Problem 1: Marketing team ran a campaign, delivered leads, but is frustrated with the quality of

follow up from the sales team.

There’s a few things you can do to improve the quality of follow up from the sales team.

The first is more communication. Every time the marketing team runs a campaign they need to talk
about it with the sales team. Before the campaign, the marketing team gives the sales team a heads
up around what to expect. And after the campaign, the marketing team makes it extremely easy for
the sales team to follow up on the leads. This is everything from sending emails with suggested
follow up messaging to the right Salesforce reports. Of course, sales enablement requires partnership
with the sales management team who can help hold the sales reps accountable.

The sales management team implements a system that holds the reps accountable. One simple way
to do this is through reporting and dashboards. These dashboards show follow up times, anyone who
hasn’t been followed up, and generally how these leads moved through the funnel.

Lastly, many companies make organizational changes to make sure that sales-marketing campaign
followup is really tight.

Problem 2: No source of truth around numbers. Marketing says one thing and Sales says another.

Build a revenue operations team that centralizes marketing and sales operations. This team becomes
the non-biased arbitrator around go-to-market numbers. This team does all of the standard
operations work from setting up software systems to creating processes to building dashboards and
reports. By centralizing the team, you reduce bias from the go-to-market organization.

Problem 3: Leads are interested, but not closing

The sales team is ultimately responsible for closing deals, but there’s a number of things that the
marketing and sales team can work on together to improve close rates.

The first step comes down to a simple question - why are leads not closing? Answering this question
means starting a research project that surfaces customer insights. If you have a great CRM, then you
might be able to glean some insights by just looking at the deal data and analyzing close won/lost
reports.

But more likely, you’ll need to hear it from customers yourself. Set up Win/Loss Interviews to better
understand why you’re winning and losing deals. This involves an account executive setting up a
product marketer for a phone call with a Closed Lost prospect. After a couple of these calls, patterns
will start to emerge around why you’re losing deals. Of course, Gong calls are another great way to
get more insights and understand what’s actually happening on these calls.

You’re also likely losing deals to a competitor, so by strengthening your positioning against these
competitive threats then you’ll be able to close more deals. Again, the product marketing team can
help. Product marketers makes competitive battlecards that act as a self-service way for sales reps to
get the information they need to close deals.
Problem 4: Your leads are unqualified.

What it is

Sales success depends on a steady stream of qualified leads. That is, leads who:

 Can afford what you sell

 Are ready to buy

 Are decision-makers for the organization (in the B2B world)

Unqualified leads are just the opposite, and if your sales funnel is full of people who aren't going to
buy from you, all your other efforts will be for nothing.

Why it’s a problem

You can do everything right — great sales calls, good rapport, smooth presentation — but if the
prospect can’t afford you, you’re not going to get the sale.

How to solve it

Commit to buyer education

The biggest factor in lead qualification is budget. If someone can’t afford what you’re selling, it’s best
for everyone to know that as early as possible. Yet, thousands of companies are reluctant to address
pricing on their websites.

As a result, potential customers enter the sales process without knowing if they can actually buy the
thing they’re looking at.

Problem 5: You’re spending too much time on low-value tasks

What it is

According to research from InsideSales, most sales reps spend only about 37% of their time actually
selling.

Why it’s a problem

Sales is a numbers game. If you want more sales to happen, you need to have more of everything
that comes before a sale: more leads, more sales calls, more opportunities. This is not blanket
permission to spray and pray — just a reminder that more time spent not selling translates into
fewer sales.

How to solve it

Sales reps need to guard their calendars

The statistic above should be a call to action for all businesses. Yes, there are always going to be
meetings, training, and administrative work. But the fact is that your sales team likely spends 63% of
its time not selling.

 For sales representatives: Advocate for yourself and guard your calendar. If you need time
for prospecting, block it off on your calendar. Doing research ahead of a call? Block it off. If
 someone books time with you during prime selling hours, ask to reschedule. Your time is a
vital asset. Don’t let other people squander it.

 For sales leaders: You will need to run point on this. Is there a meeting that could be an
email? Could training and feedback come asynchronously? Could that 60-minute huddle be
completed in 30 minutes? Take a fresh look at your team’s calendars. Get creative about how
you can give your team its time back.