The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

When it comes to lead generation, when does the marketing department’s role end and the sales department’s role begin? Very specifically, when should a lead be passed from marketing to sales?

As with most marketing and sales best practices, it’s not always a black and white answer.

Every organization is different, and it’s important that your organization have it's own marketing and sales agreement plan that outlines in detail how you will qualify, distribute, track, and ultimately close your marketing leads.

Most small growing businesses know they need to continue to make strategic investments to sustain their growth. The challenge is knowing where to invest. If the obstacles to growth that you’ve identified are branding and visibility, hiring additional recruiters will not solve these problems.

When a problem comes along, you must whip it.
When something's going wrong, you must whip it.
Now whip it into shape… shape it up, get straight, go forward, move ahead.
Try to detect it… it's not too late to whip it!
Whip it good!
-Devo, "Whip It"

A research study by McKinsey Global Institute reported that salespeople on average spend less than 13 hours a week actually selling.

Considering that going out and selling solutions is what salespeople actually are best at, and what is most profitable for them and the company they work for, it’s a little disheartening that so much time is spent doing other things like office tasks, answering emails, researching leads, and internal communication (I’m guessing this includes one too many meetings a week).

However, I’m not so sure we can eliminate those other tasks and give salespeople back another 20 hours a week. And even if they had that extra time, I’m not sure they’d be spending it in the most effective way. It’s not about how much time we have to actually sell. It’s about how much time we waste on trying to get to that point of the selling process.

Every sales organization could probably use more quality leads for their salespeople to set appointments with. This is one issue we deal with day in and day out with our inbound marketing clients. We help them generate new traffic to their website and convert that traffic into qualified, sales-ready leads. 

What it (inbound marketing) boils down to is creating unique, compelling content pieces that solve a problem, entertains, teaches, or answers a question that your best prospects are searching for online, asking their colleagues/network, or simply wondering, and oftentimes not telling you, in the sales process. These blog articles are published to your website via a blog (typically) and then guide readers to access even more in-depth content (like eBooks, whitepapers, infographics, etc.) in exchange for a little bit of information about themselves via a form.  This is the simplest way that you generate a website visitor into a lead. 

Inbound and outbound sales strategies are both crucial to a healthy, thriving business. Since leads are the lifeblood of most sales teams, receiving them in more than one way allows your company to be dynamic and flexible, easily shifting with the latest marketing trends and poised for conversions.

I have been doing sales training and consulting for nearly 20 years and I always get a chuckle when salespeople tell me they need to find ways to close business in two calls. When I hear this today, I wonder where these people are living. Do they live on the same planet as I do? It’s not about the number of calls—it’s about the length of the sales cycle. And the sales cycle doesn’t start until the buyer is ready for it to start.

These days, everyone wants to be the “Uber/Amazon/AirBnB of {insert industry}” and even if they aren’t, they certainly like to say they are. While I don’t want to be like those other guys… I kind of can’t help myself here. So bear with me on this one.

It started the other day, while I was riding in a Lyft (the other Uber, in case you aren’t familiar) to a meeting here in Seattle where I live. I noticed how my driver asked me if I had a preferred route; “Do you want me to take I-5 or the viaduct? Do you have a preference?” he asked. I didn't. 

He then offered me a bottled water and asked if I had a favorite music genre to listen to, which he could turn on for the ride. The car was really clean and smelled like a pina colada, and I could tell the driver was reading my energy and mood to determine how chatty to be with me that day. 

I flashbacked to 10 minutes prior when I was wrapping up something in my home, running a few minutes behind schedule, and with a couple clicks on my phone I had a driver on the way. I could track how close they were and head out the front door to meet him almost exactly when he was pulling into my driveway. I didn't have to worry about being late because I knew exactly where my driver was and the app even provided an ETA. Plus, when the ride was over I didn't have to exchange a dollar or fumble for my credit card. I said goodbye and was walking into my meeting in seconds. 

Immediately after exiting the vehicle, my mind started to wander about how the needs that cab drivers filled 10+ years ago have drastically changed, which is obviously why companies like Uber and Lyft are so incredibly successful today. Like this (just to name a few):

LeadG2 has been working with sales and marketing teams for the last five years to help them overcome important business needs. We've learned about the challenges of over 100 companies in the process.

We recently analyzed our data on these companies and learned that certain challenges rise above the rest as consistent and pervasive. Here's what we learned about these top five challenges that companies say they're facing in today's business environment.