---
title: "B2B Marketing Tips: Deciphering B2B Marketing ROI"
description: Why don’t your salespeople follow-up with marketing leads? Our B2B marketing tips will get you on track by helping you decipher your marketing sales sync.
---

# Sales Outcomes

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# B2B Marketing Tips: Deciphering B2B Marketing ROI

[Hernan Vera](https://www2.salesoutcomes.com/sales-outcomes-b2b-sales-marketing-insights/author/hernan-vera)

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*                       For more B2B Marketing Tips,[Click Here to Subscribe to Two-Bullet-Tuesday](https://salesoutcomes.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd9e3fde30500bfb3b09549c6&id=29cc4c3444&e=7c7733f6b0)*

## **B2B Marketing Tips: Salespeople have a tendency to not follow-up with leads that marketing gives them.  *Why?***

Getting [sales](https://salesoutcomes.com/sales-operations/) and marketing to agree on what a good lead looks like can be [challenging at best](https://salesoutcomes.com/fixing-the-disconnect-between-marketing-sales-operations/)—and [painful at worst](https://salesoutcomes.com/marketing-and-sales-alignment-addressing-misconceptions-of-b2b-selling/). It’s especially the case in B2B organizations where there’s a long sales cycle or solutions-based products. Having a smooth lead hand-off from marketing to sales can be tough to achieve consistently.

## **If your B2B marketing and sales teams are struggling in these areas, here are two essential questions to ask:**

## **Question 1:** *Have your B2B marketing and sales teams mutually defined what a qualified lead is?*

### **Take a moment to consider this scenario:**

- ### B2B Marketing Teams  might define a “qualified lead” using a variation of [BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing)](https://salesoutcomes.com/lead-generation-management-tips-does-bant-still-matter-in-b2b-lead-generation/) for new prospects.
- ### B2B Sales Teams might define a qualified lead as connecting with the right individual (Authority) to begin to establish a relationship well in advance of a need to purchase a solution.  

***And nowhere shall the two meet.***

*Breaking down silos between sales and marketing is essential for reaching common ground on what a qualified lead is*. ***As the scenario illustrates,*** if marketing disqualifies leads because **BANT criteria** weren’t fully met but sales wants to connect with the right person, even if there is no current need, **there’s a gap!**

Collective agreement by sales and marketing on what’s valued and what will produce the best possible results for the company will help close this gap.

## **B2B Marketing Tips: Here are a few steps you can take to begin creating a qualified lead definition aligned with marketing and sales:**

- ### *Develop a cross-functional team* made up of B2B marketing and sales (both doers and leaders).
- ### *Assess your past lead history*: Of the leads generated by B2B marketing, which leads did sales pursue, and why? Of those leads that were pursued by sales, which ones were won, and why?
- ### *Compare the questions sales ask* to qualify a lead with those that B2B marketing asks before delivering a lead to sales. Are there criteria that marketing could/should be exploring on sales’ behalf?
- ### *Define exactly what qualifies a lead. * Be sure to revisit this definition and adjust it periodically. For example, analyze won and lost deals to see if your criteria are indeed translating into more wins—and then readjust the definition according to what you find.  

## **Question 2**: *Have you developed a clear, efficient lead-to-sales hand-off process with your B2B Marketing and Sales Teams? *

It seems like a no-brainer that sales will follow up on a lead that she/he receives, but there are many reasons why this doesn’t happen. Amazingly, sometimes sales don’t get the message that there is a lead for them in the first place! *An efficient lead-to-sales hand-off is as much about process and role expectations as it is about a CRM system to facilitate it.*

## **B2B Marketing Tips: Consider these four components to a successful lead-to-sales hand-off process:**

- ### *Qualification/documentation* – Has B2B marketing fully documented why the lead is qualified and buy-ready, before assigning it to sales?
- ### *Notification* – Has the salesperson been alerted that they have a new lead? Redundancy is a good thing; in addition to assigning the lead to a salesperson in your CRM, also email or telephone the salesperson to let them know.
- ### *Acceptance* – Does sales have a formal mechanism to “accept,” and likewise “reject,” a lead? Accepting the lead could be as simple as converting it into a sales pipeline opportunity. In the event of a rejection, you’ll want to capture the reason for the rejection so you can better qualify next time.
- ### *Recycling* – Is marketing following up or nurturing leads that were unread or unaccepted by sales? Many CRMs and marketing automation systems have automation rules and workflows that can help streamline this further.

## **This is the basic foundation for B2B marketing [ROI](https://salesoutcomes.com/b2b-marketing-roi-ecosystem/)**.

Make sure there is an **agreed-upon definition of a qualified lead**, and **develop a clear, efficient lead-to-sales hand-off process**. Salespeople will follow-up on leads quicker and that will translate into more revenue.

## ***This is the first blog post in a series that explores this topic. We’ll explore other questions and B2B Marketing Tips you should consider in several future posts, including:***

- ### Have my CSO and CMO agreed on common goals for their respective organizations?
- ### Does the sales organization understand marketing’s targeted segments, the campaigns that marketing is running, and the anticipated results of these campaigns?
- ### Do your scoring/grading rules apply to both sales-generated and marketing-generated leads?
- ### Do your salespeople have regular interactions with lead generation/telemarketing reps?
- ### Does sales leadership track and manage metrics associated with lead acceptance/conversions?

If you’re looking for an answer to any of these questions tailored to your personal needs, you can [contact us](https://salesoutcomes.com/contact-us/) through our form, or chat with us right from this page.  Just click the chat box on the lower-right-hand corner, provide us with your contact information, and send us your question.  We’ll get back to you ASAP.   
 

## *                        For more B2B Marketing Tips,**[Click Here to Subscribe to Two-Bullet-Tuesday](https://salesoutcomes.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd9e3fde30500bfb3b09549c6&id=29cc4c3444&e=7c7733f6b0)*

### Leave a Comment

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**B2B Marketers often struggle to demonstrate Marketing ROI, and they may need your help to change the status quo.**

- *Statistics from studies by *[*Fournaise *](https://salesoutcomes.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=bd9e3fde30500bfb3b09549c6&id=ee12b424a5&e=7c7733f6b0)*...*

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## B2B email marketing opens, clicks and click-through rates are down, and marketers ask themselves, “Is anybody there?”

Email marketing is a powerful tool for B2B...

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[Read More](https://www2.salesoutcomes.com/sales-outcomes-b2b-sales-marketing-insights/supercharge-b2b-email-marketing)

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