Sharing Data: Why It’s Crucial To A Successful Agency Partnership

You wouldn’t visit a tailor and request a custom-made suit without providing measurements, would you? So why would you approach an agency in search of better lead generation without sharing data? In short, you wouldn’t. Yet this happens all the time—to the detriment of an otherwise fruitful agency partnership. Just as it’s impossible to make a suit fit perfectly without measurements, it’s difficult for agencies to deliver qualified sales leads without access to critical data. Meaningful lead generation is only possible when an agency can build, execute, and monitor the right plan for your company. If you don’t grant an agency access to sales data, prospect databases, sales calls, follow-up reports, and other crucial information, you’ll never get a tailor-made solution. The Right Data Makes A Difference Right now, agencies and CMOs are under incredible pressure to leverage their marketing dollars to deliver leads. This is happening for a few reasons. First and foremost, they know that 79% of marketing leads don’t convert into sales and that up to 50% of qualified leads aren’t ready to buy. Furthermore, layoffs during the recession created leaner sales teams that need more support from marketing to drive leads into the sales funnel. As a result, CMOs have to fight to grow or even maintain their marketing budgets. On top of that, to justify any marketing spend, CEOs demand data that shows marketing initiatives move the bottom line. That’s why it’s so important for clients to allow open access to their sales processes. This way, an agency can dig deeper into the sales funnel. The more it knows, the better results it can deliver. For example, one of the agencies I work with insists on having sales data, sales-cycle data, [...]