Why can't Marketing and Sales play nice?

In the past week three clients have complained about lack of coordination between Sales and Marketing. In one case, it was the general grumble that Sales are not getting enough quality leads. In another case, Marketing was frustrated that Sales are not promptly following up good leads. And in one case, I heard both from the CEO in the same call!!!

I’m willing to bet that every Sales or Marketing leader out there has seen one or both of these problems, and probably multiple times.

How do we break this cycle?

I preach two key steps.

First, and kind of obvious, have really clear SLAs. Both ways.

* Agree what a good lead looks like – what type of company it is (i.e. is it ICP?), what action needs to have been taken before Sales engage, what persona it must be, what contact information do we need to have, what behaviour do they need to have demonstrated, … This is the Marketing SLA to Sales. If it doesn’t meet these criteria, it’s not a lead.

* Then Sales must have a clear SLA for response behaviour – how quickly they will respond, how many times they will try, through which channels, …

* And then, please, please, please have a sensible, tight and structured approach to reviewing the data regularly. Look at the leads, look at which ones progressed, which did not, understand what was good and bad about them, and use this to update your SLAs. RevOps is often a great team to lead and manage this process.

Secondly, do not launch individual activities in Sales and Marketing. Always but always work together.

* If Marketing is thinking of an ABM campaign, sit down with Sales and work through the details and ensure it reflects both groups’ understandings of best practice.

* If Sales is planning outreach to a new sector, sit down with Marketing and work out how to get the best support and coverage in this sector.

* And of course agree clear goals, with clear timeframes, which allow you to identify the initial success (leading indicators) as well as the ultimate success (pipeline and/or revenue).

Lastly, but super important, this should not be a Sales or a Marketing activity. It should be a combined lead generation activity. There should be a nominated leader in the Sales team who is responsible for ensuring Sales engage effectively, and similarly in the Marketing. They work closely together, and need to be empowered by their management, to ensure that all teams are delivering as needed.

It really isn’t rocket science, but for some reason this topic continually baffles organisations. The bigger companies get, the more challenging it becomes as groups grow apart. If you build this approach from the beginning, you can build a culture of collaboration between Marketing and Sales.