Managing the Handoffs Between Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success

Short answer: The handoffs between marketing, sales, and customer success are where things fall through the cracks - leads lost between marketing and sales, or customers dropped between sales and customer success. To manage them well, define clear criteria for when a handoff happens, ensure information transfers with the handoff, establish responsibility on both sides, and create shared visibility. Good handoffs ensure prospects and customers flow smoothly between functions rather than being lost in the gaps.

Handoffs are where things fall apart

The revenue journey passes through multiple functions - marketing to sales to customer success - and the handoffs between them are where things fall through the cracks. Leads get lost between marketing and sales; customers get dropped between sales and customer success. Managing these handoffs well ensures smooth flow rather than lost prospects and customers. For a business in your area, good handoff management prevents the losses that broken handoffs cause. Here's how to manage the handoffs between marketing, sales, and customer success.

Why handoffs are failure points

Handoffs are failure points because they're where responsibility passes between functions, and things get lost in the transfer. When a lead passes from marketing to sales, or a customer from sales to customer success, there's a moment where it could fall through the cracks - if the handoff is unclear, information is lost, or neither side takes responsibility. These transfer points are inherently risky.

Understanding handoffs as failure points clarifies why managing them matters. The gaps between functions are where prospects and customers are lost - not because of the functions themselves, but because of the transfers between them. Poorly managed handoffs mean leads and customers fall through the cracks, wasting the work of the functions. Recognizing handoffs as risky transfer points is the first step to managing them so nothing is lost. Handoffs are where the gaps between functions create risk.

Define clear handoff criteria

Managing handoffs requires clear criteria for when a handoff happens:

• When a lead is ready to pass from marketing to sales.
• When a customer passes from sales to customer success.
• Defined, agreed criteria for each handoff.
• Clarity on what triggers the handoff.
• Shared understanding of when to hand off.

Clear handoff criteria ensure handoffs happen at the right time, consistently. When both sides agree on what triggers a handoff - when a lead is sales-ready, when a customer is ready for customer success - the handoff happens smoothly and consistently. Without clear criteria, handoffs are inconsistent and things fall through the cracks. Defining clear, agreed criteria for each handoff is foundational to managing them well, ensuring they happen at the right time. Clear criteria make handoffs consistent.

Transfer information and establish responsibility

Managing handoffs requires transferring information and establishing responsibility on both sides. When a handoff happens, the relevant information - about the lead or customer - must transfer, so the receiving function has what it needs. And both sides must take responsibility: the handing-off side to hand off properly, the receiving side to pick up. This ensures nothing is dropped.

These matter because handoffs fail when information is lost or responsibility is unclear. If the receiving function doesn't get the information it needs, it starts blind; if neither side takes responsibility, the handoff falls through the cracks. Ensuring information transfers with the handoff, and that both sides take clear responsibility, closes these gaps. Managing the information transfer and responsibility at each handoff is essential to smooth handoffs, ensuring the receiving function is equipped and the transfer is owned. Transfer information and assign responsibility.

Create shared visibility

Managing handoffs benefits from shared visibility - common data and systems that let all functions see the handoffs and the leads and customers moving through them. Shared visibility ensures handoffs are transparent, tracked, and not lost, with all functions able to see the state of prospects and customers. This visibility supports smooth handoffs.

For a business in your area, managing the handoffs between marketing, sales, and customer success means defining clear handoff criteria, transferring information and establishing responsibility, and creating shared visibility. Good handoffs ensure prospects and customers flow smoothly between functions rather than being lost in the gaps. Since handoffs are where things fall through the cracks, managing them well prevents the losses that broken handoffs cause. This handoff management is a core part of revenue operations, ensuring the revenue functions work as a coordinated system where nothing is lost in the transfers between them.

Frequently asked questions

Why are handoffs between revenue functions important?

Because they're where things fall through the cracks - leads lost between marketing and sales, or customers dropped between sales and customer success. Handoffs are where responsibility passes between functions, and things get lost in the transfer if the handoff is unclear, information is lost, or neither side takes responsibility. Managing them prevents these losses.

How do I manage handoffs between functions?

Define clear criteria for when a handoff happens, ensure information transfers with the handoff, establish responsibility on both sides, and create shared visibility. Good handoffs ensure prospects and customers flow smoothly between functions rather than being lost in the gaps where responsibility passes from one function to another.

Why do handoffs fail?

Because they're risky transfer points where things get lost - if the handoff criteria are unclear, if information isn't transferred so the receiving function starts blind, or if neither side takes responsibility so the lead or customer falls through the cracks. Poorly managed handoffs waste the work of the functions by losing prospects and customers in the gaps between them.

What makes a good handoff?

Clear, agreed criteria for when the handoff happens; complete information transferring with the handoff so the receiving function is equipped; clear responsibility on both sides so the transfer is owned; and shared visibility so the handoff is transparent and tracked. These ensure prospects and customers flow smoothly between functions rather than being lost in the transfer.

Related reading

• Revenue Operations
• How to Align Sales and Marketing Around Shared Goals
• How Sales and Marketing Misalignment Costs You Money