Sales and marketing are the same but different. Both want to bring in new business however; they are responsible for completely different ends of the sales funnel. Marketing are responsible for the attract phase of the sales funnel. They have to take somebody with no prior knowledge of the business, turn them into a prospect via marketing material and then into a lead through a process of qualification.
Sales are responsible for the close phase of the sales funnel. They have to take a qualified lead, define the opportunity and close the deal to turn them into a customer. It follows that marketing are looking for key things in a lead that point to its potential to become a customer. Whereas, sales look for specific opportunities that will convert into sales in the short to medium term and so the fun and games begin….
Because sales and marketing have different opinions on what constitutes a lead, then what is a lead to one will not be considered a lead to the other. This can often lead to marketing and sales butting heads, especially when sales targets and sales people’s earnings may be at stake.
Identify where the lead is in the sales funnel
Its commonplace in many organisations for marketing to blame sales for rejecting leads at the drop of a hat and for sales to blame marketing for poor quality leads. This ‘difference in opinion’ can often be down to a lack of understanding of the qualification process in the sales cycle. This is why sales and marketing need to agree on the qualification criteria of a sales lead so that expectancy levels from both departments can be realistic.
The fact is, every sales lead will be slightly different so it’s important to identify where that lead might be in the sales funnel. Once you know where they are, you can take the right action. For example, not every lead that is generated will necessary be sales-ready or be the best fit for the product or service that is being offered. It’s therefore better if this can be identified earlier so that sales don’t waste their time speaking to a prospect that doesn’t have the budget yet or are at the wrong stage of the buying cycle. These leads will need more nurturing until they are ready to buy so the sooner that this can be identified by marketing, the less the rejection rates will be between MQLs and SQLs.
No such thing as the perfect sales lead
Of course, in any agreement that sales and marketing make on what makes a genuinely qualified lead, there is a need for pragmatism and practicality. In an ideal world sales would like to know if the prospect is:
- Ready to buy now
- At the right stage in the buying cycle
- Is the right type of business
- Is the correct decision maker
- Has the budget
- Has a genuine need for the product or service
In other words….the perfect sales lead!
For marketing to determine every aspect of this during the qualification process is unrealistic. No marketing department has the time or resource to go into this level of detail and even if they did have, it certainly wouldn’t be the most cost effective way of doing it.
One answer is to get an inside sales team or an agency to further qualify MQLs based on Budget, Authority, Need, Timescale and Attitude. This way only the best leads get passed onto sales to follow up, saving them time and allowing them to concentrate on the more lucrative deals.
There is no such thing as the ‘perfect sales lead’ but with a little collaboration between sales and marketing, and a little extra qualification to separate the wheat from the chaff, you have more chance of identifying the cream of the crop!
