Problem: Marketing campaigns are not being followed up by sales.

In the pursuit for operational excellence, it can be prudent to really scrutinise your processes.

A simple, but effective way of doing this is with the 5Y Analysis technique. You can find out more about the 5Y technique here: 5Y Analysis

Problem: Marketing campaigns are not being supported by sales

By repeatedly asking the question “Why” (five is a good rule of thumb), you can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem.

In this scenario, we have a common problem experienced by many marketing leaders and their teams; Marketing campaigns are not being supported by sales.

To address this here is a common series of 'Why's' that could apply to your business:

• Why 1: Sales are not following up on the sales leads generated
• Why 2: Sales were not a part of the marketing campaign strategy so don't realise the significance of the lead
• Why 3: Sales and marketing seem to work in isolation and to different goals
• Why 4: Sales and marketing are not unified
• Why 5: We don't know what each others objectives are

If you can be really honest, you'll come up with a logical solution to your issue.

Solution:

Using the example above, it can be said that the solution to this is that Sales and marketing need to be unified. Sales and Marketing need to outline the campaign objectives together and design a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of how each will support the other.