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Sales consulting

Sales and marketing alignment, starting with one definition

The argument is always the same. Marketing says it delivered four hundred leads, sales says none of them were any good, and both are telling the truth because nobody ever wrote down what a lead is. Almost everything else follows from fixing that one sentence.

  • One definition written and signed
  • An SLA both sides agreed to
  • One report not two

Tell us what you need

A senior person reads this and replies within one working day. No call centre, no drip sequence.

Partners & recognition

The stack we work in, the clients we keep

The platforms we build and run campaigns in, and the clients whose numbers we publish with their names on. HubSpot is the one partnership we claim; the rest are tools we use, not badges.

  • German Medical Center
  • The Reformery Clinic
  • Alma Laser
  • Roxana Aesthetics Clinic
  • Lamel
  • Dotline Studios

The problem

Four hundred leads, none of them any good

Both statements are accurate. Marketing counted form fills because that is what it was targeted on. Sales counted people worth a second call. Nobody reconciled the two, so the monthly meeting is an argument about numbers rather than a discussion about customers.

What the gap costs

  1. There is no written definition of a qualified lead

    Marketing is measured on volume, sales on closes. Without a shared definition, marketing optimises towards the cheapest form fill, which is exactly what it was asked to do and exactly what does not help.

  2. Nobody agreed how fast leads get contacted

    Speed to first contact is one of the strongest predictors of conversion there is, and it is nobody's target. Leads sit for two days and then get blamed on quality.

  3. Sales never reports back what happened

    So marketing cannot tell which campaigns produced customers as opposed to forms. The feedback loop that would fix the quality problem is the thing that is missing.

  4. The two teams look at different reports

    Marketing reports sessions, leads and cost per lead. Sales reports pipeline and closes. Neither report answers what it costs to acquire a customer, which is the only number the business needs.

What is included

What alignment work covers

Definitions, a service level, a feedback loop and one shared report. Unglamorous and it is where the money is.

The lead definition workshop

One session, both teams, producing a written definition of what qualifies and what disqualifies. Signed by both. Everything downstream depends on this sentence.

A service level agreement

What marketing commits to deliver and to what standard, and what sales commits to do with it and how fast. Written, agreed and reported against.

Speed-to-lead instrumentation

Measuring time from submission to first genuine contact attempt. Almost nobody measures it and it is frequently the largest single improvement available.

Closed-loop reporting

Outcome data flowing back so marketing can see which campaigns produced customers. Without it, marketing optimises on the only signal it has, which is form volume.

One shared dashboard

Cost per qualified lead and cost per customer, by source, visible to both teams. Two separate reports is how the argument stays alive.

Handover process design

What information travels with a lead, in what format, and what happens to the ones that are interested but not ready — which is usually the largest group and the most wasted.

Recycling and nurture

Leads sales rejects going back to marketing rather than dying. In most organisations this path does not exist and the leads simply stop.

Joint reporting rhythm

One meeting, one set of numbers, a standing agenda. Sounds trivial and it is what makes the rest hold.

Technology

What we build alignment with

Mostly process. The tooling exists already in almost every case.

CRM

Where the loop closes.

  • HubSpot
  • Salesforce
  • Pipedrive
  • Zoho

Definitions

The actual deliverable.

  • Written lead definition
  • Service level agreement
  • Lifecycle stage criteria
  • Disqualification rules

Measurement

One report, both teams.

  • Speed-to-lead tracking
  • Cost per qualified lead
  • Cost per customer by source
  • Looker Studio

Process

So it survives month three.

  • Handover specification
  • Recycling and nurture paths
  • Joint reporting rhythm
  • Escalation for disputes

How we work

How alignment work runs

One workshop, one document, one dashboard, then a rhythm.

Both teams, one room

What qualifies, what disqualifies, and what happens to the middle. Written down and signed by both sides. This session is the engagement and everything else implements it.

  • Both teams in the same room
  • Qualification and disqualification written
  • Signed by both leaders
  • The 'interested but not ready' path defined

Commitments in both directions

What marketing delivers and to what standard. What sales does with it and how fast. Both measured, both reported. An SLA in one direction only is a target, not an agreement.

  • Volume and quality commitments from marketing
  • Response time commitments from sales
  • Both measured and reported
  • Consequences for missing agreed on both sides

Technically

Outcome data flowing back to marketing, speed-to-lead instrumented, one shared dashboard built. This is the part that requires CRM work rather than agreement.

  • Closed-loop outcome reporting built
  • Speed to first contact instrumented
  • One dashboard for both teams
  • Source attribution verified end to end

And revisit the definition

One monthly meeting with one set of numbers. The lead definition revisited quarterly, because what qualifies changes as the business does.

  • One meeting, one set of numbers
  • Standing agenda around the shared dashboard
  • Definition revisited quarterly
  • Disputes escalated rather than left

Why us

Why the argument stops

Because it is a definitional problem far more often than a performance one.

One written definition, signed by both

Almost every version of this argument dissolves once qualification is written down and agreed. It takes an afternoon and it is skipped everywhere.

The SLA runs both ways

Marketing commits on quality, sales commits on speed. An agreement that only binds one side is a target with a nicer name.

One dashboard, both teams

Cost per qualified lead and cost per customer by source. Two separate reports is the mechanism that keeps the disagreement alive.

Speed to lead gets measured

It is one of the strongest conversion levers available and it is usually nobody's responsibility, so nobody has ever looked at the number.

Start a projectAsk both teams to write down what a qualified lead is, separately, and compare. That exercise takes ten minutes and usually makes the case on its own.

Industries

Proven results across sectors

Every number below is the count of case studies we have actually published in that sector, and the best result among them. Nothing is a counter.

Selected work

Sales and CRM work we have shipped

Where this sits

The rest of sales consulting

Alignment sits between the marketing programmes and the sales systems.

Client stories

What clients say

On camera and in writing — swipe through the founders and teams we’ve helped design, build and grow.

In their words

★★★★★
GMC is thrilled to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Adnika! Collaborating with Ehsan and his team has consistently been an absolute delight. Ehsan's dedication and commitment have ensured that German Medical Center remains an exceedingly satisfied and happy client, especially regarding their Hubspot Onboarding, Digital Marketing, Website Development, Content Creation and Social Media Marketing. Adnika is indeed the Best Digital and Growth Marketing Agency in UAE!
German Medical CenterDubai, UAE
★★★★★
Adnika provided us with their Inbound Sales and Marketing solutions through Hubspot. They helped us generate more qualified leads for our sales team, drive website traffic, increase customer engagement, and grow our customer base. Adnika is a reliable partner that has always taken our specific goals and needs seriously.
Ómar Thor ÓmarssonCMO, Meniga
★★★★★
Adnika has helped us plan, implement and optimize ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. Adnika is truly committed to Performance Marketing. They provided us with a fantastic dashboard with detailed KPIs that helped us track the campaigns’ performance in real time. Adnika also gave us helpful and dedicated support during the whole project, and the campaigns turned out to be a great success. We highly recommend working with Adnika's growth experts.
Christer PihlqvistKapi Marketing
★★★★★
We really enjoyed working with Adnika’s team. Not only are they talented, but they all take the time to understand whom they're working with, what they're trying to accomplish, and how to help the business achieve its goals. The quality of work we've experienced has made a huge difference for us and helped drive new business.
Ola BringleMarketing Advertising
★★★★★
Adnika helped Sea Technology with setting up new digital channels, such as Google Search Ads, to attract more customers and leverage our brand. We are very satisfied with the results and we will continue with the implementation of lead generation, marketing automation, and performance marketing.
Bengt LundquistSeatech
★★★★★
Working with the Adnika team has been a real pleasure! Extremely friendly, Ehsan and Elin are always available with prompt replies, valuable insights, patience, a problem-solving attitude, and high knowledge. Super easy to work with them. I highly recommend the Adnika team to help your business!
Magnus BruhnPharmaceuticals
★★★★★
I am an artist, but I also manage a collective of DJs. In order to promote our services to our clients, we needed Inbound solutions that could attract the right traffic and promote the brand. Adnika built and designed our Inbound processes as well as create and manage campaigns on social media and Google Ads which helped us attract many more customers. I’m very happy!
Denise LopezXOXO Agency
★★★★★
We've been using Adnika growth marketing solutions only for a few months. They are highly professional, competent, experienced, and creative. Get ready to get to work with this agency. They will come alongside you as a business owner and feel your pain and joy! Get ready to transform your business.
Pierre-Alexande RauxTelecommunications

Questions

Sales and marketing alignment, answered plainly

Including the sales frameworks people ask about that are not really frameworks.

AED 15,000 to AED 60,000 covers most of what we are asked to build. The number moves on how many teams and regions are involved, whether closed-loop reporting needs building in the CRM, and whether ongoing facilitation is included. Anything quoted before those are known is a guess. We scope first, then price, and the scope document is yours whether or not you proceed. These are market ranges rather than a fixed rate card — the proposal carries the real figure.

Four things, in order. Write down one definition of a qualified lead that both teams sign. Agree a service level that binds both sides — quality from marketing, response speed from sales. Close the loop technically so outcome data reaches marketing. Then run one meeting with one set of numbers. The first of those four resolves most of the argument on its own.

The workshop is the start and it is not the deliverable. Without the closed-loop reporting built in the CRM afterwards, everyone agrees in the room and reverts within a quarter, because marketing still cannot see which campaigns produced customers.

Being straight: this is not an established sales framework. Several articles define it in incompatible ways — three prospects a day, three touches, three minutes of research — and it appears in search suggestions because content sites wrote about it rather than because sales teams use it. If someone quotes it at you, ask which version they mean and where it comes from.

Another one worth treating carefully. There is no single agreed set, and different trainers offer different lists. The recurring useful ideas underneath are qualifying properly, understanding the customer's actual situation, and being clear about the next step. Those are worth doing; the acronym is not a standard.

Whoever owns the marketing number and whoever owns the sales number, plus one person from each team who does the day-to-day work. Four to six people. It does not work with marketing alone and it does not work delegated downwards.

The workshop and the written definitions are two to three weeks including drafting and sign-off. The closed-loop reporting depends on your CRM state and typically adds two to four weeks.

Then start with the numbers rather than the relationship. In most cases the hostility is downstream of both teams being measured on things that conflict, and it eases considerably once they share a definition and a report. Where it does not, that is a management issue and we will say so rather than facilitating around it.

Speed to first contact, the proportion of marketing leads that sales accepts, and cost per customer by source. The second one is the clearest single indicator and almost nobody tracks it before this work.

Minutes rather than hours for inbound enquiries, and the drop-off after the first hour is steep. The first step is usually just measuring it, because most teams considerably underestimate their own current time.

Yes, and it is common. This is process and systems work. We do it for clients whose campaigns run elsewhere, and we work with their existing agency on the definitions.

No questions match — try another search.

Next step

Ask both teams to define a qualified lead, separately.

Then compare the two answers. That ten-minute exercise usually shows exactly where the four hundred leads went.

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