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.
What the marketing team often forgets is that, though they may spend hours each day working in a marketing platform, the sales team may be less aware of the data and tools that are available. It is often up to the marketer to look for opportunities to use the data collected and offer it to the sales team in a format that easily usable—containing only the information that is truly necessary and organized in a way that serves the sales team members’ needs.
Recently, I had the opportunity to use some of the data that is often considered trivial in a way that had a positive impact on a sales team. A client had made a last minute decision to walk a market-focused trade show. Because their market data wasn’t well segmented, we made the decision to send an email about the trade show to the entire CRM list. The open rate was a surprising 22%, and the email content garnered 40 clicks.
By itself, this information is not terribly helpful. However, exporting a list of those 40 individuals took less than 10 minutes. Carefully selecting the fields available, including lead score, and sorting them by company name took another 10 minutes. In 20 minutes I had a list that could be quickly compared to the exhibitor list in the trade show program, which provided a means of prioritizing booth visits, saving the salesperson time and energy. Additionally, because the data showed us exactly which links each recipient clicked in the email, we even had starting points for conversations with these leads.
By establishing a clear set of metrics and goals, you can align your sales and marketing teams for improved internal communication, lead generation, sales follow-up and more.
To learn more and to start tracking the marketing metrics that are most important, download our Marketing KPI Worksheet.
Read more:
Sales & Marketing Alignment: The Key to a Healthy Sales Pipeline
