Free Assessment: How does your inbound marketing measure up?

Get Started
Close

Free Assessment:

How does your inbound marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.
Get Started
inbound-marketing-strategy-playbook-cover

Free Assessment:

Sales and Marketing Alignment: How to Execute a Smarter Campaign

By John Bonini

Sales and Marketing Alignment: How to Execute a Smarter Campaign

 

Sales and Marketing Alignment: How to Execute a Smarter CampaignThe following is an excerpt from IMPACT's popular ebook, "26 Ways to Generate More Inbound Customers in 2013." For more expert tips on streamlining your sales and marketing initiatives for a more measurable approach, be sure to Ways to Generate More Inbound Customers in 2013">check out the full ebook. 


I recently came across a great quote in a HubSpot blog article, "How Closed-Loop Reporting Works."


"Half the money I spend on advertising is a waste; the trouble is I don't know which half."  - John Wanamaker


While the quote itself may be almost a century old, it's still a sentiment felt by many marketers and business owners in 2013.


One of the cornerstones of a successful inbound marketing campaign is its ability to align sales and marketing to deliver more qualified leads, and also track and measure the cost of those acquired. Despite its crucial importance, many businesses still admit to not practicing sales and marketing alignment.


Don't allow your company to become unaware of the ROI of each marketing activity you're carrying out.


The Growing Importance of Sales and Marketing Alignment


According to a HubSpot study, companies with strong sales and marketing alignment grew their annual revenue by 20% in 2010.


Aligning your sales and marketing teams is paramount in your ability to generate more high-quality, sales ready leads.


Unifying sales and marketing can be boiled down to four steps:



    1. Set up closed-loop reporting – All of your marketing initiatives have a cost. Each blog posts, ebook, and page your eventual customers visit had a cost to produce. In order to ensure you’re executing a profitable campaign, it’s critical to identify the cost-per leads in order to more effectively allocate your resources.

    1. Define quality lead – In order for the sales team to close more sales, they need more qualified leads. In order for marketing to create the content necessary to generate qualified leads, they need to know what these leads are interested in.Both teams should be involved in the definition of qualified leads and your company buyer personas.

    1. Define levels of your sales funnel – It’s important for both the marketing and sales teams to fully understand the levels of the company sales funnel, and the marketing and sales initiatives that should follow.

    1. Implement lead scoring – Your sales team should be marking all leads as either qualified, or unqualified in a CRM like Salesforce. Doing so gives the entire sales team an agenda moving forward on what leads to move on.


Ensuring sales and marketing alignment will give your marketing team a more targeted direction and deliver more high-quality leads to your sales team. After all, the last thing you want is your sales team wasting their time on the phone with unqualified leads.


Says Peter Caputa, Director of Channel Sales and Marketing at HubSpot:


“The key step to generating qualified leads is to fully define your buyer personas,” says Caputa. “Then, create content that will resonate with them at each step of their buying process. If you find that you’re unable to connect 1:1 with your leads at the right rate, leads unsubscribe from your email lists at a high rate, or you’re always attracting a low level influencer, you’re not creating the right content. Step back, define personas and map your content and editorial calendar to the personas and their buying stages.”


Continue reading the full ebook...

Free Assessment:

How does your inbound marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.

Topics:

Sales & Marketing Alignment
Published on March 7, 2013

Recent Articles

Focus on Sales Velocity and Solve the 'Danger Points' in Your Sales Process
March 1, 2023 • 6 min read
Why Sales Enablement is the Highest Purpose of Content Marketing
February 15, 2023 • 5 min read
Check Your Ego and Understand the Metrics that Matter
December 28, 2022 • 6 min read
How Does They Ask, You Answer Benefit Sales?
December 7, 2022 • 5 min read
Businesses Struggle To Think Like Their Customers — And It’s Killing Their Sales
November 23, 2022 • 4 min read
How To Align Your Sales And Marketing Teams In 2023
November 12, 2022 • 8 min read
Miscommunication is Limiting Your Businesses — Here Are 4 Ways You Can Fix It
October 10, 2022 • 5 min read
How To Create Sales Enablement Content Your Sales Team Will Love
August 15, 2022 • 8 min read
Sales and Marketing Friction is Hurting Your Bottom Line – Here’s What to Do About It
August 4, 2022 • 6 min read
5 Features of a Sales Enablement Strategy That Actually Works
June 27, 2022 • 9 min read
How To Be a Great Subject Matter Expert for Your Content Team
January 13, 2022 • 6 min read
IMPACT+ Free vs. IMPACT+ Pro: What's The Difference?
December 25, 2021 • 7 min read
Sales Enablement Checklist: 5 Questions Marketing Teams Should Regularly Ask Sales Teams
November 30, 2021 • 5 min read
Free Inbound Marketing Courses and Training
November 5, 2021 • 5 min read
What is the Value of a Digital Marketing Consultant?
November 4, 2021 • 6 min read
4 Signs Your Revenue Team Is Slowly Failing
October 23, 2021 • 9 min read
Sales and Marketing Alignment: How To Shorten Your Sales Cycle
September 17, 2021 • 8 min read
How to Get Great Sales Content from Your Marketing Team
May 3, 2021 • 5 min read
What Does Almost Every Business Leader Get Wrong About Sales and Marketing Alignment?
April 7, 2021 • 6 min read
In a Thriving They Ask, You Answer Company, What Role Should the CEO Play?
January 27, 2021 • 4 min read
Marketing and Sales Alignment When Using HubSpot and Salesforce [Infographic]
January 16, 2021 • 1 min read
Sales goals: 5 costly ways you're leaving money on the table (+ video)
November 27, 2020 • 11 min read
How do I get my old school sales reps to buy in to They Ask, You Answer?
November 18, 2020 • 5 min read
6 most common revenue team meeting problems (and how to fix them)
November 18, 2020 • 11 min read
Business leaders, you can't miss HubSpot Training Day! Here's why
September 17, 2020 • 4 min read