Master the Relationship Between Marketing and Sales
You’ve heard it before. Marketing says they’re sending great leads, but sales insists the leads are garbage. Everyone’s pointing fingers at each other, and they’re not looking at the root of the problem: a flawed marketing-to-sales handoff.
It’s not that one team is right and the other is wrong. It’s that they’re not even speaking the same language. In this blog, we’re breaking down why the marketing-to-sales handoff falls flat — and how to fix it before a full-on war breaks out.
Want to hear the experts chat about the marketing-to-sales handoff? NgageContent CEO, Mike Cottrill, interviews Sandler Sales Expert, Rob Yoho, in this episode of the CMYO podcast.
Problem #1: Neither Team Knows What the Other is Actually Doing
This is the classic “left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing” situation.
Marketing might be running email campaigns and building content for people in the awareness stage. Sales is sending one-to-one emails and calling warm prospects.
Nobody’s talking. And that results in prospects getting mixed messages.
How to fix it: Create a shared game plan. Marketing can explain what they want to do and sales can fine-tune that strategy.
Problem #2: Sales Isn’t Giving Marketing Enough to Work With
Speaking of communication issues…
Marketing and sales would get along much better if they interacted with each other within the CRM. The issue is that CRMs can quickly become a jumbled mess.
Sales is trying to juggle follow-ups, contracts, and 14 tabs open at once. The last thing they’re thinking about is neatly categorizing leads in the CRM or writing notes for marketing. But without that information, marketing is flying blind.
Most leads will come in at different stages of the buying cycle. Some are just browsing. Some have no budget. Some are decision influencers, not decision makers. And that’s okay — as long as they are treated accordingly. But marketing can’t do that if they don’t have insight into what’s going on with the leads.
The fix: Customize your sales process. Sales should identify key personas, decision roles, and typical objections. Marketing can then build nurture campaigns around those insights. There can be different campaigns for people who are in different parts of the sales cycle. That way, a lead who isn’t ready now doesn’t get tossed into a black hole. They stay in your ecosystem, getting smarter and warmer over time.
Problem #3: A “Good Lead” Means Something Different to Everyone
Here’s a common scenario: Marketing gets someone to fill out a form and kicks them over the fence to sales. Then, sales says they’re not qualified. Chaos ensues.
The disconnect is that no one ever agreed on what “qualified” truly means. Just because someone downloaded a whitepaper doesn’t mean they’re ready for a sales pitch. They might not even realize a salesperson is about to contact them. It’s not a bad lead — it’s just early.
If sales is looking for people who meet a certain criteria, but marketing is handing off everyone who filled out a form, the teams are not aligned. Marketing is just tossing names over the fence and hoping something sticks.
So, how do you fix it? Define what a marketing qualified lead (MQL) actually looks like in your world. Get clear on what boxes a prospect needs to check before they hit your sales team’s radar. Don’t send them to sales until they check those boxes.
And to do that, sales must hone in on the qualifying process. Rob Yoho said it best in this CMYO podcast episode:
“The issue a lot of times lies within the sales team when they don’t have a good qualifying process up front to really understand who they’re talking to. So, they end up having a lackluster conversation with the prospective client for the prospective opportunity.”
If sales can drill down on a qualifying process and share it with marketing, that will eliminate issues within the relationship.
Get More Insights from the Experts
Want to hear the full discussion between two industry veterans? You can find the CMYO podcast on our website, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hit play and start receiving difference-making insights — all in less than 15 minutes.
