Marketing and sales have been trying to work together effectively since time began.
Sometimes it works between them and sometimes it doesn’t.
Marketing has a primary function – to generate leads.
Sales hasa primary function- to close those leads and turn them into sales.
Simple, right?
It should work like a champion, and yet it doesn’t.
Today we are going to start a 3-part series on how to get better, stronger and longer lasting results from your sales & marketing process and close this disconnect.
Today we will examine disconnect number 1
“The leads that are generated by marketing are not sellable leads.”
If I said that to a marketing person, I would hear – “are you kidding me?”
If I said it to a salesperson,I might hear – “exactly.”
But the bottom line is that if you have not taken the time, effort, and energy required with the right people in your organization to define your target market, your avatar, and to build a process that goes after them, then I have to give this one to sales.
You see, just because someone shows an interest, makes a call, fills out a form, and clicks a link, it does not make them a prospect.
Actually, it might, but only if you did your homework first.
Again, thatage-oldquestion, who is your target market?
If my target market is
Companies in the healthcare services sector.
Doing 5 -20 million a year.
In the greater Seattle area.
And I get a lead.
From the plumping industry.
Or I get a lead that does 2 million a year.
Or I get a lead from Spokane, Washington area.
Then, I don’t have a lead, doI?
If the lead is not interested in buying right now but perhaps next year, then that is not aleadeither, is it?
If they don’t have any funds to buy, then that is not a sellable lead either, is it?
Marketing has to produce sellable leads before they are turned over to sales.
Otherwise, these leads are marketing leads that need to be worked from a marketing standpoint; they are not sellable leads and they do not belong in sales.
So, what can we do to make sure that the leads that go to the sales team are better sellable leads.
1/ Better and tighter definition of our target market.
Who what when where how?
What does our avatar look like?
Where does he/she hang out?
How much do they sell/make?
What should they be looking for and when?
If you are having an issue with defining your target market, please
get a copy of our free course to help you in this area.
How to Define Your Target Market.
2/ Build a better qualification process with our lead generation process.
Define what qualified means?
If using lead setters or callers, make sure they ask the right questions.
Make sure they are asking qualification questions.
If doing a survey, make sure it asks the right questions.
Make sure your lead process is showing your ads to the right audience.
3/ Spending time and money needed
You get what you pay for, period.
If you are using a cheap process, you get cheap leads.
If you don’t spend the money, you may get no return.
Today we talked about the first piece in the disconnect.
In future articles we will discuss:
Why is there a delay between lead generation and lead selling, and what can you do about it?
Why do we have Lost leads?
I hope this article has helped you to start to get these two processes to work together more effectively. If you need more help, please set up a 15-minutecall with me.
https://meetme.so/coachmannynowak