With the quarter-finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup starting tomorrow, the atmosphere is reaching fever pitch in Brazil. As the remaining teams battle it out, it’s clear that a main factor in achieving success is accurate and efficient passing. This is the same as the relationship between B2B sales and marketing, because only by completing a first-class pass of a lead from marketing to sales, can everyone benefit and the company succeed.
Controlling the ball (or the information)
Before a football player can pass the ball to a team mate, they first need to ensure that they have the ball under their complete control and that they can execute the pass effectively. In B2B marketing, this is no different. Before a lead can be passed to the sales team, it’s first important to ensure that the lead is worth passing, and that the move will be completed in a way that will benefit the whole team.
For example, during the lead generation and nurturing stage, the marketing team should have collected multiple pieces of valuable information on the lead, such as location, pain points, previous solutions and objectives. This information can be used to pre-qualify the lead before it is sent over to the sales team. If the lead does not meet the criteria requested by the sales team (such as geographic location) then the lead will not be passed on.
Picking the best player to pass too
You’d like to think that all the members of your sales team are top performers; but some are better than others. Some salespeople have greater knowledge and experience in certain industries or sectors, and this is the information you need to find out. Examine previous results from the sales team and analyse who performs best and under what conditions. The reason for this is because even if marketing do a great job in generating the lead; it could still be lost if sales don’t convert them to a customer. So, when the leads are ready to be passed to sales, just make sure you are passing to the best player (i.e. a salesperson who is performing well, has experience in the particular sector and who is known to convert sales efficiently).
Completing the move
Completing a pass from sales to marketing is as simple as it sounds, but it’s the prep work by marketing that will make all the difference. As mentioned previously, during the lead generation and nurturing phase, marketing will have collected huge amounts of data on each lead. Before sales become involved, all of this information needs to be gathered, analysed and made presentable in the form of a ‘pack’. The pack should include information such as all previous engagements with the company, the channels the lead prefers to use, the content they have downloaded, their location and their budget. Once collated, it can all be handed over to the sales team, therefore empowering them to create a relationship with the lead and convert them to a customer.
Winning the game
Once sales have completed the conversion, they can then feedback any information to the marketing team in order to inform any future activities. This relationship between sales and marketing is crucial if your business is to succeed in generating sales and ROI. So, to find out how build a deep and meaningful relationship between sales and marketing…
