A recent study by Aberdeen Research Report Group found that despite the growing need for marketing and sales alignment, few UK companies are focused on building a sales pipeline. Even though the overwhelming majority (85%) recognises the value of measuring marketing performance, 63% of those companies are using conversion rate metrics.
What is more alarming, however, is that only 58% of the respondents rate marketing's contribution to the sales pipeline as being valuable, with a mere 43% actually measuring it. What do these figures indicate?
Analysing the stats, Eloqua concludes that marketing and sales operating in silos is a thing of the past and it is therefore incumbent on businesses to focus on building a pipeline. When 78% of Best-of-Class companies are measuring marketing's contribution to the sales pipeline, you can't help but get a sense of an emerging gap in the UK, the author of the article points out.
"For UK marketers to truly provide data on the impact to the organization, they need to track their efforts' effect on sales. This is the next step in aligning marketing with sales and a critical step on the path to Revenue Performance Management," writes Sylvia Jensen.
Why marketing should always come first
There is no doubt that sales are critical to a business's operations but before looking for the right sales people to employ, you need to spend some time and resources on nailing the marketing cycle first.
Only by doing so can you get the most out of the marketing-sales integration. This requires finding the tools and methodology that will help you monitor marketing activities' impact on the sales funnel.
How marketing automation can help
Aberdeen Research Report Group notes that forecasting the value of the funnel requires knowing the percentage of marketing leads that are qualified, accepted and closed by sales.
This is where marketing automation tools, such as the ones offered by HubSpot, Marketo and Eloqua, come in - they enable closed-loop reporting, data optimisation and predictive analytics, making aligning marketing and sales an easier and cost-effective process.
Learn more about this technology in our complimentary B2B Guide to Marketing Automation.