Ask the VP of Sales and the VP of Marketing at any company how well their teams get along and you’ll likely find some level of friction. Salespeople complain that marketing doesn’t provide enough leads, and that leads are not “sales ready.” Marketing complains that salespeople fail to follow up on leads properly and bungle their own opportunities.
The complaints have been around for some time and there’s a bit of truth on each side. One thing is clear: if companies want to maximize revenue potential, they need to make sure sales and marketing are putting forth a coordinated effort. Here are five solutions to get your sales and marketing teams on the same page.
Solution #1
Make sure the head of sales and the head of marketing get along
The psychology of team dynamics is powerful. Both sellers and marketers notice when the people in charge are at each other’s throats. If the VP and Sales and the VP of Marketing do not get along, the dissent is probably going to trickle down to the folks at the ground level.
Solution #2
Define a lead
This is hardly a new concept, but you’d be surprised how many sales and marketing teams lack a common definition of a lead. Creating such a definition can go a long way in opening up the lines of communication between sellers and marketers. And on a practical level, it ensures that both teams are playing from the same sheet of music. When there’s no confusion about what constitutes a good lead, it eliminates sales’ battle cry, “These leads suck!”
Solution #3
Make sure the CMO knows what the sales quota is
The Sales Lead Management Association has reported that many CMOs don’t even know what quotas have been set for the sales team. Again, this shows a lack of basic communication between the two groups and is probably a sign of misalignment.
Solution #4
Hold marketing accountable for a quota
If salespeople fail to close deals, they fail to see a commission check. Meanwhile, marketers receive a paycheck whether deals get closed or not. Thus salespeople sometimes have the perception that marketing does not have as much incentive to work as hard as they do.
Of course, most companies do hold marketers accountable for certain metrics, but they don’t necessarily make a direct tie between sales quota and marketing performance. According to this marketing quota-attainment plan outlined by Sales Benchmark Index, the marketing team needs to deliver leads that result in 168 sales at an average selling price of $113,000. Another great example is HubSpot SVP Mark Roberge, who figured out how to quantify the value of different types of leads so that marketing could be held responsible for a specific number.
Not only does a clear-cut number help define success for marketing, it also sends a message to both sales and marketing teams that their respective performances are being measured in a similar fashion — by financial metrics.
Solution #5
Give sales and marketing teams online tools that can help them achieve their performance goals
To capture the interest of prospects online, companies today need to supercharge their websites with content. Blog posts, videos, articles, case studies, and different types of downloadable assets (white papers or eBooks) give folks an idea of who you are, what your level of expertise is, how you’ve helped other companies, and how you might be able to help them. For example, clients use our value calculators on their websites so that their potential buyers can easily quantify the value of their solution.
This last point is especially important, because in the end the customer doesn’t care if they talk to sales or marketing — they want to know how you can provide value to them. Value calculators can be used by both marketers and sellers — marketers can leverage them early in the sales cycle by making the tool available on the website to capture a lead; whereas sales can use it a bit later in the sales cycle during a conversation to show the prospect he’s not wasting his time.
How well do your B2B marketing and sales teams get along? Do they have a common definition of a lead or share quota goals? Share your views in the comments section.
[Image via Flickr / Sean McMenemy]
