Sellers want to spend their time selling, not prospecting, which leads to missed opportunities and frustrated teams. Marketing feels that sales doesn’t follow up quickly enough, while sales believes marketing sends unqualified leads. To remedy this, marketing could nurture leads longer, ensuring they are genuinely sales-ready before passing them to sales. This approach allows marketing to own more of the early-to-mid journey, leading to fewer but higher-intent leads while providing buyers with adequate time and content before engaging with sales.
To effectively implement this strategy, marketing should adopt a multi-channel approach and maintain consistent communication. This includes full-funnel retargeting, strategic gifting, and engaging all decision-makers in the buying group. Automating responses to key actions can also enhance the lead engagement process. When leads are handed off to sales, providing a full engagement history ensures a smoother transition, turning sales conversations into opportunities rather than cold starts. This approach ultimately transforms marketing from merely generating leads to actively accelerating deals, benefiting sales teams, marketers, and buyers alike.