Marketing to sales SLA development · Marketing
Write down exactly how fast sales must call a lead marketing hands over.
The moment a lead moves from marketing to sales is where many enquiries quietly go missing. This is not because either team is careless, but because nobody has agreed exactly what should happen at that moment. Marketing assumes a lead will be called quickly; sales assumes marketing will only send genuinely ready buyers.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A marketing to sales service level agreement (SLA) is a written, specific agreement on what counts as a qualified lead. It also states how quickly sales must contact it, and what happens if they do not. GullySales writes this agreement with both teams and checks it is actually being followed, rather than leaving the handover as an unspoken assumption.
We write a specific agreement. It covers what marketing must deliver for a lead to count as qualified. It also states how fast sales must make contact, and what happens when either side does not hold up their end.
This follows naturally from integrated sales and marketing consulting, which diagnoses where the handover breaks down. This service is the specific written output: a short, working agreement both teams actually use.
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“A lead is marked qualified and still waits days for a call”
Marketing hands over an interested enquiry, and it sits in a queue because no specific response time has ever been agreed.
“There is no shared definition of a lead sales should accept”
Marketing and sales each have their own private idea of what makes a lead worth calling, and disagreements only surface after a lead has already gone cold.
“Marketing and sales blame each other for a lost deal”
A deal falls through, and without an agreement to check against, each side assumes the other was responsible.
“Nothing happens when a lead is not followed up in time”
A late response has no consequence or even visibility, so the same delay repeats month after month.
What we do
Everything that is included.
Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.
Lead qualification definition
A specific, written standard for what marketing must confirm before a lead is handed to sales.
Response time agreement
A defined, realistic time within which sales must make first contact after a lead is received.
Escalation rule
What happens if a lead is not contacted in time, so a missed handover does not simply disappear unnoticed.
CRM alignment
The agreement built into how leads are actually flagged and tracked in your CRM, not left as a separate document nobody opens.
Compliance check
A report on how often the agreement was actually met by both sides, not just whether it exists on paper.
How the result is measured
- Average time from lead handover to first sales contact
- Leads meeting the agreed qualification standard
- Compliance with the response time agreement
- Deals lost at the handover stage
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- Businesses with separate marketing and sales functions handling their own definition of a good lead
- Companies where leads are qualified by marketing and then wait too long for a sales response
- Owners tired of marketing and sales blaming each other for lost opportunities
- Businesses scaling their sales team and wanting a clear standard set before it grows further
- Teams that already use a CRM but have no formal handover rule built into it
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- Solo operators who handle both marketing and sales personally, with no handover to define
- Businesses unwilling to hold either team accountable to a written standard once it exists
- Very early-stage businesses with too few leads yet for a formal agreement to matter
How it works
From your first message to the first report.
No open-ended retainer. Every step gives you something in writing.
First
Your brief
You tell us what you need in a few short steps: your business, what you want, where enquiries come from and how they are handled.
After the brief
A conversation and a written scope
We read it, then talk with whoever handles your enquiries. If you want our help, the scope, the fee and the reporting come in writing, and nothing starts before you have read them.
Before work starts
Baseline recorded
The numbers this work is meant to move, such as enquiries, quotations, orders, visits or renewals, written down so every later report has an honest comparison.
After the baseline
The first fix goes live
The fix we agreed to start with is put in place and measured against the baseline, whether that is a reply, a follow-up, a page, a listing or the handover between marketing and sales.
As agreed
Report against the baseline
What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words. How often you get it is set in writing before work starts.
At renewal
Renew on the numbers
The term ends and you decide whether to continue from the results. The length is agreed in writing before anything starts.
How the work runs
- 1
Understand both teams' expectations
We talk to marketing and sales separately to understand what each currently expects from the other.
- 2
Audit the current handover
We check how leads currently move from marketing to sales and where the actual delays happen.
- 3
Draft the agreement
A specific lead definition, response time and escalation rule are drafted and reviewed by both teams.
- 4
Implement in the CRM
The agreement is built into your CRM's fields and flags, so it is enforced by the system, not memory.
- 5
Measure compliance
We report on how often the agreement was actually met, and adjust it if it proves unrealistic.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Engagement options
Ways to work with us.
Pick the size of commitment that fits. Every option starts with your brief and a conversation.
Option 1
The conversation on its own
A call after you send your brief. It says honestly whether you need outside help, and many fixes are ones your own team can make.
Option 2
One fix, scoped
Start with the fix that matters most, such as reply time or follow-up. The fee is in writing before anything starts.
Option 3
An ongoing programme
We run the work, report against the baseline, and you renew on the numbers. The term and the reporting are agreed in writing first.
Option 4
Guidance for your own team or agency
We plan, brief and check the work of your in-house team or current agency, instead of replacing them.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
What is a realistic response time to agree?
What if sales does not think a lead is qualified?
How is this different from integrated sales and marketing consulting?
How is this priced?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
By industry
Marketing to sales SLA development, written for your industry.
Related services
Often bought with this, or instead of it.
Read before you buy
- How marketing and sales teams can work togetherMarketing and sales work together when they agree on what a lead is, hand over on one page, share the same numbers and look at lost enquiries together.
- Marketing, sales and business development: who does what in a firm of tenMarketing brings enquiries, sales turns them into orders, business development opens new markets and partners. Here is how to give each job an owner in a ten-person firm.
- What is the difference between marketing and sales, and who owns the enquiry?Marketing earns the enquiry and sales answers it. The line between them is the first reply, and an enquiry nobody has replied to belongs to nobody. A rule for settling who holds it at each stage.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.