Working with Sales

The Sales organisation can be a great resource when designing and running lead generation campaigns. More importantly, they will probably be the ones who are most vocal about whether or not the campaign was successful. Working closely with sales is essential to creating a great lead generation campaign.

25. Ask Sales what leads they want

Assuming your leads become qualified, they'll be passed to your business development representatives or Sales team. Ask them what they are looking for before you start planning the campaign. If you involve them up front you'll have a much clearer target, enabling you to be far more precise in the way you design the campaign.

26. Target key accounts (ABM)

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Is a very effective way to target your marketing spend to the organisations that are likely to have the biggest impact on your bottom line. Even if the campaign is designed to address a very broad audience, it's often worth using ABM tactics to target a proportion of the campaign budget at segments likely to generate the best results.

27. Agree a Marketing-Sales SLA

Always make sure you have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Sales team. Clearly define what is meant by “Marketing qualified” and “Sales qualified” leads (MQLs and SQLs) and make sure the process for nurturing and handing over the leads is understood by both sides.

28. Group leads by opportunity (or company)

We all know that the vast majority of business-to-business purchases are made by a group of decision-makers rather than an individual. If you can group relevant leads from a single sales opportunity, or even group them by company, you'll make it much easier for the Sales team to piece together who is involved in the decision-making unit. This will make their sales process simpler and more effective.

29. Review progress frequently with Sales

Everyone hates when a campaign has been completed and suddenly Sales says the leads do not meet expectations. It is therefore important to have frequent, informal check-ins with the Sales team to avoid the embarrassment and frustration of finding out after the campaign is completed that you were targeting the wrong audience.

30. Filter out the rubbish before it gets to Sales

This should be simple. Any good lead qualification process will ensure that irrelevant contacts are filtered out. However, we often see leads that are obviously gobbledegook get passed through to Sales. Ensure you have a robust process to validate contact data and qualify leads.

31. Promote big wins among the Sales team

We all too often hear negative stories from Sales about lead generation campaigns. Like most things, bad news is far more likely to be passed on than good. Make sure you highlight the successful campaign you ran. Don't be frightened of running a little internal marketing to promote the successes: getting Sales to follow up relies on them believing that there will be a benefit to them and the company.

32. Make sure you work with channel partners too

It's not just about your direct Sales force. Your channel partners are a vital part of your Sales organisation, so make sure you talk to them, too. Frequently we see the needs of channel partners being somewhat different from those of the direct Sales force, so don't assume they will be the same.