The marriage between marketing and sales may sound a bit strange to professionals in both areas.
However, once that initial confusion is overcome, it is easy to see how this practice brings great benefits, not only for each of the teams involved, but also for the entire business, generating more and more opportunities and simplifying internal processes .
But you may be wondering: what is the secret behind the “Ventarketing” strategy? Well, there are a number of important factors there, but one of the main ones is the SLA (Service Level Agreement), which “turns on” this combination of marketing and sales.
Do you want to know more about what this acronym stands for and how it can help you align both teams? If your answer is “yes”, keep reading!
- What is the Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
- How important is the SLA?
- 6 practices for building a broad impact SLA
What is the Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
The term SLA stands for Service Level Agreement, which can be translated as Service Level Agreement.
But what does this really mean? Basically, it is an agreement between two or more areas , usually marketing and sales, when they come together to achieve better results for the business.
This agreement:
- determines the essential roles of each team,
- set clear goals for both of you,
- reconciles the metrics that must be followed,
- define when to transition a lead from marketing to sales,
- etc.
In other words, the SLA is the document responsible for keeping everyone aligned with the same goal. This helps to avoid that expectations are higher than they should be for one of the sectors, or that one of them has many more tasks than the other, for example.
How important is the SLA?
As you can see from the explanation above, the SLA is a kind of contract between the marketing and sales teams.
Through it, each is aware of what to do and knows what to expect from the other . But does it make that much difference at work? Of course!
Take a look at these benefits that SLA brings when set correctly:
Goal alignment
The first benefit, of course, is knowing that with an SLA applied properly from the beginning of the strategy, the objectives will always be aligned.
This agreement must be very specific in terms of objectives to be met and deadlines for this to happen.
In that way, having the same results in mind is much easier for everyone, and from there decisions can be made that facilitate the achievement of those goals .
Without an SLA, each team’s idea of success would be more likely to be quite different and their actions would not complement each other, causing the strategy to fail.
Focus on the right activities
As the agreement also defines exactly what aspects of the work each team has to do, we can say that it helps to keep the focus on the right activities .
The idea of the SLA is not to focus on the activities that the other team must perform, as a kind of quality inspection.
Even because the professionals in each area know very well how to perform their functions, don’t they?
The goal is to focus on the activities that each team must undertake to deliver its part to the best of its ability and ensure that results are not adversely affected by poor performance.
Ease of measuring efforts
How to know if each team is fulfilling its role, if the SLA is really working and if Ventarketing is giving the expected results?
There is only one way to test all of that, and yes, it is by using metrics to measure efforts. The good news is that this is not difficult to do.
Even modern analytics tools allow you to generate detailed reports, which will help you see how everyone is doing in planning.
Naturally, the next step is to act on the data found to constantly improve.
More efficient processes
Another great benefit is that to meet the objectives within the established deadline, more efficient processes are developed internally.
These processes, to be efficient, must take into account more frequent communication between the two teams , as well as the monitoring of metrics to facilitate changes.
The SLA will play an important role in improving these processes, as it will be done with the intention of complying with this agreement with more peace of mind.
Better work environment
Ultimately, this advantage may not be as noticeable at first, but it will soon prove to be one of the most important for long-term business development . Many companies, in addition to not having integrated sales and marketing departments, unfortunately see an internal gap between these two teams , as if they were rivals. That conflict is destructive to business!
So as the SLA kicks in and teams collaborate in the right way, the work environment becomes smoother and more enjoyable.
6 practices for building a broad impact SLA
We already know what it is and why it is important, but how do you make a good SLA to unite these two forces once and for all?
It is of great importance that some steps are taken so that this agreement is well established and really works. See what they are:
1. Set goals for the company
The first step is for the two teams to talk to establish business goals.
Only after that will it be possible to advance the strategy. But what exactly should we define at this meeting?
It is essential to know how many leads are needed , on average, for each conversion of a customer.
Then, with the number of clients that the company hopes to conquer, it is possible to calculate how many leads to generate and what conversion rate is needed.
Once they know what goals will be pursued, they will jointly select which metrics and KPIs to use to assess whether this is actually being done.
Finally, you have to define a deadline for what is planned to happen, as this will help keep teams focused.
2. Determine the performance limits of each team
Using the same example we gave about the number of leads generated and converted, after setting your overall business goals, it’s time to separate who is responsible for each activity.
In this case, the marketing team must worry about generating and nurturing leads, while the sales team acts on closing sales.
Also, you will need to define internal criteria for MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) and SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) to divide responsibilities correctly.
3. Document everything that is decided
It has already been decided what MQL and SQL are, how far the marketing work goes and when the sales work begins. Excellent!
But the work is not done yet. Everything agreed at the meeting has not yet been documented. Is it really necessary to do it? Of course!
It is very important that the defined details are documented and kept in view of all those involved.
That way, no one will have a hard time remembering what the SLA entails and sticking to it.
4. Communicate constantly
Communication should be part of the day-to-day between teams, not just in regular meetings to evaluate results.
Speaking only when reviewing campaign data will not provide the time to make adjustments if the strategy is in trouble.
It is much better to talk constantly, as this helps to solve small problems as they arise, preventing them from affecting the achievement of goals.
In this sense, team leaders are essential, and they must encourage their team members to make themselves available to other professionals and help them where necessary.
5. Track metrics and KPIs
Using the metrics chosen at the beginning of the strategy, both teams will be able to see how SLA compliance is progressing.
These metrics should be observed frequently to accommodate small issues as they are encountered.
It is also part of the responsibility of each team to evaluate the metrics and KPIs related to their assignments, as well as to create reports that they must present to the other team .
A great alternative to guarantee this precision in the analysis is to use software that automates marketing and sales reports . Thus, both departments will be attentive to the same dashboards and there will be no differences in interpretation of the performance of one or the other.
6. Adapt the strategy as needed
Based on the data found, the final results of each campaign and the development of the general strategy, the last step is adaptation.
In other words, learn from your mistakes, identify what went well and try to improve those points even more, and use that learning in future strategies.
By doing so, you will definitely be able to take advantage of more and more industry integration and better understand how to use SLA masterfully.
Thus, it is clear how the SLA is a key piece to unite areas as important as marketing and sales.
Through it, responsibilities are divided and collaboration becomes easier.
Now that you know how to create one, it’s time to act and put full Ventarketing into practice!
Would you like more information about the SLA? Be sure to download our Ventarketing ebook to deepen your research!
