Welcome to 4Q, where we’re planning for 2019 while trying to close out 2018 strong. Especially in sales and marketing for manufacturing, where we’re balancing capacity, booked revenue and shipped revenue targets, it’s a challenging time. For better sales and marketing alignment and a stronger close to the year, here are some key questions to ask your team:
You may have seen our recent announcement that Launch Team has acquired One Down Consulting Group. It has come together fast, but was a long time in the making.
We are pleased to announce that Launch Team Inc. has acquired One Down Consulting Group to strengthen customers’ sales channels.
I often hear from companies that their marketing team collects data for data's sake—that they are mired in the minutia of marketing analytics, which have little to no impact on the sales team. The marketing team in turn complains that the sales team doesn't take the time to put the data into the CRM, nor do they learn to use the CRM well enough to make use of the available data. The finger pointing is cyclical and can leave leadership in a quandary. In this case, I believe it is up to the marketer to prove the value of the data to the sales team.
According to a recent Gallup report, only 29% of B2B customers are engaged or feel a strong connection with the companies they buy from. Often a lack of engagement is caused by poor customer service or difficulty doing business with the company. This situation represents a significant loss of growth opportunities for B2Bs.
Marketing can generate hundreds or thousands of leads through brilliant inbound marketing content, catchy banners, enticing emails, and stellar social media strategies, but if no one ever follows up with these leads, should they really be called leads? And what purpose do they serve?
Before you throw in the online lead generation towel, first reflect on the roadblocks that might be keeping Sales from following up on these leads. Once you understand the real challenges, you can then find ways to improve Marketing and Sales alignment for better follow-up.
Marketing and sales have, in many organizations big and small, operated in silos. The web has brought them together, but it takes more than technology to efficiently align them. Launch Team President Michele Nichols and One Down Consulting co-founder Ron Wille have worked to improve revenue with sales and marketing alignment, in their own businesses and in their clients' businesses. Join the conversation as they discuss trends, benchmarks, actionable tips and best practices for ever-better results in this blog series.
In our previous post, we discussed some ways that your marketing and sales teams can work together to improve lead generation and lead follow-up. In this post we'll talk about how a few key metrics and the right automation tools can keep these activities on track.
Your lead generation activities can result in hundreds of leads. Whether these leads are generated through inbound marketing, banner ads, social media promotion, or tradeshows, they are useless unless someone follows up with them. Many companies experience this problem where leads are generated then subsequently ignored.
