Hey marketing. Is your team going in the same direction as sales development and sales? Check your swim lanes to keep them all synced for sale.
What are swim lanes?
Swimming lanes are a visual representation of workflows that show who is responsible for which tasks.
B2B marketing and sales can use swim lanes to map and track their responsibilities – from qualified marketing leads to closing deals.
In other words, swim lanes are a way to target your sales and marketing teams.
In this post, we’re going to talk about swim lanes and how they lead marketing and sales teams to make more profits.
Use swim lanes to define roles and responsibilities
Marketing, sales development, and sales have specific roles and responsibilities. However, the lines can become fuzzy, causing the sales pipeline to fail.
In this case, sales reps complain that the marketing leads are junk and marketing reps complain that sales reps are not converting the leads.
By this point, when Ziff Davis surveyed marketing and sales professionals at j2 Global, 27% said their marketing and sales teams were still not focused on when sales should be tracking marketing leads.
Additionally, the survey found that only 11% of companies track qualified leads to marketing within 5 minutes. 37% followed up within 24 hours.
That last number is breathtaking.
Leads are distracted. Contact them within five minutes and you have a chance to get your foot in the door.
Contact them after twenty-four hours and you will be competing with a barrage of distractions (including competitors vying for their attention).
Ultimately, the rep who first contacts a lead gets the prospect’s attention.
Or, as Henry Schuck, founder and CEO of ZoomInfo, puts it: “Time kills all business.”
Keep your swimming lane map simple
This is where the magic of the workflow happens: Marketing focuses on lead generation, SDRs qualify leads for sale, and sales convert the leads.
Here is a starter swim lane template to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities as they work towards one common goal: sales growth.
Marketing swim lane = one to many
Marketing is responsible for educating your entire Addressable Market (TAM). Hence, the focus of messaging is one-to-many.
For example, your goal is to educate an entire market about how your product solves its business problem using a marketing automation system.
By segmenting and targeting your ideal customers, you are sending quality leads to the sales team that they can nurture and close.
Sales Development Swim Lane = one too few
SDRs are responsible for engaging with prospects who have expressed an interest in your brand or have shown intent for a similar product or service. The focus of the SDR is on one to a few messaging.
If the SDRs are using a sales automation platform, they shouldn’t be using it to send thousands of emails every day.
Instead, they connect with your Marketing Qualified Leads (MMS) and prepare them to speak to sales.
Sales Professional Swim Lane = one to one
The role of the salesperson is straightforward. They do the sales and bring the sales qualified leads (SQLs) over the finish line. Their focus is on one-on-one news.
However, if a salesperson misses a sale, it’s worth evaluating the teams’ processes in place.
Check out Steve Bryerton’s one minute assessment from ZoomInfo of how to go about it to make sure you’re looking for high quality, targeted accounts.
Reach your swim lanes
The swimming lane system defines the roles of the teams. The lanes are by no means walled in – on the contrary.
Interactions between teams – like working together on lead quality and sales processes – are essential to converting prospects into leads and leads into customers.
Disclaimer of liability
ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. posted this content on February 25, 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by the public, unedited and unchanged, on February 25, 2021 16:54:00 UTC.