frustration, wasted resources, and hampers overall performance.
Today, Brendan Ziolo from Zinc Marketing and I will explore this issue, bringing both sales and marketing perspectives to the table.
Webinar:
Let’s all agree on one thing – leads are crucial for your growth. Poor lead quality and ineffective or delayed lead follow-up between your sales and marketing teams can (and will) have significant costs:
- Lost Revenue: Missed opportunities from unqualified leads and delayed follow-up can result in substantial revenue loss.
- Wasted Resources: Marketing efforts and budgets are wasted if leads are not properly followed up.
- Frustration and Misalignment: Misalignment between sales and marketing leads to frustration, inefficiencies, and reduced team morale.
Leaders must motivate front-line sales and marketing staff to work together and support them in taking the time to get lead handling and messaging right. Both teams need to be aligned from the top down. Leaders should also enforce accountability, ensuring that agreed-upon definitions and processes are followed consistently. By regularly reviewing performance and maintaining open lines of communication, leaders can drive better alignment and more effective lead management.
Why Does This Lead Handling Gap Exist?
Sales and marketing teams often live in two different worlds. They report to different leaders, have different reward mechanisms, and experience vastly different day-to-day activities. This separation frequently leads to a divide between the teams, contributing to misalignment and inefficiencies.
- Different Goals and Metrics: Sales and marketing often have differing goals and metrics for success, leading to conflicting priorities.
- Lack of Communication: Inadequate communication and collaboration result in misaligned definitions and expectations of what constitutes a qualified lead.
- Different Perspectives: Sales teams focus on individual leads and personal interactions, while marketing looks at overall campaign performance and broader engagement metrics.
Marketing Perspective
Marketing teams invest significant time and effort into generating demand for their company’s products and services. A great marketing campaign is always focused on quality, not quantity, and is carefully built to target the ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer personas. However, challenges arise when:
- Quality vs. Quantity: Marketing campaigns might generate numerous leads that meet agreed-upon criteria but are ignored or not followed up on by sales.
- Nurturing Prospects: Marketing aims to build awareness, nurture prospects, and move buyers along their journey, not just capture lead information.
- Feedback Loop: Marketing teams often prefer feedback on why leads are not considered good, as this helps them optimize future campaigns. Simply ignoring leads wastes these efforts.
Sales Perspective
Sales teams prioritize leads that show clear buying intent and fit the ideal customer profile. Key criteria for a qualified lead include:
- Demonstrated Interest: Engagement through specific actions or behaviors.
- Target Market Alignment: Fit with the company’s target market and decision-making authority.
- Budget and Urgency: Indications of budget availability and urgency to solve the problem.
Salespeople see lead follow-up as a personal experience, investing significant time in each contact. However, there is often a perception that marketing views prospects in aggregate, as numbers on a spreadsheet, leading to a disconnect in how leads are handled. Sales needs timely and relevant information about leads to engage effectively, and frequent communication between sales and marketing is essential to ensure leads are pursued efficiently.
Bridging the Lead Divide
- Align Goals and KPIs: Sales and marketing should align their goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure they are working towards common objectives.
- Agree on Lead Definitions: Establish clear definitions of what constitutes a lead at various stages of the sales funnel, from suspects and prospects to MQLs and SQLs.
- Outline Campaigns to Sales: Inform sales teams about upcoming campaigns so they understand what is happening and when.
- Regularly Review Lead Quality and Metrics: Hold regular meetings to discuss lead quality and conversion metrics, ensuring both teams are on the same page.
- Establish Feedback Loops: Sales should provide detailed, actionable feedback on leads to marketing, which should be captured in the CRM to ensure it is specific and actionable.
- Encourage Joint Training Sessions: Conduct joint training sessions and workshops where both teams can understand each other’s processes and perspectives better.
Conclusions
Effective lead handling is not a set-it-and-forget-it process. It requires ongoing tuning and collaboration between sales and marketing. By aligning goals, establishing clear definitions, and fostering communication, companies can bridge the divide and enhance their lead quality and follow-up processes. This alignment not only reduces frustration and wasted resources but also drives growth and improves overall performance.
If you have any experiences or insights on aligning sales and marketing, or if you’ve faced similar challenges, share your thoughts in the comments below!
