The relationship between sales and marketing is a two-way street; the two departments affect each other in a multitude of ways. While marketing can provide sales with the qualified leads they need to develop business, sales can provide marketing with the data, analytics and from-the-field insights they need to create and execute more effective campaigns.
On Wednesday, we discussed how marketing impacts sales. Today we’re flipping the equation to take a closer look at how sales impacts marketing strategies and tactics.
Today, only one in two companies reports that their sales and marketing departments have a formal, shared definition of a qualified lead. The sales team is likely to have a better understanding of what deems a lead as qualified than anyone else in the company, and they need to share guidance on this matter with marketing so that lead qualification can be measured more accurately. When sales shares insights about the kinds of contacts they want to receive, the marketing team can optimize its efforts to deliver more of that type of lead.
At almost any company, you’ll find a subset of leads that were at one time promising but have since grown cold. These leads shouldn’t just sit with the sales team, untended. Instead, they should be passed back to marketing for continued nurturing. The sales team can help marketing to identify cold, lost or old leads, and marketing can then step in to nurture those contacts in the hopes they will turn warm again in the future.
Consistent communication with the sales team gives marketers valuable information into how their campaigns and tactics are performing. Because the sales department is talking directly with prospects on a daily basis, they are the ones who capture insights about everything from the reception of a new campaign to frustrations with the company website. This intelligence must be passed down to the marketing department so that marketing efforts can be continually improved upon based on customer feedback.
Marketers, let us know: how does the sales team at your company impact your success?
(Click here to expand)
