How to Improve Sales and

Marketing Alignment

Mark Roberge

VP Sales @HubSpot

Twitter: @MarkRoberge

Mike Volpe

VP Marketing @HubSpot

Twitter: @mvolpe

Overheard in sales…

• All the leads suck.

• We don’t get enough leads.

• None of the leads close.

• Marketing is a waste of money.

Overheard in marketing…

• Sales doesn’t follow-up on leads.

• Sales isn’t happy unless we just give

them POs.

• Salespeople are way overpaid.

• Sales takes all the credit, but none of

the blame.

Sales vs. Marketing?

Who is HubSpot?

180+ Employees in Cambridge, MA (MIT)

$33m in VC (3 rounds)

SaaS for Marketing at $3K-15K/year

Complicated &

Confusing

Easy &

Integrated

Mike Volpe & Mark Roberge

Mike Volpe

VP Marketing

• Built HubSpot Marketing

from 0 to 25,000+ leads

per month

• Marketing thought leader

• Employee #5

Mark Roberge

VP Sales

• Built HubSpot Sales from

0 sales reps to 50+ sales

reps

• Sales 2.0 strategist

• Employee #6

Growth

3,100

Customers

Q1 2007 Q2 2010

Sales and Marketing Alignment

1. Build Communication

2. Establish an SLA

3. Grade and Filter Leads

4. Grow Top of Funnel

5. Nurture Premature Leads

6. Analyze the Closed Loop

Build Communication

“Smarketing” =

Sales + Marketing

Smarketing Communication

• Meet frequently

• Multiple relationships, not VP to VP

• Desks mixed in with each other

Smarketing Communication

• Input goes both ways

• Lots of feedback formats

• Agree on terminology

• Use data to communicate

Agree on Terminology

• What is a lead?

• What is a sales qualified lead?

• What is an opportunity?

Example Terminology

• A Sales Qualified Lead

• Accurate contact information

• Demonstrated interest in our company

• Over $50m in revenue

• Company based in North America

Provide More Lead Information

Give sales a more complete picture

Show the activity on each lead

Customize follow-up to activity

Lead Details

Salesforce.com or Other CRM

Social Media on Leads

Establish an SLA

Set an SLA for Sales and Marketing

• Agree on terminology and metrics

• Sales goals to deliver to Marketing

• Marketing goals to deliver to Sales

Great Sales and Marketing SLAs

• Specific metric, written down

• Quickly and easily measurable

• Monitored regularly

Marketing’s Leads SLA

• How many leads of a certain quality

does a sales rep need to make

quota?

• How many leads does a sales rep

need to be busy 100% of the time?

Sales’s Follow-up SLA

• How many call/email attempts should

sales make for every lead of a certain

quality to not waste leads?

• With X leads and Y hours / month,

how many follow-up attempts should

sales be able to complete per lead?

Example SLA

• Marketing will deliver 100 sales

qualified leads per sales rep per

month.

• Sales will make 1 follow-up attempt in

24 hours, with 5 attempts in 14 days.

Measure Progress Daily

Measure Progress Daily

Grade and Filter Leads

Lead Grading Tips

• Use data, not intuition

• Measure on company aligned metrics

Different Types of Lead Data

Demographic Data

• Title

• $ Revenue

• Location

• # Employees

Behavioral Data

• # Pages viewed

• # Forms completed

• Time since last visit

• Blog subscription

Data Drives Lead Grade

• How much does each variable impact

the probability of the lead

purchasing?

• > $100m in revenue is 10% close rate

• $50m to $100m is 15% close rate

• < $50m is 2% close rate

Data Drives Lead Grade (Advanced)

• For each lead, what is probability of

them buying

• Binary outcome = logistic regression

• Interaction among variables

(nonlinear)

What is the goal for a lead?

• Lead becomes opportunity?

• Lead closes?

• Lead becomes happy customer?

• Lead becomes high value customer?

Grow Top of Funnel

More Leads Fixes Everything

• If you can grade and filter leads,

getting more leads is always better.

• More leads to sales for more volume

or

• Tighten filters to improve quality

Growing <20% is Actually Shrinking

• 20%-30% of your leads database

expires annually

• You need to add new leads faster

than that in order to grow

Inbound Marketing

Convert

Get Found

Search Engines Blogs Social Media

What to Publish?

• Blog

• Podcast

• Videos

• Photos

• Presentations

• eBooks

• News Releases

Optimize Your Content

Optimize Your Content

Publish Content to Social Media

Attract the RIGHT visitors

Attract the Right Visitors

Blogging Attracts More Visitors

Source: Data from over 1,500 small businesses - http://hub.tm/BlogROI

More Leads, Lower Cost

Source: survey of hundreds of businesses: HubSpot.com/ROI

Nurture Premature Leads

Lead Nurturing

Get leads ready for sales

Segment Leads Database

• Send more personalized messages

and offers to different groups

• Use each segment appropriately

• What is your goal for each segment of

your list?

Lead Nurturing Goals

• You have the contact info, goal is to

move toward a sale

• Educate – build trust

• Close – move closer to a sale

Lead Nurturing > Email

• Social media followers

• Blog / RSS subscribers

• Blog comments

• 1-1 interactions online

Lead Alerts

Analyze the Closed Loop

Traditional Marketing

Marketing Sales

Problems:

• Duplicate leads

• Limited lead information

• No feedback from sales

HubSpot Closed Loop Marketing

Marketing Sales

• de-duplicate leads

• import to CRM

• lead intelligence

• contact info & status updates

• closed loop data to analyze

HubSpot Closed Loop Marketing

• Improve Marketing

• Increase lead quality

• Learn which marketing programs are working

and which aren’t

• Increase marketing ROI

• Improve Sales

• Help sales prioritize leads

• Help sales make warmer calls

• Increase sales close rate

• Increase sales ROI

Closed Loop Marketing Measurement

Track leads all the way through sales

Tie website visitors to closed deals

Tie closed deals to lead sources or

campaigns

Measure the Lead Funnel

Track Visitors, Leads, Sales

Track visitors. Track leads. Track customers.

Measure Campaign Effectiveness

Analyze Each Channel

Analyze Each Channel

Analyze Each Channel

Analyze Each Channel

Analyze Each Channel

Sales and Marketing Alignment

1. Build Communication

2. Establish an SLA

3. Grade and Filter Leads

4. Grow Top of Funnel

5. Nurture Premature Leads

6. Analyze the Closed Loop

Thank You

www.HubSpot.com/free-trial

Mark Roberge

VP Sales @HubSpot

Twitter: @MarkRoberge

Mike Volpe

VP Marketing @HubSpot

Twitter: @mvolpe