It's hard, usually everyone is in their own world, and the sales team doesn't take time to give feedback (and it's logical, their head is not thinking about feedback reports, but about selling!)
But how can we ensure that this feedback exists? Here are some simple practices that you can implement with your sales team to get feedback on the quality of the leads derived from marketing.
1) Meet with your sales team before launching your lead generation campaigns
It all starts with good communication, so my first recommendation is that before launching any type of marketing campaign, you meet with the person from the sales team that is necessary (usually the manager, or directly with the sales team).
The goal of this meeting is to present the campaigns you are running, not only to bring them up to date, which will greatly strengthen your relationship with them, but also to take advantage of the valuable feedback that the sales team can give you, since they are the ones who know the client best.
With these campaign kick-off meetings, both parties will be able to reach an agreement on what they expect from each other to achieve their lead generation campaign goals.
2) Create a document that captures a mutual understanding of what a lead is (and what a lead is not)
It is always good to take the first step and add value to your sales team, but making it clear that it is necessary for them to also participate in this process, which seeks to make everyone's work more efficient!
Therefore, when things are written down, there is a greater chance that they will be understood, remembered and fulfilled (and if they are not fulfilled, at least you have a way of knowing about it
Prepare a document that clearly explains:
What are they looking for with the campaign?
What criteria will you use to classify leads?
What is (and what is not) a lead.
When a lead is ready to be presented to the sales team (and when it isn't).
How will the sales team treat the leads generated by marketing?
What reports each department should submit to the other and how often.
Who will be responsible for preparing and delivering these reports?
3) Establish weekly follow-up meetings (short but very specific)
Meetings are a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they are extremely necessary, but on the other hand, if they are not managed well, they can become a huge waste of time.
The key is in the agenda and the duration .
It is important that everyone knows what is expected from the meeting (the result we are seeking as a working group) and what topics or expectations each person has regarding it.
On the other hand, it is essential that the meeting does not become a drag and that it respects everyone's time. Therefore, 30 minutes (perhaps less) per week to review the status of the issues and decide together on the actions to be taken should be more than enough.
At first, it is 99% likely that it will always take us more than half an hour (we are not used to being so practical), but we should aim for that to be the length of the meeting.
Some rules for meetings:
Do not delve into specific issues that can be handled by email.
Provide space for each member to raise their concerns (both marketing and sales)
Draw conclusions, write them down and send them in a minute by email.
Clearly identify the next steps among everyone.
4) Integrate the systems
As a consultant, I come across many (but many) cases where marketing and thailand viral telegram sales departments work with different CRMs. Typically, Marketing is looking for software aimed at managing campaigns and content, while Sales is looking for software that allows them to upload opportunities, track the sales pipeline, send sales presentations, etc.
My recommendation is to have a system that allows you to integrate the entire process (from generating the most basic lead to completing the sale and its post-sale, with your marketing actions to further develop that account by undertaking cross-selling and up-selling actions.
The problem comes from the industry itself, because we clearly see that there are tools specialized in marketing and others in sales, and in many cases it is necessary to force integrations to meet everyone's expectations.
I don't know about you, but I know many applications and tools to manage the marketing pipeline and many many others to manage the sales pipeline. But few that allow you to fully manage both funnels. The challenge is to find a tool that allows you to manage both worlds. If you already know one, please tell us in the comments!