Entries from August 2008
Sales leads play a big role in B2B marketing and sales alignment
A comment on an earlier post, Closing the Gap Between Sales and Marketing: New Report, got me thinking about the role of sales leads in marketing and sales alignment from a business-to-business perspective.
Three critical factors came to mind:
- The definition of a qualified lead. This requires agreement between the marketing team and the sales team on the criteria that will be used to determine that a sales lead is qualified or “sales-ready.”
The number of sales leads needed is determined by the company’s sales revenue goals. Here’s the question: If X percent of leads qualify, and Y percent of those qualified leads close at an average sale value of $Z, how many leads need to be generated?
My Sales Lead Calculator TM will help you determine your numbers. (Online version as well as Excel download available.)- Lead generation activities must be planned with the length of the sales/buying cycle in mind. If your average sales/buying cycle time is six months from lead to purchase, you can’t generate a new lead today and expect it will affect this month’s sales.
Share your thoughts about the role of sales leads in the alignment of B2B marketing and sales with a comment below.
Closing the Gap Between Sales and Marketing: New Report
As I’ve said before in an article “Five Tips for Integrating Marketing and Sales,” there are big rewards when sales and marketing are effectively integrated.
The CMO Council just launched their latest report entitled Closing the Gap: The Sales and Marketing Alignment Imperative.
In short, this report found:
Over 55 percent of some 506 sales and marketing professions surveyed say their companies have yet to, or are only planning to, implement formal programs, systems or processes for unifying sales and marketing functions. In contrast, of those who have, nearly 50 percent report success in synchronizing and optimizing these often-polarized areas.
It goes on to provide details on these topics and more:
- Benefits of alignment to both company and customer
- Road blocks and challenges
- The key elements to maximize sales
- What should be done to improve the results of the sales organization
- Elements of optimizing marketing performance
To download the Executive Summary (free) or full report ($199):
Closing the Gap: The Sales and Marketing Alignment Imperative
How integrated are sales and marketing at your company? Do you see it improving in the future? Please share your story in a comment below.
