Sales and Marketing – Crossing the Divide

May 12, 2010

I read a great blog today entitled Why Marketing and Sales Need an SLA by Ardeth Albee. Ardeth recently spoke at our inaugural meeting of the Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) in Atlanta. She is also the author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sales. If you have not read this already, I highly recommend it for expansion stage companies. It is a comprehensive guide to help marketers drive decisions to buy in their favor.

In Ardeth’s blog, she points out that expansion stage companies that haven’t developed an appropriate work flow and process for the disposition and handling of lead generation from start to finish put their customer acquisition success at risk. This is basis for establishing what Ardeth refers to as a lead generation services agreement or SLA between sales and marketing.

This starts by having a clear lead definition and agreed upon lead scoring attributes between sales and marketing support. After all, marketing is responsible for delivering qualified leads and sales is responsible for selling.  How on earth can you possibly get there without sales and marketing support agreeing on the basic terms? In the end, this will foster a better working relationship between sales and marketing, enhancing productivity and delivering qualified buyers.

Key Account Director

Marc Barry is an experienced sales leader in the Enterprise Technology Industry including Software, Cloud and Consulting. Currently, he is the Key Account Director at <a href="http://www.oracle.com">Oracle</a>. He was previously a Venture Partner at OpenView.