“Marketing ops customer is sales,” says Chris Willis, Marketing Operations Leader at Trimble. Marketing ops teams are responsible for delivering the right leads at the right time with the right context to their sales teams. And, as Chris pointed out, “in a system that is easy to use.”
And, on the flip side, Chris shared, “sales teams need to understand what marketing is doing. They need to be as versed in marketing campaigns as the VP of Marketing.”
Creating sales and marketing alignment requires understanding and communication on both sides. Driving alignment involves discussing priorities together, setting up helpful and relevant lead management systems, holding each other accountable through SLAs, scheduling regular meetings, and tracking the right metrics (more on all of that here 😉).To help drive more robust sales and marketing alignment, we are kicking off a three-part series covering tried and true ops plays. First up – mapping the buyer’s journey to the funnel.
A great starting point in your lead management infrastructure is mapping the buyer’s journey phases (awareness, consideration, decision - quick refresher here) to lead management stages in the funnel. “There is no wrong way. It is dependent on your organization,” says Hana Jacover, Director of Marketing Technology at Unreal Digital Group. The key is aligning sales and marketing teams and always having the buyer’s journey in mind to drive towards the right actions throughout the funnel.
Below is what we’ve seen to be typical in many organizations, but different industries, company sizes, and more may have different ways of dividing up the funnel (or flywheel or any customer lifecycle shape/diagram you prefer).
Here’s how we suggest putting that into practice to track engagement across the buyer journey and understand how it impacts your funnel overall.
Drew suggests building a campaign with campaign members report in Salesforce to report on the operational components you've put into place.
While mapping the buyer’s journey phases to stages in the funnel, it is also an opportunity to define funnel ownership, including marketing areas of responsibility and sale areas of responsibility.
While the division is not black and white (it is a shared initiative), understanding the primary point of contact helps drive the right actions. This exercise also helps set the stage for further lead management and, ultimately, SLAs, understanding who is responsible for what.
Whether you already have robust tracking to map the buyer’s journey to the funnel or you’re just getting started, hopefully, this gives you some ideas to take your sales and marketing alignment to the next level.
Stay tuned for part 2 on setting and defining lead status and stages!
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