Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel marketing for B2B tech companies with high ACV and long sales cycle
Most sales reps I spoke to in 2024, told me they hate the lead handoff process from marketing. Here is why. As one of them described: "I log in to Salesforce and see a bunch of contacts with a random score. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with these contacts." There are 2 problems: a) This handoff process stimulates further silos between sales and marketing. Marketing just transfers MQLs or engaged accounts to sales and celebrates the win. While sales has no idea why these contacts were added, what’s their buyer journey stage and level of intent. b) There is no playbook to nurture and activate engaged accounts according to their level of intent. Not every sign up, click or engagement means buying intent. Sales either waste time trying to pitch non-sales-ready prospects or just put them in automated sequence and forget. The consequences are simple: - Missed revenue targets while generating tons of MQLs or engaged accounts - Lack of trust between marketing and sales This can be solved easily by co-creating playbooks together with sales and align them with the level of intent. Here are a few examples: 𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 (demand for content). 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: A buyer downloads a piece of content, or registers for a webinar 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵: Learning more about a specific topic Next steps aligned with the intent: - Connect before the webinar to ask what they expect or want to learn - Follow up after the webinar asking for their feedback, and offering more resources on the topic - Offer them newsletter sign-up upon content delivery instead of automatically signing them up - Progressive profiling: collecting more info about needs, goals, and priorities. 𝐁𝐔𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: Book a demo call 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵: Get a demo and evaluate the fit Pre-requisites: - Give a detailed product overview - Explain pricing and ICP. - Make sure buyers pre-qualify themselves. Next steps aligned with the intent: - Set up automated lead routing and opportunity to book a call right in the calendar of a sales rep ---- We'll share more examples with Vladimir this Friday in our Substack. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dSje9cKc ---- There are two rules to fix a broken lead handoff process. 1) Stop tracking downloads and event sign ups as buying intent and transferring them to sales. Instead, match the next step/CTA with the buyer's intent level. 2) Understand the buyer journey of your ICP accounts (check our guide on B2B buyer journey). When you map out different scenarios, ask yourself: What does the buyer actually want next?
The key is to always offer the buyer a next *appropriate* step, but to leave them in control. You wouldn’t propose marriage when meeting someone for the first time. “Oh, you agreed to chat with me, let’s have kids together”. 🤦🏻♂️ And yet, that is how it goes in a typical handover scenario.
To build on this, teams have to consider involving sales in the lead scoring process itself. Sales teams often have nuanced insights into lead quality that algorithms or marketing teams alone might miss. Additionally, how do you envision measuring the effectiveness of these intent-aligned playbooks over time? Feedback loops could close the gap between lead generation and conversion. Curious to hear your thoughts on integrating sales feedback dynamically into this system.
Its so different at each org and I'm always fascinated to learn how others are doing in this area
Love this table !
Its so normal to see zero planning on lead hand offs. This needs to be planned during the strategizing phase wayyyy before the execution. Yet its usually looked at months after execution when leads are slipping through the cracks. Such an expensive mistake to make.
Don't assume that every click or engagement means the buying intent. Understand where your buyer is in their journey and provide the next step aligned with their current needs, not your wishes. Great post, Andrei!
The disconnect between sales and marketing often leads to wasted time and missed opportunities. Aligning on buyer intent is key to bridging that gap and driving better results.
I might have just saved that. Not all CTAs are created equal
Not every sign up, click or engagement means buying intent. Match a response to buyer's actual NEEDS, not sales targets."
Using ABM and Demand Gen To Build Pipelines and Grow Revenue For SaaS Scaleups I Sales-Led GTM Specialist I Hubspot Expert I 70%+ Hands-On I Co-Founder @Smarketrs
3wLove this topic Andrei and the handoff process is something that marketing and sales needs to agree on with mandatory data points built into the CRM that align with the qualification criteria. Also agree that any form fill other than a pricing request or a demo request is low intent and should be auto-enrolled into an education and nurture stream where you can continue to profile them, build a relationship and look out for intent signals. BTW in your sales conversations, what proportion wold you say went straight to a sales rep/AE and what proportion went to an SDR/BDR first?