Bridging the gap between marketing and sales is an ongoing challenge for most organizations. However, it also an essential part to making telemarketing lead generation programs successful. Without buy-in from your sales team, a lead generation program is less likely to succeed. Here are some proactive steps you can take to help bridge the gap:
- The sales organization is the end-user of your leads. The mistake that many marketers make is defining the criteria for their lead classifications without input and buy-in from the sales department. Defining the lead criteria is a responsibility of both marketing and sales managers. Before your campaign launches, meet with sales management to jointly determine the criteria for a telemarketing sales lead. Also, make sure you directly address long-term leads with your sales management. Will the sales reps be responsible for nurturing long-term leads? If they do not have the bandwidth or desire to work long-term leads, then you’ll need to create a lead-nurturing program within marketing. If you don’t address this now, you’re more likely to have leads fall into a black hole.
Important Step: Once your