Organizations are said to be solving the tension between sales and marketing and hitting revenue targets by putting the buyer at the center of the process. Success comes from their being able to monitor and map how their customers go through their buying processes, with five actions to take:
Getting agreement from the CEO
This is described as an important first step. Sales and marketing alignment is a leadership issue. If you don't get the buy-in from the head of the company, trying to do this becomes an academic exercise.
Marketing needs a seat at the table
Marketing executives should be treated as equals to their sales counterparts - in practice, marketing can do a lot to affect lead volume, quality, velocity and close of business. Sales and marketing need to develop a unified definition of what is a "lead", possibly with all budget, authority, need and timeframe criteria defined. This can be built into a service level agreement (SLA) between sales and marketing.
Report on the same metrics
With the advances in lead generation, nurturing and conversion, it becomes obvious that if sales and marketing aren't playing with the same rule book, things can go wrong quickly. Stop problems before they start by making sales and marketing alignment a priority. Both departments should be working together throughout the whole sales process.
Develop a unified process
The collaborative development of a process is one of the core issues that causes the gap that exists in many organizations. Companies that excel at sales and marketing alignment have processes and procedures that are mapped to how their customers buy. This includes how quickly leads are attended to by sales.
The ideal time period between inquiry and contact is 5 minutes. At that point you're four times less likely to qualify a lead than when letting five more minutes slip by and 21 times less likely than when you think about it for 20 minutes. Faster response to leads = better conversion rates.
In summary, marketing and sales can work together to address:
- Data Management
- Lead Planning
- Lead Routing (SLAs)
- Lead Qualification (including scoring and definition of every stage of the funnel)
- Lead Nurturing
- Content Blueprint
- Metrics
With the integration of many companies' CRM systems and with many companies now implementing marketing automation, there is the ability for the two previously separate silos aligning into a unified process with performance metrics. Companies are now able to manage a complete revenue cycle that is mapped to how their customers buy throughout their buying cycle.
Want to learn more about how Prospectvision's lead generation solutions can help align your sales and marketing efforts? Check out our free webinar on the 24 August 2011
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