Is your sales team finding it difficult to close leads despite your marketing team’s success in B2B lead generation?
If so, you may face a common challenge: misaligned sales and marketing teams.
Let’s take an example of Dev. Dev runs a B2B IT business. Individually, his marketing team is responsible for B2B lead generation, and his sales team is responsible for closing the deals. Naturally. But the ratio of leads generated, and leads closed is not as profitable as it should be. One of the main reasons for this is that the marketing team’s target groups don’t fit the ideal customer profile (ICP) defined by the sales team.
Trust us, this is more of a common occurrence than most B2B businesses think. To be honest, such misalignment confuses the incoming leads, which directly affects several other issues such as lost sales, wasted resources, and inconsistent messaging.
But it’s not impossible to align those teams. In fact, there are a number of actionable steps that you can take to align your teams immediately and improve the efficiency of your B2B lead generation.
Here are the Six Key Actionable steps that you can implement,
Define your ICP
Nothing is more exhilarating than knowing who your ideal customer is – like, really knowing them!
– Thomas Helfrich
Detailing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for B2B lead generation goes beyond just knowing their industry. It includes factors such as company size, location, pain points, goals, budget and decision-makers. Once you have a clear understanding of your ICP, you can leverage targeted marketing strategies to reach them effectively. Two of the most effective strategies for defining and reaching out to your ICP are ABM and lead scoring.
On one hand, account-based marketing is an approach that focuses on nurturing and converting a set of targeted accounts. On the other hand, lead scoring is where you assign points to the leads based on the criteria of your ICP.
Establish common goals & metrics
The next step to aligning your sales and marketing teams is to set clear key performance indicators (KPIs). Here, both teams need to agree on what are the characteristics of their leads, lead scoring criteria, and metrics to measure the alignment of your teams.
One of the most critical metrics is the percentage of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) that become sales-qualified leads (SQLs). This metric sums up the degree of alignment between your sales and marketing teams.
A high percentage of MQLs becoming SQLs suggests that both teams are on the same page, while a low percentage indicates a clear misalignment.
Apart from those, the metrics that you must track are,
- The length of the buying cycle
- Performance of individual campaigns
- Friction between where the customer falls out of the sales funnel
Tracking these metrics during your B2B lead generation processes helps identify the position of both teams in the alignment and identify the areas of improvement.
Create a service-level agreement
It’s an agreement that specifies the expectations and deliverables of each team. An SLA creates accountability and transparency, which are essential for sales and marketing alignment.
Factors that you must consider in your SLA are,
- B2B lead generation goals
- The quality standards of leads
- The response time
- Feedback response guidelines
When both teams know what is expected of them and have a clear understanding of their roles, they can work together more effectively to achieve their shared goals.
It’s a simple investment that can make a big difference in the alignment and performance of your sales and marketing teams.
Align content & messaging
Content is KING, but quality content is KINGDOM that attracts and nurtures quality B2B leads.
Content in B2B lead generation is essential for any business that wants to attract and nurture leads. But not all content is created equal. Quality content that is in tune with your sales and marketing goals, and the requirements of your audience is the key to attracting the right leads and moving them closer to buying.
By aligning your content and messaging around your ideal prospect’s pain points, you can:
- Position your brand as the best in your field.
- Demonstrate your understanding of their needs.
- Build trust and credibility.
This ensures that you have a list of highly qualified leads, which in turn increases the efficiency of your B2B lead generation.
Leverage technology & tools
Technology and tools are powerful allies in your sales and marketing efforts. For example, a CRM system can manage and track your leads, while a marketing automation platform can automate and personalize your campaigns.
Automation tools can standardize and streamline other repeatable business processes, such as lead management and revenue analysis. This can free up your team to focus on more strategic tasks and help you collect real-time data for accurate insights.
Moreover, automation can help you reduce the risk of losing leads due to delays or human error. For example, B2B Lead generation software like Apollo and LinkedIn Sales Navigator can streamline your B2B lead generation process.
You just need to ensure that you don’t just hoard these tools.
Foster a collaborative culture
As a business, it’s your responsibility to encourage regular communication, feedback, and support between your sales and marketing teams. You can also create opportunities for them to work together on projects, campaigns, and events.
This is especially important because, in our experience, your top B2B lead generators will stray from their initial training and develop their unique style and approach. As a business, it’s your job to harness the transferable aspects of those unique styles.
In today’s digital world, customers expect a seamless and personalized experience from the moment they first interact with a brand. This means that B2B lead generation processes can no longer afford to have their sales and marketing teams working in silos.
Studies have shown that businesses with aligned sales and marketing teams can boost revenue growth by over 200%. This is because aligned teams are better able to create a cohesive customer journey that meets the rising demands of today’s customers.
And that’s where our expertise lies.
B2B lead generation agencies like Trinity Global Technologies work cohesively. Leveraging the services of a B2B marketing agency helps you keep your revenues on a healthy upward trend. Because that’s the end goal, isn’t it?