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:

1. 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.”
2. 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.)
3. 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.