Outbound Lead Generation Team Reporting Structures: Option #3
November 30, 2012
Rounding out my series on outbound lead generation team reporting structures, in this post I will examine what it looks like when lead gen reports to marketing.
Structure 3: In this reporting structure the lead generation team manager reports to the VP of marketing, and the lead generation representatives report directly to the lead generation team manager.
This reporting structure is very similar to Structure 1, except rather than reporting to sales the lead gen team reports up to marketing. While there is a clear distinction between structure and goals, this organizational structure would make sense for organizations in which marketing is accountable for a larger share of the total pipeline.
This structure is closely aligned with marketing, and is most conducive to collaboration between the lead generation team and the marketing team. As a result, this is a great way to bridge the gap between sales and marketing.
This approach is typically more effective when dealing with a higher volume of lower value opportunities, because those typically require less coordination in the hand-off of qualified leads from marketing to sales.
However, it’s imperative when utilizing this approach that you be absolutely clear on what the role of the team is. It is easy to fall into the trap of using a trained lead gen team as an engine to drive traffic to events and webinars. That’s not a bad thing as long as they are leveraging those events as tools to get into new accounts — and not just driving traffic.
While the image above for Structure 3 does not show dotted-line management to the sales reps, you could add that to this structure in order to improve collaboration between the lead generation team and the sales reps that they are supporting.
To recap, here are the previous posts in the series:
- Introduction: Should Outbound Lead Generation Teams Report to Marketing or Sales?
- Structure #1: The Lead Gen Team Manager Reports to the VP of Sales
- Structure #2: Lead Gen Reps Report Directly to the Sales Manager(s)
Which structure is your organization utilizing? Are there any alternative structures I’ve left out?