Chapter 8 of 12

Deep Dive: The Marketing & Sales Handshake

Aligning "Air Cover" with "Ground Troops" through lead handover protocols and sales enablement.

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What You'll Learn By the end of this chapter, you'll align your "Air Cover" (Marketing) with "Ground Troops" (Sales), create "Battle Cards" that kill competitors, and solve the Pricing Transparency problem.

The Disconnect: Why Leads Die

Marketing celebrates "1,000 Leads!" Sales complains "They are all junk!" This friction kills velocity.

The Feedback Loop

Sales must tell Marketing why a lead was junk (e.g., "Wrong industry," "No budget"). Marketing must use this data to adjust ad targeting in real-time. Weekly Syncs are mandatory during launch month.

Lead Handover SLA: The Rules of Engagement

Define exactly when and how Marketing hands leads to Sales. Ambiguity kills deals.

Lead Type Definition Owner Response SLA
MQL (Marketing Qualified) Downloaded asset, attended webinar, high fit score Marketing (nurture) Add to sequence within 24h
SQL (Sales Qualified) Requested demo, pricing page visit, high intent signal Sales (SDR) First touch within 5 minutes
PQL (Product Qualified) Activated in trial, hit usage threshold Sales (AE) Personalized outreach within 1 hour
Hand-Raiser Explicitly requested contact ("Talk to Sales") Sales (AE) Call within 5 minutes
The 5-Minute Rule

Response time matters more than anything else. A lead contacted within 5 minutes is 21x more likely to qualify than one contacted after 30 minutes. During launch week, have SDRs on standby with CRM notifications on their phones.

Lead Scoring Framework

Not all leads are equal. Score them objectively so Sales prioritizes correctly.

Fit Score (Who They Are)

Demographic/firmographic match:

  • +20: Target industry
  • +15: Company size match (e.g., 50-500 employees)
  • +10: Job title is decision-maker
  • +5: Geography in target market
  • -10: Student/personal email

Intent Score (What They Do)

Behavioral engagement signals:

  • +25: Requested demo
  • +20: Visited pricing page 2+ times
  • +15: Downloaded case study
  • +10: Opened 3+ emails
  • +5: Visited blog 5+ times

Scoring Thresholds

Total Score = Fit + Intent. Route to Sales when total exceeds threshold:
Score >50: SQL (route immediately) | Score 30-50: MQL (nurture first) | Score <30: Cold (keep in marketing funnel)

Sales Enablement: Weapons for the Frontline

Sales cannot sell what they don't understand. Can your AE explain the new feature in 30 seconds?

Battle Cards

One-page cheat sheets for killing competitors. Hosted in your CRM.

  • Landmine: "Ask them how they handle [Competitor's Weakness]."
  • Shield: "If they mention [Our Weakness], pivot to [Our Strength]."

The "Perfect" Demo

Never demo on production. Build a "Golden Demo" environment:

  • Pre-filled Data: Charts look beautiful.
  • Reset Script: Resets every night.
  • No Errors: It must be flawless.

Pricing Transparency

The Pricing Gap

Worst case scenario: Marketing updates the pricing page to $99/mo, but Sales is still quoting $199/mo. Rule: Sales gets the Pricing Sheet 48 hours before the website update.

The Launch Week Sync Cadence

During launch week, the normal weekly sync isn't enough. Increase frequency to catch misalignment early.

Meeting Frequency Attendees Agenda
Lead Quality Standup Daily (15 min) Marketing Lead + SDR Manager Lead volume, quality issues, targeting tweaks
Funnel Review Daily (30 min) VP Marketing + VP Sales Conversion rates, stuck deals, messaging gaps
Win/Loss Debrief End of Week 1 Full GTM team What worked, what didn't, adjustments for Week 2

Objection Handling Library

During launch, Sales will hear the same objections repeatedly. Arm them with responses.

"It's too expensive"

Response: "I understand. What's the cost of NOT solving this problem? Let me show you the ROI other customers have achieved..."

"We use [Competitor]"

Response: "Great! Many of our customers switched from [Competitor]. They found we do [Key Differentiator] better. Would you like to see a comparison?"

"We need to think about it"

Response: "Absolutely. What specific concerns do you need to resolve? I want to make sure I give you the information you need to make a decision."

"I need to get buy-in from..."

Response: "Who else needs to be involved? Can I join you in that conversation? I'd love to address their questions directly."

Lead Recycling Protocol

Not every lead converts on the first pass. Define what happens to leads that stall.

Recycle Rules

Back to Marketing (Nurture):

  • No response after 5 touch attempts
  • "Not ready to buy" - timeline >6 months
  • Budget not approved this quarter

Disqualify (Remove):

  • Wrong industry / company size
  • Competitor / investor / job seeker
  • Bounced email / bad contact info

Attribution Agreement

Define upfront how credit is assigned. This prevents "Marketing vs Sales" finger-pointing.

The Attribution Model

Choose one model and stick to it:

  • First Touch: Credit to the channel that first acquired the lead (benefits Marketing)
  • Last Touch: Credit to the final touchpoint before conversion (benefits Sales)
  • Multi-Touch (Recommended): Split credit across all touchpoints (requires proper tooling)

Pro Tip: During launch, use First Touch for new leads and Last Touch for expansion revenue. Review model quarterly.

Equip Your Team

Generate Battle Cards and verify lead routing logic with our toolset.

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Works Cited & Recommended Reading
Lean Startup Methodology
Launch Readiness & Strategy
  • 3. "Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of a Product Launch." Pragmatic Institute
  • 4. "I Launched a SaaS and Failed - Here's What I Learned." Reddit
  • 5. "SaaS Product Development Checklist: From Idea to Launch." Dev.Pro
  • 6. "10 Biggest SaaS Challenges: How to Protect Your Business." Userpilot
Metrics & KPIs
  • 7. "The Essential Guide to Product Launch Metrics." Gainsight
  • 8. "Product launch plan template for SaaS and B2B marketing teams." Understory Agency
  • 9. "SaaS Metrics Dashboard Examples and When to Use Them." UXCam
  • 10. "B2B SaaS Product Launch Checklist 2025: No-Fluff & AI-Ready." GTM Buddy
  • 11. "The Pre-Launch Metrics Imperative." Venture for All
  • 12. "Average Resolution Time | KPI example." Geckoboard
  • 13. "Burn rate is a better error rate." Datadog
Stakeholder Alignment
  • 14. "Coordinate product launches with internal stakeholders." Product Marketing Alliance
  • 15. "Comprehensive SaaS Product Readiness Checklist." Default
  • 16. "Launching with stakeholders - Open-source product playbook." Coda
  • 17. "Product launch checklist: How to ensure a successful launch." Atlassian
Launch Checklists & Process
Runbooks & Execution
  • 20. "Runbook Example: A Best Practices Guide." Nobl9
  • 21. "10 Steps for a Successful SaaS Product Launch Day." Scenic West Design
  • 22. "SaaS Outages: When Lightning Strikes, Thunder Rolls." Forrester
  • 23. "Developer-Friendly Runbooks: A Guide." Medium
  • 24. "Your Essential Product Launch Checklist Template." VeryCreatives
  • 25. "87-Action-Item Product Launch Checklist." Ignition
Press Kits & Marketing Assets
  • 26. "How to Build a SaaS Media Kit for Your Brand." Webstacks
  • 27. "Press Kit: What It Is, Templates & 10+ Examples For 2025." Prezly
  • 28. "How I Won #1 Product of The Day on Product Hunt." Microns.io
Messaging Frameworks
  • 29. "Product messaging: Guide to frameworks, strategy, and examples." PMA
  • 30. "Product Messaging Framework: A Guide for Ambitious PMMs." Product School
Runbook Templates & Automation
Dashboards & Real-Time Monitoring
  • 39. "8 SaaS Dashboard Examples to Track Key Metrics." Userpilot
  • 40. "Real-time dashboards: are they worth it?" Tinybird
  • 41. "Incident Management - MTBF, MTTR, MTTA, and MTTF." Atlassian
  • 42. "SaaS Metrics Dashboard: Your Revenue Command Center." Rework
  • 43. "12 product adoption metrics to track for success." Appcues
Crisis Communication
  • 44. "How to Create a Crisis Communication Plan." Everbridge
  • 45. "10 Crisis Communication Templates for Every Agency Owner." CoSchedule
  • 46. "Your Complete Crisis Communication Plan Template." Ready Response
  • 47. "Crisis communications: What it is and examples brands can learn from." Sprout Social
Retrospectives & Learning
  • 48. "What the 'Lean Startup' didn't tell me - 3 iterations in." Reddit
  • 49. "Does Your Product Launch Strategy Include Retrospectives?" UserVoice
  • 50. "Retrospective Templates for Efficient Team Meetings." Miro
  • 51. "50+ Retrospective Questions for your Next Meeting." Parabol
  • 52. "Quick Wins for Product Managers." Medium
  • 53. "Showcase Early Wins for Successful Product Adoption." Profit.co
Observability & Tooling
  • 54. "The Lean Startup Method 101: The Essential Ideas." Lean Startup Co
  • 55. "Grafana: The open and composable observability platform." Grafana Labs
  • 56. "The essential product launch checklist for SaaS companies | 2025." Orb Billing

This playbook synthesizes methodologies from DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Incident Command System (ICS), and modern product management practices. References are provided for deeper exploration of each topic.