In recent years, the introduction of new services and products has come to be left up to customer-driven actions, such as customers themselves recognizing issues, searching for solutions, and comparing and considering multiple services and products before deciding to introduce them. It has become.
On the other hand, companies that provide products and services often find that sales and marketing are dissatisfied with each other, and as a result, they are unable to communicate appropriately with their customers. In this case, it is effective to negotiate an SLA between sales and marketing.
This time, we will introduce SLA, which is effective for collaboration between sales and marketing.
What is smarketing? Points of collaboration between marketing and sales | MarketTRUNK
What is SLA?
SLA is an abbreviation for Service Level Agreement, which means service quality guarantee or service level agreement. Originally, it refers to the level of service provided between service providers and users in the IT industry.
The performance of services in the IT industry is difficult to understand, and SLAs are used to define what service users will receive. In order to strengthen the collaboration between sales and marketing, SLAs are being negotiated to clarify and share the roles and responsibilities that each party expects, as well as the metrics that need to be achieved.
Sales and marketing pursue a common goal: customer acquisition. However, due to the nature of each business, it is difficult to fully understand what each other is doing, and sales employees tend to be dissatisfied with being given leads that do not lead to deals, and marketing employees are not followed up on the leads they have handed over. .
By exchanging SLAs, sales and marketing can have a common understanding and share information, allowing for smooth lead handover, post-handover follow-up, and a unified effort to acquire customers. Masu.
5 things to exchange in SLA
There are a total of five things to be exchanged in the SLA.
① Overview of SLA
Decide on the items to be agreed upon by both sales and marketing. As will be explained later, these are each goal, lead definition and handover criteria, work content and scope of responsibility, information requested from each other, and regular meetings.
② Sales and marketing goals
Sales goals are clearly sales, but marketing goals should be directly linked to sales. For example, the amount contributed to sales or the number of leads delivered.
When setting the number of leads to be handed over, it is necessary to set it after considering the capacity such as the number of sales staff and skills.
Then, make the goals visible on a common CRM or SFA dashboard. If a goal cannot be achieved, we will help identify the cause and plan and implement improvement measures.
③ Definition of lead
Define which leads will be your target. There are three leads that need to be defined: “Lead”, “MQL”, and “SQL”.
lead
Prospective customers who have not yet entered into a contract.
We know business card information obtained from website form submissions, exhibitions, webinars, etc.
MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)
Leads generated by marketing initiatives.
Depending on the temperature of the reed, it is classified as hot reed, warm reed, and cold reed.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)
Leads that are likely to lead to contracts and directly lead to sales. Sales makes an approach.
Depending on the company, lead generation may be differentiated as follows, depending on whether it is a marketing measure or a sales activity.
SAL (Sales Accepted Lead)
A lead generated through marketing initiatives that is passed on to sales.
SGL (Sales Generated Lead)
Leads generated directly through sales activities without going through marketing measures.
The definition of a lead should be clearly defined in terms that can be understood by both sales and marketing, according to the target of the product or service.
③ Lead delivery standards and approach
After defining leads, decide on the criteria for passing leads from marketing to sales.
In some companies, MQL is determined based on whether the product or service is eligible, and all leads that become MQL are handed over to sales once. Then, sales approaches MQL, and if they decide to continue approaching it, MQL changes to SQL.
In addition, depending on the lead’s temperature, marketing may carry out nurturing, and when a certain level of temperature is reached, the lead is evaluated as SQL and handed over to sales.
The criteria for handing over leads will vary depending on the number of salespeople and their skills, so they should be determined and agreed upon when defining leads. In addition, the criteria for determining whether a sales person should continue to approach the company and the criteria for determining when a certain level of temperature has been reached should be clearly stated so that they are not biased by individuals.
And clarify your sales approach to delivered leads. Specifically, we decide who will approach the lead, how many times, by when, and how.
We also decide how to handle closed leads, including feedback and management of the results, such as whether sales will continue to accept the leads or whether they will be returned to marketing.
④ Information required for sales and marketing
Define the information you want to share with sales and marketing. Sales compiles necessary information such as lead information handed over from marketing, and marketing reports on the results of the handed over leads and feedback from sales such as the needs of potential customers.
⑤Sales and marketing work content and scope of responsibility
Make sure that you both know what kind of work you are doing and who is in charge of it. Create a table that lists the person in charge of each task.
⑥Regular information sharing
Set up regular meetings to share information on goal progress and provide feedback on leads you’ve passed. Depending on the lead time from acquiring leads to receiving orders, it’s a good idea to start with once a month.
SLA operation points
After exchanging SLAs, it is important to review them once every six months and make changes as necessary. We will continue to strengthen the collaboration between sales and marketing by reviewing it in line with changes in the marketing and sales organizations and the external environment.
It is also important to decide to discard the SLA when operations become difficult due to major changes in the external environment. For this reason, it is a good idea to decide on the SLA cancellation conditions in advance.
summary
- With the aim of strengthening collaboration between sales and marketing, SLAs are being negotiated to clearly state and share the roles, scope of responsibilities, and metrics to be achieved.
- The SLA determines items to be agreed upon by both sales and marketing, such as their respective goals, lead definition and handover criteria, work content and scope of responsibility, mutual information requests, and regular meetings.
- The criteria for handing over leads will vary depending on the number of salespeople and their skills, so they should be determined and agreed upon when defining leads.
- After signing an SLA, it is important to review it once every six months and make changes as necessary.