There has always been great debate over the quality of leads that many marketing departments generate. Sales would tell you that the quality of the leads they get from marketing are worthless while Marketing would say that Sales does not follow up correctly or soon enough. The growth of the Internet has increased the friction between the two partners. Yep, it's not at all uncommon for sales and marketing departments to not get along all that well. Unfortunately, when it comes to profits, the gap between sales and marketing is no laughing matter. One way companies can bring Sales and Marketing together is through a unified lead scoring process. Companies that get lead scoring right have a 192% higher than average lead qualification rate than those that do not. (Abredeen Research)
Marketing and Sales look at the world through different lenses: and that's not likely going to change, even as new business trends and technologies emerge. But despite the differences between the two departments, there is no reason the two can't work together and leverage one another's strengths. Marketing and Sales alignment is critical to company growth. Businesses in which marketers report alignment with sales allowing them to jointly analyze win-loss drivers, measure ROI and lead-generation marketing, and provide closed-loop sales tracking of lead performance are roughly three times more likely to outgrow their competitors. (Marketing Profs).
As buyers increasingly use online channels, Marketing meets prospects earlier than ever in the buying process - often long before they are ready to engage with Sales. This is one reason that, on average, only 25% of new leads are sales ready, so you need a way to find the hot ones and pass them to sales before a competitor contacts them or they go cold. Marketing is able to combat this by implementing lead nurturing tracks that allows them to deepen the relationship with each prospect over time, interacting in a variety of settings, learning more about each other's needs and capabilities while progressing seamlessly from one interaction to the next. And you know when to commit more resources to the relationship as well as when to pull back and give the prospect some space.
While implementing lead nurturing, it's also important to implement lead scoring. Lead scoring helps increase lead quality. A 10% increase in lead quality equates to approximately 40% increase in sales productivity. Scoring means passing fewer, but higher quality leads, to sales. This means win rates and revenue go up, and sales reps don't waste their time on deals that result in no action. By not wasting their time on low quality leads, reps can focus their time on the high quality leads and get more wins.
