The handshake between Sales and Marketing tends to produce the most measurable results for a marketing team.
Some typical key performance metrics are: number of leads sourced by Marketing for Sales, number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) handed to Sales, number of MQLs worked by Sales, number of deals closed by Sales that originated from Marketing. So we pivoted the data and checked to see how effective organizations with SLAs are compared to those without SLAs. The results are definitive.
Marketers in companies with SLAs also have more faith in their marketing strategy. Smarketing has been a core tenet of inbound for years -- and our data shows how critical it is to Marketing’s success. Just 22% of our respondents has a formal SLA between Marketing and Sales, and a further 44% told us the the two organizations were generally aligned.
How would you characterize your company’s sales and marketing relationship?
Inbound marketing philosophy works hand in hand with the concept of smarketing, and our data shows that when the two work in tandem, there is a higher chance for success. Of those with an SLA, 82% said their marketing strategy was effective. For those who said they were misaligned, only 20% thought their marketing strategy was effective. The less aligned Sales and Marketing are, the more negative the outlook.
Do you feel that your organization’s marketing strategy is effective? by How would you characterize your company’s sales and marketing relationship?
Do you feel that your organization’s marketing strategy is effective? by How would you characterize your company’s sales and marketing relationship?
For our survey respondents, the most powerful combination of characteristics for an effective marketing organization is to 1) be inbound and 2) have an SLA between Sales and Marketing. Inbound organizations with SLAs are over 5 times more likely to rate their marketing strategy as effective compared to outbound organizations with misaligned marketing and sales teams.
How does your company’s current budget for inbound marketing compare to last year’s?
Effective strategies obviously produce results, and our data shows those who feel confident in their marketing strategy are over 2x more likely to get higher budgets for their marketing teams.
