Sales and Marketing Alignment

I can think of no other example in corporate life of two entities which rely on each other so completely yet often become so disconnected. Here is what we typically see:

Marketing: We spent £8,000 and generated 1,000 SQLs. Sales only converted 100 of those into Opportunities and closed just 30.

Sales: We don’t have enough Leads. My reports say we converted 50% of the Leads we accepted.

So what does the Data tell us? Usually they’re both right – to an extent. But their definitions are not aligned. A typical scenario is that of those 1,000 SQLs generated:

250 might have been for Territories without coverage so the CRM didn’t assign them.
200 were marked as Duplicates (because the prospect engaged with us twice)
350 were Rejected by Sales as too small, too early in the sales cycle etc
Leaving 200 Accepted by Sales

RevOps should really be the bridge here, and address the underlying issues:

Clear definition of terms such as SQL to include Sales Criteria and Territory definitions
Lead Tracking Dashboard for Sales & Marketing: a single view of SQL follow-up, with Conversion Rates, mandated Rejection Reason fields, Time to Follow-up KPIs etc.
New process to deal with out-of-territory enquiries