Missed Your Sales Number? Partner with Marketing for Quick Wins

If you have been following SBI’s Missed Your Number series,  we’ve made recommendations on immediate actions sales leaders can take to get back on your growth track. In market-leading organizations, Sales teams are supported through a strategic cross-functional interlock with the marketing team. There is a flow and collaboration across revenue-generating functions that maximize demand generation efforts and ensure timely follow-up of viable leads. Marketing content directly reinforces Sales motions. Both teams have clarity on ideal prospects, performance metrics, and SLAs. As you grow your pipeline, partner with your Marketing team to drive demand with high-potential accounts and look for ways to add new contacts at prioritized accounts in your CRM.

Reevaluate cross-functional interlock to identify quick wins for demand generation

Shift attention to high-potential accounts.

As you focus attention on the accounts with the highest propensity to spend, how can Marketing support your strategy? Identify where you can shift resources to better target the buyers in verticals with the strongest account potential. Marketing can employ tactics like Account-Based Marketing (ABM) to help sellers drive activity in a subset of high-value prospects.

Targeted Marketing campaigns can build quick demand, but it's crucial that you orchestrate your various tactics with thoughtful coordination. Drive Sales and Marketing communication effectively so that one effort doesn't undermine another. Solidify delivery of the right message to the right prospects and reinforce that message with effective sales motions. Ensure your Marketing team is fully involved in any account scoring efforts, and together, look for ways to target high-potential accounts.

Revisit Lead-to-Opportunity Processes

In highly collaborative revenue operations environments, Sales and Marketing teams share a robust funnel targeted at the ICP. There are processes in place that ensure Account Executives can quickly identify and capitalize on viable leads. Consider revisiting your Lead to Opportunity (LTO) processes with your Marketing leadership to ensure resources are allocated properly, and the Sales team is well-poised to receive and develop opportunities.

Sales and Marketing leaders can use a checklist to outline critical points of interlock from the perspective of each team and ensure alignment.

Enrich contact data to target a wider audience.

As organizational procurement processes have become more stringent, the number of personas involved in the decision-making process has expanded. This expansion is particularly true for larger, more complex sales. Prospecting to new logos is a must. But your Sales team must actively engage new contacts within your base. If not, they risk missed opportunities for account expansion, or, worse – allowing competitors to gain traction with a new buyer.

Leverage your Marketing team to add new contacts from prospect organizations and identify new buyer personas in your existing client base. Consider new campaigns to drive top-of-funnel activity. You can also purchase legally gathered third-party data to augment your contact database. As mentioned earlier, always ensure your efforts are targeted at contacts within your ICP.

Start with these suggestions for refining Sales alignment with Marketing, and you may uncover more efficient and immediate actions to drive and deliver growth with client expansion plus higher retention and win rates. For additional resources on planning ahead so you don't fall behind in the upcoming year, click here.