Mis-aligning sales and marketing

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Mistake #2: Under-utilizing the sales compensation plan
The sales compensation plan is the most under-appreciated tool in the CEO’s toolkit. In thinking back to the major strategic re-directions we navigated when I built the sales team at HubSpot, many of them were instigated by aligning the sales compensation plan with the desired strategic change.

Whether looking to enter a new industry, gain market share with a particular product line, or expand into a new geography, the sales compensation plan will be the most effective driver of change.

Traditionally, sales and marketing are two groups that have not gotten along. Marketing perceives sales as a bunch of over-paid spoiled brats. Sales feels marketing sits around doing arts and crafts all day. In an age with the majority of buying journey’s starting online, this dysfunctional relationship is the kiss of death for a company.

A properly aligned sales and marketing team is a ghana telegram data pre-requisite to a healthy business. Quantify the deliverables that marketing and sales should commit to one another. At HubSpot, we call this agreement the Sales and Marketing Service Level Agreement.

For example, marketing will deliver 1,500 leads per quarter that are contacts from Fortune 5000 companies within the retail, manufacturing, or technology industries. Sales will call these leads within 2 hours and convert 20% of them into sales pipeline within 30 days.

Measure the SLA progress and share the report daily with the entire team. You are now empowered to manage your sales and marketing funnel every day!

Mistake #4: Not planning far enough in advance
It takes 60-days to hire a new sales person, 90-days to ramp them to full productivity, and a four-month sales cycle to close a deal. If anything, these time frames may be on the aggressive side.

Yet, even with these assumptions, it takes nine-months from the decision to hire a new salesperson to the time when they are fully productive. Most of the hiring you are doing now is driving next year’s results. Plan ahead.