7 of Brian Carroll’s 31 Tips for Improving Sales and Marketing Lead Generation Alignment

I have been asked to speak on the topic of Sales and Marketing Alignment a number of times.  Gerhard Gschwandtner’s recent opening at Sales 2.0 in Las Vegas addressed the same topic, and I spoke up to say, “Alignment starts and ends with leadership from senior sales and marketing management.”  And yet, obviously, there is more to it than leadership. 

 Why it matters!

Without alignment of sales and marketing a company has no team.  No team, no winners.  Just a high sales territory turn-over and outrageous marketing spending. 

Brian Carroll, in his B2BLeadBlog yesterday, summed it up in a list of 31 actions (he said ‘tips’) that have to be considered in order to get alignment between Sales and Marketing.  Here are 7 of Brian Carroll’s 31 ideas; crucial ones you can use to improve alignment and collaboration:

1. Train your salespeople to optimize your lead generation investment and to give you feedback.

Regularly get the marketing team out into the field with the sales team.

Create a closed-loop feedback from the sales team on leads, and carefully examine the conversion process with regular face-to-face meetings or conference calls.

Develop a strategic lead generation plan, with focus on standardizing and documenting the sales process for purposes of tracking and measuring.

Close the loop on each sales lead generated.

Continually reinforce lead generation program strategies.

Develop a strategy for lead nurturing.

 To see the rest, go to Brian’s blog here.