What does a sales and marketing service-level agreement (SLA) require sales to do?
- Contact a certain percentage of the leads marketing generates.
- Contact the leads marketing generates within a certain timeframe.
- Close a certain number of deals.
- Nothing — the SLA outlines the service marketing will provide to sales.
Explanation: The correct answer is: Provide sales with a certain number of qualified leads. A sales and marketing service-level agreement (SLA) establishes a mutually agreed-upon set of commitments and expectations between the sales and marketing departments. One of the primary responsibilities outlined in the SLA is for marketing to provide sales with a specified quantity of qualified leads. These leads typically meet predefined criteria indicating their readiness to engage with the sales team and potentially make a purchase. By delivering a steady stream of qualified leads to the sales department, marketing facilitates the sales process, ensuring that sales representatives have a consistent pipeline of potential customers to engage with and nurture towards conversion. This option accurately identifies one of the key requirements of a sales and marketing SLA, highlighting the importance of marketing’s role in generating and qualifying leads to support sales objectives. The other options are incorrect: ‘Produce a certain amount of content’ pertains to a specific marketing activity rather than the overarching responsibilities outlined in an SLA. ‘Attract a certain number of visitors’ focuses solely on website traffic generation and does not directly relate to the collaborative agreement between sales and marketing. ‘Nothing — the SLA outlines the service sales will provide to marketing’ is incorrect as it misrepresents the nature of an SLA, which typically involves mutual commitments and expectations between both departments. Therefore, the most accurate requirement outlined in a sales and marketing SLA is for marketing to provide sales with a certain number of qualified leads to support the sales process and drive revenue generation efforts.
