“Ted, have you seen the pipeline report?” asked Jim, the sales rep.
“Yea, sad, right?” replied Ted, the other sales guy.
“I’d say. I went through a whole box of tissues when I read it.” They laughed.
“Seriously, what is marketing doing over there?” said Ted.
“Geez, not much, apparently,” said Jim.
Unknown to either of them, Sue, Director of Marketing, was just around the corner and heard the rant.
She emerged. “Hey, guys!”
Surprised, both reps replied in unison, “Oh, hey there, Sue.” They threw each other a nervous glance.
“Pipeline is thin, huh?” Ted and Jim nodded.
“Have you been following up on your leads per plan?” Sue asked.
“Sure have. Sent an email and made a phone call but nada,” said Jim. “Same here. Zip!” added Ted.
“One email, one phone call, interesting. Hasn’t that campaign been running for a couple of months now?” asked Sue.
“I know what you’re getting at,” said Jim. “I’ve been busy trying to close deals. I don’t have time to do all that follow up stuff. That’s Marketing’s job anyhow.”
“Oh, we gotta go," said Ted. "That meeting is in a few minutes.” They turned and disappeared into the conference room. Sue just shook her head.
Leads don’t grow on campaign trees. To bear fruit, we must work together.
Need help bridging the great lead follow up divide between Sales and Marketing? Send me a note at kschaffglazier@gmail.com