A wide range of marketing and sales players

A company is made up of a wide range of players, each with their own roles and responsibilities. When it comes to lead management, there are two main teams:

The marketing and sales teams.

Here, we'll look at some of the most essential members of these teams.

CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)

Le Chief Marketing Officer est l’acteur en charge de la dynamique marketing générale d'une entreprise. On entend par cela tout ce qui concerne la marque, son positionnement sur le marché, la communication marketing, la recherche de clients, le développement de produits, la distribution en conséquence, les promotions (occasionnelles) et les relations publiques de façon globale.

Il est responsable de développer des stratégies de marketing afin de maximiser la notoriété de la marque, de pouvoir mettre en exergue et segmenter les marchés cibles. Il se doit de superviser les campagnes marketing et de mesurer leur efficience.

Il doit s’assurer aussi que ces initiatives marketing cadrent avec la croissance globale de l’entreprise.

The sales team

The sales team works to convert prospects into customers by selling the company's products or services.

The sales team seeks to establish relationships with potential customers, understand their needs, present the company's products or services, negotiate terms and agreements, and close the sale.

Their efforts must be combined with those of the marketing team to ensure effective conversion of prospects into customers.

BDR (Business Development Representative)

Bussiness Develpment Representatives focus on generating new business opportunities.

They identify and qualify new leads and opportunities for the company.

They are in charge of researching and targeting companies or individuals who might be interested in what the company has to offer, initiating an initial exchange and qualifying prospects before passing them on to the sales team for the rest of the process.

SDR (Sales Development Representative)

The SDR is generally more focused on lead qualification in the initial stages of the sales cycle.

They respond to leads generated by marketing campaigns, assess their interest and potential, and prepare them for the next stages of the sales process.

They may also be responsible for generating new leads through a variety of company-specific techniques.

Each of these players plays an essential role in a company's success. By combining their efforts, they aim to turn prospects into customers and enable the company's overall growth.

It's also important to note that each of these positions can be revisited and adapted according to the desires and needs of each company.

When it comes to marketing and sales teams in particular, it's important that coordination, or even symbiosis, takes place and flourishes. This harmony can be achieved through a variety of practices.

Marketing and sales team collaboration in practice

A company's marketing and sales teams occupy crucial roles within it, which, combined, can boost the company's growth. Here are a few ideas to put in place before fostering collaboration between these two departments:

Communication as the key to success

First and foremost, these two entities must communicate constantly and openly.

Exchanges must reflect a transparent relationship between the marketing and sales teams.

This is achieved through a number of concrete elements, such as:

The SLA, an essential cornerstone of the marketing/sales relationship

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract that outlines the expectations and responsibilities of each department with regard to the other.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract outlining the expectations and responsibilities of each department vis-à-vis the other, with the aim of supporting the company's overall efforts in a coherent way.

This document contains common objectives, such as the volume of qualified leads to be generated by marketing, and the conversion rates to be achieved by the sales team (often measured by KPIs).

The SLA also specifies expected deadlines, such as the time given to the sales team to act on an MQL, or the estimated time within which marketing must deliver the agreed leads. Lead transmission processes are also presented step-by-step in detail.

In the event of disagreements or difficulties over the terms of the SLA, dispute resolution procedures are set out. This document may also include measures for mediation or revision of its own terms.

The SLA is reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it remains aligned and adapts to changing business objectives and market dynamics.

In practice, this document also presents communication measures implemented through several concrete practices.

Regular meetings

Organizing regular meetings (e.g. weekly) enables planned discussions on the company's major dynamics, as well as on possible areas for improvement in relation to observed results. Here, it may be a good idea to set up a specific timetable for these meetings, as well as an open and accessible agenda to give everyone the opportunity to suggest topics for discussion.

Teams training

In addition, a better understanding of each team by the other helps to improve relations and overall understanding. In particular, it is possible to organize cross-training sessions to enable members of both teams to better understand each other's ways of working.

Similarly, the creation of feedback mechanisms between the two teams on their respective work enables the optimization of each other's efforts.

Shared tools between marketing and sales teams

Sharing systems

In addition, these teams set up systems for sharing and analyzing data between the two departments, which can help to improve collaboration (such as a general CRM for global lead tracking**).

The definition of common personas

Marketing and sales teams will also benefit from working together to create common, detailed customer personas to guide their approach. Having a concrete idea of the needs, preferences and challenges of target customers will enable their strategies to coincide over the short and long term.

Defining a clear path to be followed by each team

It's also essential to establish clear processes for transferring leads from the marketing team to the sales team. This means that the marketing team must respect the lead qualification stage, so that leads are actually ready to be converted into leads before being passed on to the sales team.