Sales Lead Management Process

Misalignment is?Hurting Your Sales Lead Management Process

There?s always been a sort of sibling rivalry between the sales and marketing departments. The basic problem is that sales feels marketing?s efforts are not generating enough high quality leads, while marketing believes that sales isn?t working leads properly. Mistrust and miscommunication between them can act like a weight slowing your company?s growth. The fact is, your company?s future growth depends on aligning these two rivals.

Let?s look at some common complaints from each department, and how a sales lead management process can begin to align sales with marketing.

Why Sales Hates Marketing

There?s a perception among many sales teams that marketing suffers from a superiority complex.? Marketing practitioners often hold advanced degrees and prominent positions within peer marketing groups. The common thought that these marketers have heard and perpetuate is that good marketing drives sales, not the actual salesmen.

In the words of management guru Peter?Drucker, ?The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.? This has given marketers a sense that selling is ?easy.? After all, their efforts are bringing in business. Sales consists of merely taking orders, right?

Then there?s the accountability gap. Sales are measurable and quantifiable.? Marketing can be tough to measure. Often marketing is measured on less exact KPIs, like website visits or door swings. Even if their work doesn?t bring in a single sale, marketers can fall back on their ?strategic outreach.? ?This can be frustrating if you?re a sales rep in the field and on the front lines dealing with clients.

Why Marketing Hates Sales

Many marketers feel the sales team doesn?t respect their job and the support that marketing provides. They feel that sales believes all marketing is dispensable, and that the only job marketing has is to provide qualified leads for the sales team to close, or plan pointless events.

Along these lines, marketers feel that sales take all the credit. The close of a sale is solely a result of the sales department?s effort. The truth is, that sale stemmed from marketing?s efforts of generating awareness and positive brand perception in leads.? The close came as a result of a team effort.

One of the toughest complaints marketers express when it comes to sales is that there isn?t sufficient follow-up on the leads marketing has generated, and when sales hit their quota, they?re done. Why oversell? ?It?ll just mean a higher quota and more work next quarter.

Working Toward Alignment

While there’s some?truth to both sides in this rivalry, the key to resolving issues is to implement a sales lead management process. This begins by opening the lines of communication and creating a data driven process that holds both teams accountable. By using hard numbers to define the key stages of your sales funnel and creating a clear outline for each team?s performance, there is less room for discord. The results are visible in the numbers.

If you believe communication or processes can and should be different between the sales and marketing departments at your organization, take the Alignment Assessment. It is a FREE and confidential way to identify gaps in performance and optimize how these two vital departments function.

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, PPC campaigns and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?and?traditional media?allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.