5 Situations That Spoil Relationships Between Marketing and Sales
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 3:30 am
Sales prospecting is no longer just the business of the sales department. Marketing now plays a crucial role in generating leads and converting them into customers .
The buyer has all the information he needs on the web to make his decision. The buyer therefore no longer expects the salesperson to sell his products but rather to accompany him in his purchasing consideration and show him that he is the best to solve his problem and help him achieve his objectives .
Problem: offering such an experience to prospects takes a lot of time!
In this situation, Marketing must take charge of lead generation so that the salesperson oman email list can fully devote himself to processing the most qualified and mature leads .
To promote collaboration between the two departments, you must do everything possible to align Marketing and Sales, in particular by drafting a collaboration charter: the SLA – Service Level Agreement .
The SLA presents the objectives of Marketing and Sales – complementary objectives – and the commitments of each to the other.
With this theoretical document, everything should go “like clockwork”. Marketing provides a certain number of Leads to the sales department, which must contact these Leads and turn them into customers.
Unfortunately, in the field, the practice is often different: here are 4 situations that we encounter in companies and which really spoil the relationship between Marketing and Sales.
1. Marketing Can't Generate Enough Leads for Sales
This is an important thing to keep in mind when identifying your initial goal.
How does it work?
You have a sales target for the year. From there, you can determine how many customers a salesperson should bring in each month.
Depending on your conversion rate, you can define the number of leads a salesperson must manage to gain this volume of customers . This number of leads is the objective of Marketing.
Sometimes we come across companies that have a revenue target that is simply unattainable in the state. Financial, technological and human resources do not allow Marketing to generate enough leads for Sales.
As a result, both departments are under pressure and relations are deteriorating.
2. Marketing generates too many leads for Sales
It’s a rich man’s problem, but a problem nonetheless. If you’re a salesperson using traditional prospecting methods, you know how hard it is to get qualified appointments.
The subject discussed may therefore shock you but it is a reality.
Sometimes the leads generated by marketing are too numerous for salespeople to manage properly.
If you are in this case, you must absolutely:
Define the maximum number of leads a salesperson can handle.
Automate actions with lower added value using a Marketing Automation solution .
Be more strict in qualifying leads.
To help you with this thinking, here is the lead management matrix that we use for the agency and our clients :
the lead management matrix to convert
3. Sales rejects some leads passed by Marketing
For various reasons, it can happen that leads are judged as being of poor quality by salespeople. Does that remind you of something?
To prevent these contacts that have reached the sales team's desk from being abandoned, it is necessary to find a justice of peace who will organize a Smarketing Meeting , a regular meeting between Marketing and Sales .
To align Marketing and Sales and continually improve your SLA, these meetings are essential.
Understanding why Sales rejects Marketing leads on one side and why Marketing passed unqualified leads to Sales will allow you to build an optimal SLA and optimize your conversion rate.
4. Leads generated by Marketing are all poor quality
What’s worse than generating leads that are poor quality? You could blame the leads on the assumption that they don’t understand our products and services. Unfortunately, this is what we see very often in the field.
In fact, you have to turn the problem around: it's not your leads that are of poor quality, it's the different messages that you have sent that are . You are generating the leads that you deserve!
To generate qualified leads that are mature enough to be converted by salespeople, it is essential to write quality content that answers the questions and expectations of your target audience throughout their purchasing journey .
5. Marketing passes leads to Sales too early
Aligning marketing and sales: a crucial issue
The buyer conducts between 65% and 90% of his purchasing considerations alone. In concrete terms, the buyer only agrees to contact a salesperson after having made a broad decision.
In other words, the salesperson should contact the buyer only once they have reached maturity. However, more than 70% of leads generated on the Internet are not ready to buy .
Very often, we meet marketers who pass on to salespeople all the qualified leads they generate without taking care to measure their maturity. When the salesperson calls, it gets stuck!
The buyer has all the information he needs on the web to make his decision. The buyer therefore no longer expects the salesperson to sell his products but rather to accompany him in his purchasing consideration and show him that he is the best to solve his problem and help him achieve his objectives .
Problem: offering such an experience to prospects takes a lot of time!
In this situation, Marketing must take charge of lead generation so that the salesperson oman email list can fully devote himself to processing the most qualified and mature leads .
To promote collaboration between the two departments, you must do everything possible to align Marketing and Sales, in particular by drafting a collaboration charter: the SLA – Service Level Agreement .
The SLA presents the objectives of Marketing and Sales – complementary objectives – and the commitments of each to the other.
With this theoretical document, everything should go “like clockwork”. Marketing provides a certain number of Leads to the sales department, which must contact these Leads and turn them into customers.
Unfortunately, in the field, the practice is often different: here are 4 situations that we encounter in companies and which really spoil the relationship between Marketing and Sales.
1. Marketing Can't Generate Enough Leads for Sales
This is an important thing to keep in mind when identifying your initial goal.
How does it work?
You have a sales target for the year. From there, you can determine how many customers a salesperson should bring in each month.
Depending on your conversion rate, you can define the number of leads a salesperson must manage to gain this volume of customers . This number of leads is the objective of Marketing.
Sometimes we come across companies that have a revenue target that is simply unattainable in the state. Financial, technological and human resources do not allow Marketing to generate enough leads for Sales.
As a result, both departments are under pressure and relations are deteriorating.
2. Marketing generates too many leads for Sales
It’s a rich man’s problem, but a problem nonetheless. If you’re a salesperson using traditional prospecting methods, you know how hard it is to get qualified appointments.
The subject discussed may therefore shock you but it is a reality.
Sometimes the leads generated by marketing are too numerous for salespeople to manage properly.
If you are in this case, you must absolutely:
Define the maximum number of leads a salesperson can handle.
Automate actions with lower added value using a Marketing Automation solution .
Be more strict in qualifying leads.
To help you with this thinking, here is the lead management matrix that we use for the agency and our clients :
the lead management matrix to convert
3. Sales rejects some leads passed by Marketing
For various reasons, it can happen that leads are judged as being of poor quality by salespeople. Does that remind you of something?
To prevent these contacts that have reached the sales team's desk from being abandoned, it is necessary to find a justice of peace who will organize a Smarketing Meeting , a regular meeting between Marketing and Sales .
To align Marketing and Sales and continually improve your SLA, these meetings are essential.
Understanding why Sales rejects Marketing leads on one side and why Marketing passed unqualified leads to Sales will allow you to build an optimal SLA and optimize your conversion rate.
4. Leads generated by Marketing are all poor quality
What’s worse than generating leads that are poor quality? You could blame the leads on the assumption that they don’t understand our products and services. Unfortunately, this is what we see very often in the field.
In fact, you have to turn the problem around: it's not your leads that are of poor quality, it's the different messages that you have sent that are . You are generating the leads that you deserve!
To generate qualified leads that are mature enough to be converted by salespeople, it is essential to write quality content that answers the questions and expectations of your target audience throughout their purchasing journey .
5. Marketing passes leads to Sales too early
Aligning marketing and sales: a crucial issue
The buyer conducts between 65% and 90% of his purchasing considerations alone. In concrete terms, the buyer only agrees to contact a salesperson after having made a broad decision.
In other words, the salesperson should contact the buyer only once they have reached maturity. However, more than 70% of leads generated on the Internet are not ready to buy .
Very often, we meet marketers who pass on to salespeople all the qualified leads they generate without taking care to measure their maturity. When the salesperson calls, it gets stuck!