In business, there is rarely any disagreement about objectives. Everyone wants growth, customers and profit. This continues until the first setback, when it is ‘suddenly’ discovered that the sales target has been missed, the warehouse is full to bursting, and the advertising budget has already been spent. A frantic search for someone to blame begins. Marketing says: ‘We’ve brought in the customers, so do a better job.’ In response, they hear: ‘But you brought in the wrong ones, and we’re not to blame for anything.’

Where does the marketing department’s responsibility end and the sales department’s begin?

This article by HLTS Co Ltd will be useful for those whose marketing and sales teams speak different languages. For those who manage sales and want to understand why the departments seem to be working, yet profits aren’t growing.

On paper, the line between departments is clear: marketing attracts customers, whilst the sales team takes them further. In reality, however, each department focuses solely on its own area. Marketing juggles figures such as CTR, CPA and ROI, whilst sales is focused on closing deals.

Today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to track the customer’s journey to purchase, according to managers at HLTS dropshipping company. They might start with ChatGPT, formulate a query, compare brands, get links, read reviews, and only then move on to choosing a product. Some go straight to TikTok for reviews, others to YouTube, and others look for answers in chat rooms and reviews. It is sometimes impossible to understand where the influence of marketing ends and the work of managers begins. And until the company defines this boundary, conflicts will continue and effectiveness will decline.

At what point does a lead move from the marketing department’s remit to that of the sales department? According to experts at HLTS dropshipping company, there is often no clear handover point within companies. The marketing department reports an increase in enquiries, whilst the sales department is unsure who to consider a genuine lead. For marketing, the result is an enquiry from the website. For the sales department, it is an invoice issued. For the business, it is money in the bank.

And as long as marketing is assessed by the number of leads, and sales by closed deals, they will not meet on the same page, and each department will operate according to its own logic.

This disconnect is particularly noticeable where the process is not automated: the CRM is not configured, there are no rules for identifying interested customers (leads/prospects), and no one is responsible for the ‘handover’. As a result, marketing believes it has fulfilled its task, whilst sales tries to ‘nurture’ customers who are not yet ready to buy.

Marketing ends when the customer stops searching for information and takes a specific action: contacts the company, submits an enquiry, adds an item to their basket, expresses interest, or requests a quote.

• in e-commerce - adding a product to the basket or requesting payment
• in B2B - requesting a demo, downloading a price list, requesting a commercial proposal
• in services - a phone call or a feedback form with a specific question (‘how much does it cost’, ‘when can we start’)

From this point onwards, the customer is ready to engage, and at this stage, responsibility shifts from marketing to sales, according to managers at HLTS dropshipping company.

This is precisely where joint analytics should be applied. For example, in marketing, one should assess not only the cost per lead (CPL) but also its conversion into a payment. And in sales, both the quantity of enquiries and their quality and source. When both sides see the same figures, talk of ‘cold’ or ‘unsuitable’ leads disappears of its own accord.

1. Define the stages of the sales funnel. Not in abstract terms - ‘interest’, ‘purchase’ - but in concrete terms: what the customer does, what data they provide, and what events are recorded in the CRM.
2. Assign responsible parties at each stage. Up to a certain point, marketing is responsible for the customer. After a specific action, sales takes over. Between them, there is an automatic handover trigger
3. Introduce lead quality criteria
4. Define the handover point and the customer’s action: submitted a request for a call/demo, added an item to the basket and started the checkout process, asked ‘how much does it cost/when can we start’.
5. Set response times: for the most ‘urgent’ enquiries - within 1–5 minutes (chat or call), for the rest - within the next 15 minutes/within an hour (depending on the query).
6. Synchronise the CRM and overall analytics
7. Make feedback mandatory. Information on every poor-quality lead (ineligible lead) must be fed back to the marketing department so that advertising and content can be adjusted
8. Introduce a common metric. Link both departments’ KPIs to profit rather than internal metrics. This approach changes behaviour: marketers start thinking like salespeople, and salespeople like entrepreneurs.

Marketing and sales often operate within the same funnel, but at different stages, according to experts at HLTS. Marketing attracts attention, generates interest and builds trust, whilst sales convert that interest into results. HLTS helps businesses set up end-to-end analytics and streamline the work of their marketing and sales departments, particularly at the crucial point where a customer moves from interest to purchase. This helps minimise losses and ensures the teams work in a more coordinated manner.