Business growth in today’s market depends on sales and marketing. Studies show that this collaboration results in 36% higher customer retention and 38% higher sales win rates. However, research also indicates that 68% of businesses still have a disconnect between sales and marketing teams. This presents a significant opportunity for improvement. Asking the right lead management questions is a crucial first step towards strengthening cooperation and business performance.
In 2024, marketing leaders must view the sales department as a partner in driving deals and revenue. Contrary to, viewing it as a separate unit. Asking strategic questions about lead generation, customer insights, and content provides actionable data. Further, important for better lead management. For instance, understanding objection trends in sales interactions can reveal messaging gaps for marketing to address.
Teams, who are aware about actual customer preferences, can generate better-qualified leads. Moreover, support sales conversations. Purposeful communication between departments lead to efficient resource allocation. This can further, drive sales. This would ensure that marketing statistics inform sales strategies and maintain consistent communication. In the end, the quality of marketing questions determines the quality of sales answers. Further, fostering collaboration, victories, and parallel business growth.
In this article, we will explore the five essential questions that marketing teams should ask sales teams. In order to, enhance collaboration and achieve business success together.
An important questions marketing can ask sales is to define what constitutes a sales-qualified lead (SQL). This is often missed. Therefore, leading to the teams working in different directions and wasted efforts.
Importantly, clearly defined ‘qualified lead’ provides the blueprint for marketing. Additionally, helping to identify, attract, and nurture ideal prospects. Misalignment on SQL criteria results in unproductive lead routing and follow-up between departments.
To clarify lead management roles, marketing should ask sales for specifics. For instance, target company attributes, lead scoring thresholds, qualifying behaviours, and any screening initiatives for inbound leads. For instance, if small business prospects overload sales, marketing can adjust channels and content to attract more Fortune 500 decision-makers. Also, if leads are not viewing pricing pages and aren’t converting, marketing can improve their messages to reach more qualified prospects.
Writing down criteria for sales-qualified leads (SQLs) helps both departments track progress. Marketers can measure several indicators to trace progress. For instance, SQL volume, sales acceptance rate, and pipeline conversion, etc. Further, if there are gaps, they can be addressed by collaborative analysis, optimization and execution. This process lets marketing create scalable and automated nurturing streams.
Knowing what makes an ideal customer is crucial for marketing teams in managing leads. As marketing works with leads, understanding which types are most likely to become customers helps optimize the whole process. Surveys show that well-qualified leads double the chances of securing initial sales meetings. On the other hand, unqualified leads reduce sales productivity by 40% as representatives pursue poor fits.
By asking sales which company sizes, titles, and industries culminate in closed deals, marketing can prioritise targeting accordingly. Expanding on proven accounts also earns referral business within similar organisations. A focused approach to procuring more of these high-potential targets for sales channels energy into conversions instead of wasting resources.
For example, segmenting campaigns, lead gen forms, and lead scoring models around reliable indicators of buyer maturity gleaned from sales demonstrate direct, data-backed synergy. Supplying sales with a strong sense of “who”, sets both departments up for higher productivity and pipeline health. The downstream impact is shown in metrics like shortened sales cycles, increased deal sizes, margin gains, and faster growth. It all stems from marketing taking the initiative to understand and deliver the right customer targets from the start.
Understanding sales objections and lost deal root causes should significantly inform marketing strategies and content for quality lead management. By asking sales teams to detail common prospect pushbacks, marketing can address objections and questions before they arise in the buyer journey. This intelligence minimises friction for sales conversations and nurtures leads for higher conversion confidence.
For example, data privacy concerns are a common objection to your product or service. If sales mention that these concerns are stopping deals, marketing can focus on educational materials about data security. This might mean creating detailed content about compliance certifications, hosting webinars to explain policies, or emphasizing privacy controls. Addressing objections in advance through various channels gives sales reps stronger materials to overcome customer hesitations. It also reduces the need for sales to answer the same questions repeatedly by providing consistent, branded resources. This approach works for any current challenges sales encounters, turning insights into faster decisions.
Additionally, knowing why deals are abandoned, like budget issues or competition, helps marketing allocate budgets better. Improving targeting, comparing competitors, and focusing on value in messaging prevents lost opportunities. When sales encounters setbacks, it shows where marketing can step in, helping both teams learn and improve future results together.
Understanding the entire sales process, from reaching out to closing a deal, is crucial for managing leads effectively. Mapping the prospect journey with sales stages, activities, and benchmarks helps align lead nurturing transitions. It also updates communications across channels to speed up opportunities by being relevant when needed.
For instance, by asking sales about the number of touches and duration for each sequence from a cold lead to a qualified lead, marketing can organize drip campaigns better. If the typical sales cycle takes six months from the first contact to closing, marketing can time and pace content around each milestone. This helps manage expectations for qualified leads and nurtures them in sync with the sales process.
Additionally, understanding the sales process and its details at each stage helps shape marketing materials. Knowing that initial calls aim to discover pain points and demos focus on product differences lets marketing create specific materials for each stage. Knowing exactly what information sales needs to advance leads gives clear direction for content creation. This approach also reveals any content gaps sales faces due to missing marketing materials.
When marketing aligns with the sales process, it can provide better support materials for leads. This needs clear documentation of the sales funnel and ongoing dialogue about sales needs. This collaboration results in sales enablement, powered by marketing, which reduces delays, addresses questions in advance, and speeds up deals. It comes from understanding the sales journey leading to growth and then mapping the best marketing path alongside it.
Finally, this basic question helps marketing know what content and positioning work well for sales. Knowing the best lead sources, campaigns that regularly contribute to the pipeline, and existing materials that consistently win deals helps focus optimization efforts. Similarly, identifying messaging themes, value propositions, and content formats that encourage engagement guides content development and product positioning.
For instance, if a recent webinar campaign did better than other lead generation efforts, marketing can focus more on virtual events. Similarly, if an industry whitepaper gets the most downloads and sales often mentions it in meetings, creating more niche content would be effective. Repurposing existing assets that work well across different channels maximizes reach with proven ideas. Also, if sales notices that certain emotional appeals, like trust or innovation, help move opportunities forward beyond technical details, marketing knows the primary messaging direction. When sales feedback shows what messaging best answers “why buy” for customers, future content efforts can align accordingly
The aim is to use sales’ experiences to understand which marketing materials lead to victories or customer connections. This information gives marketing real examples of successful actions to plan future strategies and media decisions for efficiency and good results. To make this happen, marketing needs to ask sales for this type of feedback through open communication channels.
For marketing teams wanting to boost business growth: involve sales actively, don’t treat them as passive receivers.
Ask thoughtful questions about buyer profiles. Inquire about content needs, process challenges, and successful strategies. This approach provides useful data for enhancing strategies.
In our lead generation case study, collaboration with sales doubled leads. It also increased revenue 2.5 times in just 6 months. Marketing leaders who regularly talk openly with sales gain valuable insights and boost joint performance. Ultimately, marketing’s job is to understand sales’ realities to fuel deals and scale efficiently. The questions asked reflect how seriously marketing takes this job, impacting the quality of answers and teamwork. To grow the top line for marketing and business, prioritize asking sales the right questions in 2024.
