Align Sales & Marketing

Align Sales & Marketing

Align Sales & Marketing

When Sales & Marketing are not aligned, bad things happen such as: higher cost of selling, low lead conversion rates, inadequate pipelines and conflicting messaging to customers & prospects.

Marketing needs to believe that its number one customer is Sales and Sales needs to be transparent as to the needs in each territory. Marketing usually owns the lead generation and qualification functions. It is critical that there be complete agreement as to what makes a lead qualified and ready for transfer to Sales. We recommend an Ideal Customer Criteria list and Qualified Lead Criteria be developed to facilitate the agreement.  Sales has to be diligent in following up on Marketing Qualified leads and  Marketing should accept that any lead that is rejected by Sales needs further work.

Marketing also has the responsibility for developing Value Propositions and messaging. Value Propositions must be very clear, highly credible and quantified. When that is the case, sell cycles will be shorter. Differentiation from competitors should be clear so that your sales reps will be less subject to price pressure. Web sites need to convey value for the customer and should be designed such that low probability prospects qualify themselves out.

Growth Process Group offers a Sales Assessment service to identify issues and challenges in the alignment of Sales & Marketing teams.