Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Project Manager

According to MarketingSherpa, approximately 53% of Salespeople agree that leads generated by Marketing have low credibility. In addition, a majority of the leads that are passed on to the Sales team from Marketing are not actually leads, but merely inquiries, which makes closing any leads a time-consuming and difficult process.

With Marketing under pressure to generate a large quantity of leads and Sales expected to close the deal, how can the communication process between the two teams be improved? Two key conversations must take place to ensure that the process starts on the right track:

1) Sales and Marketing must meet in order to discuss what defines a qualified lead.
2) Sales and Marketing must agree on sales-readiness of the leads before they are passed on.

The above discussions are critical steps in the communication process as they allow the Marketing and Sales teams to determine the following:

1) Which offers to push to engage the prospects and move them along in the buying process
2) The type and amount of registration questions the prospects will be required to answer
3) How much information the prospects must have provided and which offers the prospects must have accessed before being considered leads

While these conversations and decisions may seem straightforward, they can make or break a lead generation campaign. With a little communication, Marketing and Sales will find themselves on the same page, facilitating a smoother process all the way through to a sale.