Guides  ·  Sales and marketing alignment

Sales and marketing alignment

Marketing reports leads. Sales says none of them were worth calling. Both are telling the truth, and the argument repeats every month because nobody wrote down what a lead is.

The argument is about a missing definition

Marketing counts anybody who filled in a form. Sales counts people worth a call. Those are two different populations and both teams are reporting honestly on their own one.

Do this: Write one sentence that both teams sign: a lead is somebody who did X and works at a company like Y.

Measure the handover, not the handoff

The number that matters is the time between the trigger firing and a human replying. Every other metric in this argument is a proxy for it.

Do this: Start measuring that one number this week. It usually embarrasses everybody, which is why it works.

Give the rejection a reason code

When sales rejects a lead, marketing has to know why: wrong size, wrong country, not ready, already a customer. Four codes are enough and they turn the monthly argument into a list of fixes.

Do this: Add four rejection reasons to the CRM. Review them once a month, together, for fifteen minutes.

One owner for the queue

A shared inbox is not an owner. A rota is not an owner. If a warm lead can sit for two days without anybody being responsible, it will.

Do this: Name a person per day. It is the least sophisticated fix on this page and the most effective.

This is teaching material and our own reading of standard practice, not advice for your specific setup. Check anything important with your own specialist.

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