This document provides guidance on aligning sales and marketing teams through defining leads, agreeing on lead handoff processes, and mapping lead generation strategies to the sales funnel. The key points covered are:
1) Sales and marketing must agree on a definition of what constitutes a lead and when leads are handed off from marketing to sales.
2) Lead profiles should include demographics, firmographics, and BANT attributes to understand buyer readiness.
3) Service level agreements can ensure sales follows up on marketing-generated leads within set timeframes.
4) Lead generation strategies should target different stages of the sales funnel based on buyer intent and interest in the product.
How marketers can earn respect at the revenue tableAnene Wealth
How would a 10% increase in your marketing budget affect the profitability of your company?
If you can’t answer that question, budget meetings probably aren’t your favorite part of the job. When you walk into your CEO’s office, maybe you bring activity reports, industry awards, examples of jobs well done…but does she care enough to increase —
There’s a time for spray and pray marketing: For casting your net wide when sharing news in the expectation that a small percentage of recipients will have that ‘aha’ moment. But let’s face it, when the emphasis is on delivering immediate results (and timely opportunities), then the more targeted your activities the better.
Which is, of course, the central promise behind Account-Based Marketing (ABM).
With it comes the ability to deliver more meaningful and relevant messages that are tailored to a precise audience. But then you already knew that. What you possibly don’t know so well are the key factors behind a successful ABM programme or the main pitfalls to avoid.
At least until you opened this ebook...
Chapter 8 - SECRETS TO BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS BUSINESS THROUGH LEADERSHIP MAR...VINCE FERRARO
Do you dream of winning? Are you In It To Win It? There is an old saying that states:To the victor go the spoils. This saying originated from wars fought in ancient days - and meant that the victor got all the goodies! In today's competitive society, our desires and intentions are to be the best at what we do to win the prize - tangible or intangible. In fact, even the US Army used the slogan Be all that you can be as a motivator for recruits to join and excel.
Tom Hopkins, Author of How To Master The Art Of Selling & states that if you're going to do anything-small or large-why not do it to the best of your ability? Being the 'best' connotes drive, perseverance, leadership, success - factors that are valued by our culture, by which we are judged, and which make us feel good. Where does this take us? Well, we all want to be successful in our endeavors.
The Celebrity Expert® authors in this book have earned 'Blue Ribbons' in their respective fields of endeavor. They have succeeded in attaining their goals. Are you aspiring to be the best in your field? Are you planning to succeed? These Celebrity Experts® have blazed a trail that will show you the way and make it easier for you to succeed. They will show you how to avoid the pitfalls they encountered and, if you take advantage of their experiences, they will coach you to attain your desired goals. Experience suggests that readers of this book will be...In It To Win It.
Sales casualty analysis: why sales numbers do not happen and what to do to ge...Browne & Mohan
Despite significant investment in resource and infrastructure, many companies suffer from long sales cycles, lack of funnel, targets missed by miles and very low closure rate. Reasons for poor sales numbers are common across industries. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants detail the inhibitors of sales growth and how to address the same.
As the VP of Sales, what metrics matter to you and your team? The experts at Base CRM will show you how to turn visual data into actionable insights.
Learn more: http://www.getbase.com
How marketers can earn respect at the revenue tableAnene Wealth
How would a 10% increase in your marketing budget affect the profitability of your company?
If you can’t answer that question, budget meetings probably aren’t your favorite part of the job. When you walk into your CEO’s office, maybe you bring activity reports, industry awards, examples of jobs well done…but does she care enough to increase —
There’s a time for spray and pray marketing: For casting your net wide when sharing news in the expectation that a small percentage of recipients will have that ‘aha’ moment. But let’s face it, when the emphasis is on delivering immediate results (and timely opportunities), then the more targeted your activities the better.
Which is, of course, the central promise behind Account-Based Marketing (ABM).
With it comes the ability to deliver more meaningful and relevant messages that are tailored to a precise audience. But then you already knew that. What you possibly don’t know so well are the key factors behind a successful ABM programme or the main pitfalls to avoid.
At least until you opened this ebook...
Chapter 8 - SECRETS TO BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS BUSINESS THROUGH LEADERSHIP MAR...VINCE FERRARO
Do you dream of winning? Are you In It To Win It? There is an old saying that states:To the victor go the spoils. This saying originated from wars fought in ancient days - and meant that the victor got all the goodies! In today's competitive society, our desires and intentions are to be the best at what we do to win the prize - tangible or intangible. In fact, even the US Army used the slogan Be all that you can be as a motivator for recruits to join and excel.
Tom Hopkins, Author of How To Master The Art Of Selling & states that if you're going to do anything-small or large-why not do it to the best of your ability? Being the 'best' connotes drive, perseverance, leadership, success - factors that are valued by our culture, by which we are judged, and which make us feel good. Where does this take us? Well, we all want to be successful in our endeavors.
The Celebrity Expert® authors in this book have earned 'Blue Ribbons' in their respective fields of endeavor. They have succeeded in attaining their goals. Are you aspiring to be the best in your field? Are you planning to succeed? These Celebrity Experts® have blazed a trail that will show you the way and make it easier for you to succeed. They will show you how to avoid the pitfalls they encountered and, if you take advantage of their experiences, they will coach you to attain your desired goals. Experience suggests that readers of this book will be...In It To Win It.
Sales casualty analysis: why sales numbers do not happen and what to do to ge...Browne & Mohan
Despite significant investment in resource and infrastructure, many companies suffer from long sales cycles, lack of funnel, targets missed by miles and very low closure rate. Reasons for poor sales numbers are common across industries. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants detail the inhibitors of sales growth and how to address the same.
As the VP of Sales, what metrics matter to you and your team? The experts at Base CRM will show you how to turn visual data into actionable insights.
Learn more: http://www.getbase.com
Marketing Math: Key Metrics to Maximize Marketing DollarsKaren Marchetti
All of the marketing math equations you've probably heard about -- but never really understood, including:
- MARKETING PROGRAM ANALYSIS metrics: Marketing Contribution, Return on Investment (ROI), Social Media Engagement, Conversion Rates, Revenue Per Email, Revenue to Expense Ratios
- MARKETING PLANNING metrics: Budgeting formulas, Breakeven Analysis, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
- CUSTOMER ANALYSIS: Lifetime Value
If you're unsure about:
- The difference between Gross Revenue and Net Revenue
- How to compute Gross Profit or ROI
- Whether you're creating the most effective marketing budget
- Whether you're analyzing your marketing programs effectively
This presentation will help, and is a great resource for every marketer!
SPI Insight: Selecting and Developing Sales Talent with Employee AssessmentsDario Priolo
This eBook covers:
How to determine if your existing talent is capable of executing future growth
Essential features of effective sales hiring assessments
Why personality assessments alone are inadequate
How to identify who you should choose as your next sales manager
8 Critical Success Factorsfor Lead GenerationGil.B
Until now, "lead generation" was associated with direct mail campaigns, sometimes supported by a flashy website, sporadic trade show appearances, intense email blasts or stabs at telemarketing, but with very little, if any, special attention brought to bear on the complex sale.
Meanwhile, marketers are constantly reminded that the company needs more sales leads NOW. Unfortunately, that immediacy often means sacrificing quality for sheer quantity.
A flood of ordinary, low-quality leads doesn\'t mean better sales - so why waste your time? The challenge is to adopt lead generation programs that will increase the odds of creating better sales leads, ultimately resulting in long-term, happy and profitable customers.
Artigo, em inglês, escrito pelo executivo global de Marketing, Bracey Wilson, sobre o tema que mais tem chamado a atenção de CEOs e profissionais de Marketing: Métricas em Marketing.
To measure ROI accurately, you must look not only at how much your customers spent, but how much MORE they spent because of your marketing. This white paper explores the concept of incrementality and shows you what you measure and how to control variables.
Marketing Agility: The Missing Metric?Shelly Lucas
Marketing agility isn’t just about doing things faster. It’s about being adaptable to abrupt shifts in customer needs and industry developments. In most cases, dialing up your nimbleness requires more than a team tune-up—usually, it requires nothing short of a transformation. Why, then, don’t CMOs measure their agility progress?
In this white paper, you’ll learn how and why marketers should consider measuring adaptability.
Marketing Math: Key Metrics to Maximize Marketing DollarsKaren Marchetti
All of the marketing math equations you've probably heard about -- but never really understood, including:
- MARKETING PROGRAM ANALYSIS metrics: Marketing Contribution, Return on Investment (ROI), Social Media Engagement, Conversion Rates, Revenue Per Email, Revenue to Expense Ratios
- MARKETING PLANNING metrics: Budgeting formulas, Breakeven Analysis, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
- CUSTOMER ANALYSIS: Lifetime Value
If you're unsure about:
- The difference between Gross Revenue and Net Revenue
- How to compute Gross Profit or ROI
- Whether you're creating the most effective marketing budget
- Whether you're analyzing your marketing programs effectively
This presentation will help, and is a great resource for every marketer!
SPI Insight: Selecting and Developing Sales Talent with Employee AssessmentsDario Priolo
This eBook covers:
How to determine if your existing talent is capable of executing future growth
Essential features of effective sales hiring assessments
Why personality assessments alone are inadequate
How to identify who you should choose as your next sales manager
8 Critical Success Factorsfor Lead GenerationGil.B
Until now, "lead generation" was associated with direct mail campaigns, sometimes supported by a flashy website, sporadic trade show appearances, intense email blasts or stabs at telemarketing, but with very little, if any, special attention brought to bear on the complex sale.
Meanwhile, marketers are constantly reminded that the company needs more sales leads NOW. Unfortunately, that immediacy often means sacrificing quality for sheer quantity.
A flood of ordinary, low-quality leads doesn\'t mean better sales - so why waste your time? The challenge is to adopt lead generation programs that will increase the odds of creating better sales leads, ultimately resulting in long-term, happy and profitable customers.
Artigo, em inglês, escrito pelo executivo global de Marketing, Bracey Wilson, sobre o tema que mais tem chamado a atenção de CEOs e profissionais de Marketing: Métricas em Marketing.
To measure ROI accurately, you must look not only at how much your customers spent, but how much MORE they spent because of your marketing. This white paper explores the concept of incrementality and shows you what you measure and how to control variables.
Marketing Agility: The Missing Metric?Shelly Lucas
Marketing agility isn’t just about doing things faster. It’s about being adaptable to abrupt shifts in customer needs and industry developments. In most cases, dialing up your nimbleness requires more than a team tune-up—usually, it requires nothing short of a transformation. Why, then, don’t CMOs measure their agility progress?
In this white paper, you’ll learn how and why marketers should consider measuring adaptability.
How to create content that fuels your sales funnel (pdf)Stickyeyes
Ensuring that you are delivering the right content, to the right audience, at the right time in the buying process is no easy task, but it is critical to get this right in order to drive a return on investment from content marketing.
Our latest webinar, hosted by Phil McGuin, Director of Demand Generation at Stickyeyes broke down the fundamental elements to building and implementing a sales driven content strategy including:
- How to define your sales process & buying cycle.
- How to understand how your target audiences behave online, and what content they are looking for.
- How to map your content onto your target audience and customer persona groups.
- How and why to deploy relevant content at different stages within the sales cycle.
6 ways to achieve sales and marketing alignment throughout the buyer's journeyxoombi
Alignment between Marketing and Sales is potentially the largest opportunity for improving business performance today. When marketing and sales teams unite around a single buyer's journey, they dramatically improve marketing ROI, sales productivity, and, most importantly, top-line growth.
Self Assessment for Driving Revenue GrowthThe Naro Group
I often get called into an organization when revenue growth stalls. I start at a high level to discover where there are missing links and broken pieces within the sales organization to determine what’s needed to get back on track. What I’ve outlined below will give you a starting point for assessing your own organization's sales effectiveness gaps and what you might want to focus on in terms of sales readiness and sales enablement activities.
Steven geffen digital marketing strategy quirk textbook 5Steven Geffen
Steven Geffen: The essential Guide to Marketing in a Digital world. We look at the questions to ask when compiling a digital marketing strategy, and a digital marketing strategy in action
In this on-demand seminar HubSpot and BrainSell provide actionable tips to create a Smarketing (Sales + Marketing) approach to automating your business and revenue growth.
Sales is an area where many companies find the outcomes belie investments and outcomes. Many companies attempt sales transformation in a piece-meal fashion. In this paper, we discuss the framework for sales transformation and five fundamental levers of sales transformation.
Sales and Marketing Alignment - The Secret Ingredient to More RevenueRichard Hatheway
This article will explain what sales and marketing alignment is, explain the benefits of sales and marketing alignment, and provide best practices to help more fully align your sales and marketing departments.
Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?Cut-the-SaaS
Discover the transformative power of AI in content creation with our presentation, "Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?" by Puran Parsani, CEO & Editor of Cut-The-SaaS. Learn how AI-generated content is revolutionizing marketing, publishing, education, healthcare, and finance by offering unprecedented efficiency, creativity, and scalability.
Understanding
AI-Generated Content:
AI-generated content includes text, images, videos, and audio produced by AI without direct human involvement. This technology leverages large datasets to create contextually relevant and coherent material, streamlining content production.
Key Benefits:
Content Creation: Rapidly generate high-quality content for blogs, articles, and social media.
Brainstorming: AI simulates conversations to inspire creative ideas.
Research Assistance: Efficiently summarize and research information.
Market Insights:
The content marketing industry is projected to grow to $17.6 billion by 2032, with AI-generated content expected to dominate over 55% of the market.
Case Study: CNET’s AI Content Controversy:
CNET’s use of AI for news articles led to public scrutiny due to factual inaccuracies, highlighting the need for transparency and human oversight.
Benefits Across Industries:
Marketing: Personalize content at scale and optimize engagement with predictive analytics.
Publishing: Automate content creation for faster publication cycles.
Education: Efficiently generate educational materials.
Healthcare: Create accurate content for patients and professionals.
Finance: Produce timely financial content for decision-making.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations:
Transparency: Disclose AI use to maintain trust.
Bias: Address potential AI biases with diverse datasets.
SEO: Ensure AI content meets SEO standards.
Quality: Maintain high standards to prevent misinformation.
Conclusion:
AI-generated content offers significant benefits in efficiency, personalization, and scalability. However, ethical considerations and quality assurance are crucial for responsible use. Explore the future of content creation with us and see how AI is transforming various industries.
Connect with Us:
Follow Cut-The-SaaS on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Medium. Visit cut-the-saas.com for more insights and resources.
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
How to Use AI to Write a High-Quality Article that Ranksminatamang0021
In the world of content creation, many AI bloggers have drifted away from their original vision, resulting in low-quality articles that search engines overlook. Don't let that happen to you! Join us to discover how to leverage AI tools effectively to craft high-quality content that not only captures your audience's attention but also ranks well on search engines.
Disclaimer: Some of the prompts mentioned here are the examples of Matt Diggity. Please use it as reference and make your own custom prompts.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
AI-Powered Personalization: Principles, Use Cases, and Its Impact on CROVWO
In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
When done effectively, personalization builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among your users—key factors for business success. However, relying solely on AI capabilities isn’t enough. You need to anchor your approach in solid principles, understand your users’ context, and master the art of persuasion.
Join us as Sarjak Patel and Naitry Saggu from 3rd Eye Consulting unveil a transformative framework. This approach seamlessly integrates your unique context, consumer insights, and conversion goals, paving the way for unparalleled success in personalization.
SMM Cheap - No. 1 SMM panel in the worldsmmpanel567
Boost your social media marketing with our SMM Panel services offering SMM Cheap services! Get cost-effective services for your business and increase followers, likes, and engagement across all social media platforms. Get affordable services perfect for businesses and influencers looking to increase their social proof. See how cheap SMM strategies can help improve your social media presence and be a pro at the social media game.
The Forgotten Secret Weapon of Digital Marketing: Email
Digital marketing is a rapidly changing, ever evolving industry--Influencers, Threads, X, AI, etc. But one of the most effective digital marketing tools is also one of the oldest: Email. Find out from two Houston-based digital experts how to maximize your results from email.
Key Takeaways:
Email has the best ROI of any digital tactic
It can be used at any stage of the customer journey
It is increasingly important as the cookie-less future gets closer and closer
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
2. Introduction
In order for enterprise companies to be successful in
today’s economy, sales and marketing teams must
be aligned. Both departments must come together to
develop strategies, processes and best practices to
pave the foundation for collaboration. Understanding
what marketing will provide and what to expect from
sales is the first step in getting started.
Use this playbook to begin your aligned lead
generation efforts today.
3. 3
REVENUE SUCCESS: SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT
WHAT IS A LEAD?
To build out your lead generation strategy, you need to start with the basics. Every organization
will have their own definition of a “good lead.” If you don’t know yours, lead generation 101 is
where you need to begin.
There are many definitions of a lead, and
there are even more definitions of a
“good lead.” According to Marketo, in
our own revenue cycle, a lead is “a
qualified prospect that is starting to
exhibit buying behavior.”
Craig Rosenberg, sales and marketing
expert and author of the Funnelholic
blog, states that “there are two
elements to a lead—demographic and
psychographic. When it comes to the
psychographic element, your definition
of a lead will depend on your company,
where you’re selling, and who you’re
selling to.”
Easy enough. But a company’s
definition of a lead is not often agreed
on by both sales and marketing.
How do you come to an agreement?
Simply put, the two teams need to
meet and have a discussion until they
can agree—the success of your lead
generation efforts depends on it.
Sales and Marketing Lead Alignment
Sales and marketing need to create a
universal lead definition that is agreed
upon by both teams.
1. Schedule some time to meet.
Get all of your key stakeholders in a room and
pick each other’s brains.
2. Ask the hard questions.
For marketing, what does your target market
look like? Who do you have in your system, and
what are they engaging with? For sales, what
prospects are you speaking to? What types of
buyers are closing?
3. Decide how good is “good enough.”
Set a base level. What does marketing
consider a good enough lead to get passed to
sales? Conversely, what does sales think is a
lead worth following up on?
4. Get the flip side of the story.
What does marketing consider a bad
lead? And what does sales consider a
lead not worth their time?
5. Agree on a definition and write it
down. Now that you have your definition,
write it down and abide by it. Add it to
your marketing automation system, post
it up on walls—do whatever is necessary
to keep both teams on point.
6. Iterate.
Meet regularly to review this definition.
You should be iterating and changing
your definition as your company grows
and priorities shift.
4. 4
MKTO: What are your top tips for sales
and marketing alignment?
TB: To truly get serious about sales and
marketing alignment, you have to measure
the leaders of both teams on the same
goal—revenue. Not all personnel on the
marketing team need be 100% revenue-
focused, but whomever is “large and in
charge” should have the same
compensation plan as the VP of Sales.
Live and die by the revenue sword, baby!
On the flip side, sales leaders need to belly
up to the bar. Assume that only 50% of
your pipeline (at maximum) will ever come
from marketing efforts. What’s your
strategy for making up the rest of that
pipeline? That’s why the sales team makes
the big bucks. Figure it out, get your reps
executing against the strategy, and stop
pointing fingers at marketing!
Q&A WITH TRISH BERTUZZI,
PRESIDENT & CHIEF STRATEGIST, THE BRIDGE GROUP
MKTO: How should sales and marketing
agree upon lead definitions?
TB: This will never happen, but it is my dream
scenario: first, sales and marketing executives
should get together and create lead definitions.
Next, they should each grab a list of 100
companies and put them through the qualification
process—I’m not talking about the reps, here, but
the execs themselves. Then, based on the real
world output they have created, they sit back
down to re-examine their lead definitions. How
awesome would that be?
MKTO: Name a sales tactic for lead
generation that every sales team should be
employing.
TB: Pick up the phone. Period. End of story. If you
are not kicking your number, take control of your
territory and go have some conversations!
5. 5
REVENUE SUCCESS: SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT
WHAT IS A LEAD?
Demographics
When profiling your leads, you
need to look at demographics—
quantifiable identifiers which characterize
your lead population. Typical demographic
attributes for both B2C and B2B can
consist of the following:
• Gender
• Title
• Company
• Years of experience
• Personal email vs.
corporate email
• Education (B2C)
• Age (B2C)
• Income (B2C)
Firmograhics
Firmogaphics, which are used as criteria by
B2B companies, are organizational
characteristics which help you find your
ideal customer organization, e.g.:
• Name of company
• Company size
• Company location
• Revenue
• Number of divisions
• Number of products/services sold
• Geographic markets served
• Industry
• Products already owned
BANT
You can also often determine a prospect’s
place in the buying process by analyzing his or
her BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and
Timeline) attributes. BANT is a more advanced
lead qualification practice than demographic
and firmographic analysis alone.
• Budget: Can this lead afford your product
or service?
• Authority: Does your lead have the
authority to purchase your product? Is he
or she the decision maker?
• Need: Your lead has to need your product
or service. Is there a pain that your product
or service can solve?
• Time: What is your lead’s purchasing
timeframe? And does that align with your
sales cycle?
6. 6
REVENUE SUCCESS: SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT
WHAT IS A LEAD?
Lead Handoff
Just as sales and marketing must agree on the
definition of a lead, they must also agree on
lead handoff—when that lead gets sent to
sales. This ensures a seamless transition from
marketing to sales, and immediate follow-up on
hot leads.
Lead Stage Definition
To agree on lead handoff qualifications, your
sales and marketing teams must define
together the two main categories of lead
stages: Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs).
• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs):
These prospects are considered viable
marketing leads, taking implicit scoring
criteria, explicit scoring criteria, and (if
available) BANT (Budget, Authority, Need,
and Timeline) into consideration.
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): These
leads are sales-ready, which often must be
determined through direct contact with
sales. Once sales has tested to determine
the qualifications of an SQL, marketing can
use that data to improve MQL quality.
Sales Notifications
Once a lead hits a certain score threshold in your
marketing automation tool, your lead becomes
an MQL and your inside sales lead qualification
team should be notified to make contact.
Because marketing automation tools sync with
many customer relationships management tools
(CRMs), this data can be transferred directly into
the lead record in a CRM.
CRM-compatible tools like Marketo’s Sales
Insight offer a tightly integrated way to notify
sales about lead activity. The Sales Insight
dashboard highlights the best leads and
opportunities for sales to focus on, has icons to
indicate urgency and key activities, and tracks
interesting behavior that indicates hand-raising.
Marketo’s Sales Insight dashboard,
showing lead activity and score.
Also consider using “Act Now” scores, which
elevate leads to “Act Now” status when they
engage in activities that indicate buying intent. At
Marketo, these include:
• Filling out a free trial form
• Filling out a “Contact Us” form
• Downloading key late-stage content
• Viewing a weekly live demo
• Viewing a “deep dive” demo
7. 7
REVENUE SUCCESS: SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT
WHAT IS A LEAD?
DAY 7
DAY 8
DAY 9
If stale, reminder
If stale, reminder cc boss
If stale, alert executives
DAY 0
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
Notification
If untouched, reminder
If untouched, reminder cc boss
If untouched, alert executives
Service Level
Agreements (SLAs)
Once you’ve agreed upon the lead
lifecycle and handoff process, how
can you ensure that sales follows
through on your hot leads? At
Marketo, we have implemented
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
between sales and marketing to
ensure proper follow-up.
SLAs are written agreements
between sales and marketing,
ensuring closed loop lead processing
by indicating specific timeframes for
follow-ups. If a lead is not followed up
on within the indicated timeframe, an
alert is sent to a sales rep’s boss, and
ultimately to the executive team.
A critical element to note:
SLAs only work when sales is
heavily involved in the process and
champions the SLAs internally.
Take a look at an example of how we
have implemented SLAs:
Notifications and alerts ensure follow-up from
sales on promising leads.
8. 8
REVENUE SUCCESS: SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT
MAPPING LEAD GENERATION
STRATEGIES TO YOUR FUNNEL
At Marketo, we break our funnel up into
three parts: Top-of-Funnel, Middle-of-
Funnel, and Bottom-of-Funnel. (Note that
a lead only enters our database after they
cross the red dotted line.)
The next step is to understand your lead’s buying journey. Revenue funnels may vary between companies, but we’ll use
Marketo’s funnel to show how buyer intent and campaigns can be mapped to different stages.
Top-of-Funnel (TOFU)
A person in this buying phase is at
the beginning of your sales and
marketing funnel, and is aware of
your product or service but is not
ready to buy. Individuals in the TOFU
stage should be primarily offered
educational materials.
We break the TOFU stage down into three
sub-stages:
• Name: This indicates an individual whose
name has officially entered our database—
but names are just names, not leads.
Names are not yet engaged with our
company—just because they dropped
their business cards in a fishbowl at an
event doesn’t make them actual leads.
• Engaged: We don’t move names into the
next stage until they have had a meaningful
interaction with us. Engaged individuals
know they are in our system, and they
expect us to email and communicate with
them over time.
• Target: Once an individual has engaged,
we use our lead scoring to find out
whether they are a qualified potential
buyer—which means they fit our
demographic and behavioral criteria.
9. 9
REVENUE SUCCESS: SALES AND MARKETING ALIGNMENT
MAPPING LEAD GENERATION
STRATEGIES TO YOUR FUNNEL
Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU)
This buying phase occurs in the middle of your
sales and marketing funnel. A person arrives here
after he or she has displayed buying behavior,
engaged with your content, and is potentially a
sales lead. Your offers for MOFU leads are still
educational, but they will be more geared
towards your product or service—in Marketo’s
case, buying guides or ROI calculators.
We break the MOFU stage down into two
sub-stages:
• Lead: This stage is where a target actually
becomes a lead. At Marketo, we score our
targets using Marketo’s lead scoring
capabilities. When our scoring suggests that
it’s time to reach out, we connect with them
personally. Once an SDR (Sales
Development Rep) has a conversation with
them, we convert them into an official sales
lead. And if they are not yet ready to buy, we
can recycle them back to the target stage for
more nurturing.
Note: the majority of leads are not sales
ready. This doesn’t mean the SDR’s
conversation was a waste of time—human
interaction is an important part of
developing (or nurturing) the relationship.
• Sales Lead: If leads are qualified buyers,
the SDR then passes them to an AE
(Account Executive). That sales rep has
seven days to either turn the sales lead into
an opportunity and have a sales
interaction, or to send that lead back to
marketing for more nurturing.
Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU)
This buying phase occurs at the bottom of your
funnel, and indicates that your lead is close to
becoming a customer. Your offers for BOFU
leads are very specific to your product or
service—think datasheets and
pricing guides.
We break the BOFU stage down into two
sub-stages:
• Opportunity: At Marketo, only sales reps
can create opportunities. Leads in this
stage are sales accepted and are actively
being worked by sales. In fact,
opportunities are how both our marketing
department and SDRs get paid. We
actually maintain an opportunity quota to
make sure enough opportunities are
created each period. Note: if people are
paid based on opportunity creation,
opportunities require a very solid, agreed-
upon definition. They can not be subjective.
• Customer: Lastly, we have the customer
stage! These are closed-won deals.
10. In summary, to become a winning organization, sales
and marketing alignment is crucial. Team integration,
communication and accountability are the keys to
success and can help achieve an enterprise’s goals.