10 Best Practices for Sales & Marketing Alignment

This week I was working with a new client and we were conducting the lead management kick-off meeting. This client had just purchased a lead management system and was preparing to soar into the world of Web 2.0 marketing. In attendance were the marketing staff and a significant number of sales people. The ratio of sales to marketing in this meeting was 3:1.

The purpose of the kick-off was to:

1. Begin building a collaborative lead management relationship between sales and marketing


2. Begin building a jointly constructed lead management process


3. Introduce the team to the capabilities and possibilities of their chosen lead management system


4. Build a set of Use Cases (highly customized lead management scenarios for the company with priority)

The entire team fully participated, shared and respected each other’s opinions and ideas during the session. The result of the day was a sales and marketing team that was fully charged and excited about Web 2.0 lead management in their company.

I share this story as a way to set up how every company needs to better align sales and marketing around ALL lead generation efforts. In a study we conducted last summer, we asked leading marketers what one piece of advice they would give to a new lead generation marketer – the answer was a loud and resounding – “Get aligned with sales.” We see this as such a critical success factor that in our newly published LASER Approach, we outline beginning the lead management dialog with sales even before your company invests in a lead management system

The case above is finally beginning to become the norm yet I still see companies in which marketing does not or can’t engage with sales in building and improving lead management. Here are a few ways you can improve your own alignment with sales and your lead generation efforts. These are not rocket science, but they are Best Practices that will ensure you lead generation success. What have you seen that works?

Work with sales to:

1. Build a language of leads
   This is the most BASIC step yet EVERY company we work with has an issue of not using a common language of leads
   
2. Build a common lead management process
   When is a lead handed over, how is it handed over, what is the responsibility of sales when it is handed over, how does sales hand it back to marketing if not yet sales ready?
   
3. Create a lead scoring program
   You cannot create a lead scoring program without sales. Time and time again, when we facilitate a lead scoring exercise with sales and marketing, marketing is amazed at what they learn
   
4. Build Sales Champions for the lead management program
   Identify and work with a few sales people to ensure they have high quality leads and access to the prospect digital behavior so they can make better pursuit decisions. They will never go back to selling with this and it will win over the rest of the sales team.
   
5. Build a priority of campaigns
   Nobody knows what is hotter in the market than a quota carrying rep. Ask them what kind of program or message will produce “Hot Leads.”
   
6. Create a regular communication cycle
   This includes the campaign calendar which gives them time to order their priorities to follow up right after a campaign. It also includes communicating on how programs are doing and the impact marketing qualified leads are making on the funnel and the revenue picture for the company
   
7. Create a feedback loop
   You will need to get feedback on the quality of the leads so you can make adjustments for future programs
   
8. Service Level Agreements Marketing is working hard to produce leads that fit the requirements of sales. Sales should have specific duties and responsibilities when it comes to lead follow up and disposition
   
9. Guiding Principles
   As marketing spends more and more time in the lead management part of their business, their role changes and you need to re-set expectations. Creating 5 – 7 Guiding Principles will help everyone understand the new role of marketing and reduce potential friction.
   
10. Finally, if you don’t know how sales works in your company, learn!

What have you seen that works?