Indy AMA
Indianapolis Chapter of the American Marketing Association

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Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and Sales

A key problem within many organizations is the divide between marketing and sales. Erin Sparks, President and Founder of Site Strategics said it simply, “marketing and sales are often at odds because they’re not listening to each other.” Sparks shared information on how to drive success when these two teams work together at our December luncheon.

One important area to start with is content. Marketing must be clear on what content is resonating with buyers while sales needs instant access to high quality marketing-produced content. Sales can help direct this content by developing personas for their customers and for the services they provide. This content should also be tailored for specific lead types in effort to maximize response.

When it comes to scoring your leads, there are key items that monitor performance. These include:

• Web traffic/page views/time onsite
• Content downloads
• Inbound links/page rank
• Fans/followers
• Mentions/Comments/Shares

Sparks also stressed the importance of response rates with leads. Speed is the most critical component of lead conversion and unfortunately most companies don’t respond fast enough. “A person is 391% more likely to buy if they are contacted within a minute,” he said.

In order to be successful with lead generation efforts, there should also be alignment between sales and marketing. Beneficial steps in this process include agreement on the definition of a qualified lead between both departments and to provide adequate training for everyone involved.

For more information on lead conversion and bridging the gap between sales and marketing, click here.