A well defined process and management of that process will shorten sales cycles, provide higher close rates and help marketing engage sellers! Marketing will gain an information rich database and a greater marketing ROI.

1. Fact Sheet
5 STEPS TO
BETTER SALES &
MARKETING ALIGNMENT
“We’re getting junk leads from Marketing!”
“How would you know? You never follow up on the
leads anyway!”
Less than 23%
of today’s companies
report having strong
alignment between
the sales and
marketing teams.
A great deal has changed for marketing and sales teams over the
years. Unfortunately, one thing that hasn’t changed is the Sales
vs. Marketing blame game. Less than 23% of today’s companies
report having strong alignment between the two teams1 — a
miserable figure considering nearly half of today’s best-inclass companies attribute substantial revenue increases to that
powerful, elusive alignment.2
There is nothing productive about sales and marketing teams
pulling in different directions — or worse yet, at each other’s
throats. Effectively integrating these functions can seem like
a monumental task, but it doesn’t have to be. The five steps
outlined below will help foster a more successful collaboration
by bringing clarity and definition to the relationship between the
sales and marketing functions in your organization.
STEP 1
Clarify your objectives
Everyone is working toward the same
goal: generating sales. But the sales and
marketing teams likely see this goal from
very different points of view. The first step
to integration is bringing their perspectives
together so everyone can agree on a
specific set of objectives — the revenue
projections Sales is responsible for, and the
contributions expected from Marketing.
TheMxGroup.com | 800-827-0170 | ©2013
Once you’ve done this, you can use
these objectives to build a reverse
waterfall calculation that determines
the number of marketing-qualified
leads (MQLs) the marketing team needs
to deliver. Establishing these types
of quantifiable expectations within
a centralized, shared plan ensures
everyone is working from the same
playbook and sets the stage for more
effective collaboration.
5 Steps to Better Sales & Marketing Alignment

2. STEP 2
STEP 4
What is a “lead”? What is a “sales-ready lead”?
Ask 10 people in your company and you’re
likely to get 10 different answers. In fact, less
than 10% of today’s companies can boast
a universally accepted definition of what a
lead is.3 Establishing a common vocabulary
is critical to a meaningful integration of Sales
and Marketing.
The metrics established in Step 1 are only
useful if you are measuring them consistently
and accurately in order to determine how
to improve your marketing program. Key
performance indicators include: accepted
vs. rejected (MQL to SAL) and qualified vs.
unqualified (SAL to SQL).
Find a common language
?
How does your
company define a
sales-ready lead?
The details really do matter here. Without
a very specific definition of terms such
as marketing-qualified leads (MQLs),
sales-qualified leads (SQLs) and salesaccepted leads (SALs), it’s impossible to
establish meaningful metrics that allow
you to measure your progress and improve
performance over time.
STEP 3
Identify your true targets
So you’ve taken the first steps and your
teams have a shared plan with fully
delineated goals and sharp definitions across
all stages of the funnel. Now you need to be
very clear about who your targets are. Most
marketers believe they know whom they’re
targeting, but leveraging input from the sales
team is critical to expanding and enriching
that knowledge.
The sales team is on the ground every day
and will be able to provide a great deal of
information about key decision-makers
and influencers. Gathering this intelligence
can be as simple as asking top sales reps
what qualities they look for in truly qualified
leads, learning from their responses
and incorporating the insights into their
marketing automation scoring models.
Implement a closed-loop
feedback process
Of course, it’s critical that your sales team
regularly updates your customer relationship
management (CRM) system. These updates
are the voice of the lead management
process, providing real stories about why
leads are rejected or disqualified and why
opportunities are won or lost. You should
also implement quarterly reviews to discuss
the quantity and quality of MQLs delivered by
marketing. This type of deeper dialogue will
help identify what works and what doesn’t, so
you can make adjustments as needed.
STEP 5
Focus on quality, not quantity
Aligning your teams on objectives, definitions,
targets and ongoing feedback will only get
you so far if your teams don’t trust each other
and aren’t holding themselves accountable.
Service-level agreements (SLAs) are an
excellent way to establish a foundation
of trust because they hold all parties
accountable for meeting their commitments.
Marketing commits to providing salesready leads that meet or exceed Sales’
requirements. In turn, Sales agrees to
follow up on leads promptly and provide
ongoing feedback — on lead quality and
on opportunities.
Moving Forward
To deliver against your revenue goals, you need your marking and sales teams working
together effectively. The five steps outlined above will go a long way to ensure productive
collaboration that’s built on clear objectives, metrics and processes.
If you’re interested in finding out how you can better integrate your sales and marketing teams
and drive more revenue through your sales pipeline, contact us today.
Visit TheMxGroup.com or call us at 800-827-0170.
The CMO Council
2
Aberdeen Group
3
InTouch Inc.
1
TheMxGroup.com | 800-827-0170 | ©2013
5 Steps to Better Sales & Marketing Alignment