As many of you know I work for HubSpot, a cutting edge inbound marketing software company that is transforming the traditional methods of marketing. HubSpot is a real world, living and breathing case study of best practice sales and marketing alignment. In the series of posts to follow this one I will focus on how to transform your organizations into a sales and marketing aligned machine.
If you are not aware from previous posts here, around 50% of all sales reps miss their sales quota. I find this troublesome and there’s been some interesting conversations and healthy debate on the root cause behind this ugly statistic. In my humble opinion I think we spend way too much time on addressing the symptoms of the missing quota disease and not the cause.
What is the cause?
The majority of organizations rely on their sales reps to generate their own leads and marketing is not enabling the sales organization with sales ready leads. The lines of communication are not open between the two organizations, which kills feedback and improvement. The sales reps are simply hung out to dry — marketing is setup to fail too. That is why so many sales reps are missing their quota.
What is the answer?
1.) Admit there is a problem
2.) Get the VP of Marketing and the VP of Sales on the same page
3.) Create a SMARKETING task force or committe that will spear head the issue
4.) Schedule a reocurring meeting between sales and marketing aka SMARKETING meeting
5.) Open the lines of communication between marketing and sales
6.) Agree on SLA’s and terminology so everyone is on the same page
7.) Swim in the data and report on it in
8.) Create accountability and feedback mechanisms
9.) Have a team of marketing and sales managers that meet regularly to discuss data, etc
What is the result?
These nine action items represent the foundation to creating a sales and marketing aligned organization. Notice all nine action items focus on people so you can create a reocurring process — the technology does not come until the end. Get these things right and you will create buy in across the organization and you will lift the barriers to communication that stifles organizations today.
Once the groundwork has been laid you can focus on the tactics of content generation, lead quality and scoring, lead hand-off, closed loop marketing, and sales process that are the staples of today’s fast growing companies and outperforming sales forces. More on those tactics in future posts — stay tuned!
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Smarketing! LOL Love it!
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Outstanding post. I am at the moment going through some of these issues too.
Thanks for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info . “Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.” by Laurence J. Peter.
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