When should the handoff from marketing to sales occur? The trend has been to gather ever more intelligence about your targets before unleashing the sales force on an opportunity, in the hopes that a more refined view of the prospect will lead to a shorter and more successful sales cycle. With more metrics brought to bear on the situation, the conventional wisdom goes, the sales team will be better equipped to communicate with the prospect, understand his needs and close the deal.

There is some truth to this thinking, but it has led sales and marketing departments astray with over-analysis. Analytics and market and prospect intelligence are undoubtedly crucial to the effective progression of a sales opportunity from early marketing efforts through the sales cycle and ultimately through implementation, as well. But, data has become a crutch, preventing sales and marketing teams from moving swiftly to take advantage of clear opportunities.

IT marketers and sales forces need to regain a sense of balance.

Data and intelligence should be informed by a sales professional’s knowledge, experience and judgment — which can be powerful tools. Together, the quantitative insights brought by a marketing department and the skills and techniques possessed by the sales force can lead to strong and consistent growth.

So, instead of waiting for your prospects to learn about you, form their own opinions and, frankly, do half the work of selling for you, get out in front of an opportunity early.

What’s been stopping IT resellers from taking this aggressive approach? Well, as usual, it starts with something known to be correct: prospects aren’t interested in engaging sales teams. Everyone is guilty of this. Nobody likes being pitched — we’d rather just wait until we need something and then go seek it out for ourselves. This thinking, if you accept it, deprives you of the chance to sell actively. Rather, as every experienced sales professional knows, you need to come up with a good reason for your target to enter the sales cycle.

Over the next few days, we’ll take a look at how to take a proactive sales approach that is informed — but not overburdened — with marketing insights.

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