NEWS & INSIGHTS

Forging a Strong Alliance Between Sales and Marketing

Apr 16, 2024

I firmly believe that there should be a health tension between the sales and marketing team withing an organization. 

Delineate clear responsibilities and hand-off between the Marketing Team and Sales Team along with clear definitions for all key terms.  See examples below:

The Marketing Department is responsible for:

  • Delivering Qualified Warm Leads from Qualified Prospects/Targets to the Sales Team
  • Promoting awareness of HealthPay24 as the leading provider of patient payment solutions
  • Empowering the Sales Team with tools and resources to support value-rich communications with Qualified Prospects (see below for definition)
  • Empowering the Sales Team with highly effective presentation materials to support conversations with Qualified Opportunities
  • Determining strategies and setting budgets for delivering the Warm Lead volume and market awareness targets as defined by the Exec Team

Definitions:

  • Qualified Lead – Ideal Customers, Target Accounts and Affiliates (listed in order of priority/value)
  • Qualified Prospect/Target – The qualifying criteria for Prospects/Targets are defined on a per-campaign basis. For example: Non-Epic hospitals and health systems (>$100M NPR, HIS/Patient billing system = Allscripts, Cerner, GE Healthcare/athenahealth, Medhost, Meditech, McKesson or MedSphere)
  • Warm Lead – Is a Qualified Lead that is aware of and has a positive impression of HealthPay24. Someone who has had an interaction with the brand.  A Warm Lead becomes a cold lead after 3 months.
  • Cold Lead – Is a Qualified Lead that has not engaged with HealthPay24 content, events or other engagement efforts for 3+ months.

The Sales Team is responsible for:

  • Converting Qualified Leads into Qualified Opportunities and Closing Business
  • Determining strategies and setting budgets for achieving revenue targets and conversion rates as defined by Exec Team
  • Feedback to marketing on how messaging and materials are working
  • Feedback to marketing on evolving market dynamics

Definitions:

  • Closed-Won: A fully executed contract (and associated documents/agreements) for an engagement with a Qualified Target based on an Approved Solution/Offering.
  • Approved Solution/Offering: A product and/or service that has been approved for sale by the Product Team with terms deemed acceptable by Sales Leadership.
  • Closed-Lost: Target has declined or has otherwise not responded after 7 touches/attempts (at least three of which being voicemail)
  • Qualified Opportunity: A stakeholder/decision-maker at a qualified prospect who has agreed that there is adequate cause to explore a possible solution fit and confirmed a date/time to do so
  • Closed Business Conversion Rate: The ratio of Closed Business to leads provided in a given time period. (to be separately calculated for cold and warm leads)
  • Qualified Opportunity Conversion Rate: The ratio of Qualified Opportunities to leads provided in a given time period. (to be separately calculated for cold and warm leads)

Setting Goals:

The Targeted Quantity for Closed Business divided by Warm Lead Conversion Rate determines the Required Number of Warm Leads that must be generated by the Marketing Team and funneled to the Sales Team.

Targeted Quantity for Closed Business

Warm Lead Conversion Rate

=

Required Number of Warm Leads

The Marketing Team will be responsible for delivering the specified volume of Warm Leads within industry norms for cost-per-lead performance.  The Marketing Team will also be responsible for driving broader awareness of the HealthPay24 brand, solutions and subject matter expertise in the RCM/Healthcare-Provider marketplace. Marketing Leadership will be responsible for setting the budgets necessary for achieving quantitative and qualitative targets set by the Exec team for the Marketing Department.  The Exec Team will be responsible for furnishing the necessary resources. 

The Sales Team will be responsible for converting leads at rates within industry norms in order to achieve revenue goals.  Sales Leadership will be responsible for setting the budgets necessary for achieving quantitative and qualitative targets set by the Exec team for the Sales Department.

Weekly Growth Team Meeting Structure: It is recommended that the Growth Team (Marketing + Sales) meet weekly to discuss progress on all the key areas of business development activities. 

Each member of the Sales Team will provide reports on the following:

  • Top Five Opportunities (mid and late-stage opportunities with the highest projected revenue – must have a probability percentage of 75% or higher):
    • Opportunity name
    • Solution/Offering
    • Current status/state
    • Probability %
    • Most recent action
    • Next action
    • Next action owner
    • Next action timing
    • Projected close date
    • Projected implementation date
    • Projected revenue start date
    • Projected annualized revenue
    • Projected total contract value
    • Existing blockers
  • Top Five Leads (early-stage opportunities with the highest projected revenue)
    • Opportunity name
    • Solution/Offering
    • Current status/state
    • Probability %
    • Most recent action
    • Next action
    • Next action owner
    • Next action timing
    • Projected close date
    • Projected implementation date
    • Projected revenue start date
    • Projected annualized revenue
    • Projected total contract value
    • Existing blockers

Sales Leadership will report on overall conversion rates MTD and YTD

Each member of the Client Success Team will report on the current state of whitespace for each client they are responsible for:

  • Client name
  • Next recommended solution
  • Most recent action
  • Next action
  • Next action owner
  • Next action timing
  • Projected close date
  • Projected implementation date
  • Projected revenue start date
  • Projected annualized revenue
  • Projected total contract value
  • Existing blockers

Note: “Next Action Owner” can never be a prospect/client.  Even when waiting from client for response on a communication the “Action” must still belong to a member of the HP24 team.  EX: “If no reply by Friday will send reminder email, suggesting new time for discussion”

The head of Marketing (or assigned substitute) will report on:

  • Rolling 30- and 90-day count of Warm Leads delivered to Sales Team
    • Source
    • Cost
  • Current campaigns in motion and associated timeframes
  • Expected Warm Leads to be generated from current campaigns
  • Expected cost per Warm Lead generated from existing campaigns
  • Upcoming events
    • Projected Warm Leads count
    • Cost per lead
  • Rolling 30-day and 90-day count of Cold Leads delivered to Sales Team since last call
    • Source
    • Cost per lead
  • New collateral, videos, resources available to the Sales Team for use in outreach
  • Updates to existing materials, website, videos
  • Slated major projects:
    • Timeframes
    • Costs

Exec Leader to report on: Overall tracking YTD for Revenue and Cost-of-Sale

Colt Briner  « Architect of Influence

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Scrappy’s proven tools and techniques create industry darlings that are loved by their customers, employees and shareholders. At Scrappy AF we specialize in high-impact branding and market-disrupting strategies to take companies from “never heard of ‘em” to market dominance. Scrappy is a collective of seriously resourceful, radically creative, tactical badasses under the leadership of Colt Briner, unicorn company CMO and Architect of Influence.