Setting up closed loop reporting allows you to track your key marketing and sales metrics in order to identify what marketing programs are contributing to leads, opportunities and sales. The reporting system consists of two main components: marketing software, for lead generation and advanced analytics, and a CRM (customer relationship management) system, to track and measure sales activities.

When a marketing software platform and CRM system are integrated, the two are able to share data from every lead, beginning with the original source of the lead and ending with the close. This enables you to develop reports showing close rates and new customers from leads generated through marketing. For this reason, many marketing software platforms are automatically integrated with popular CRM systems.

 
Successful Smarketing requires your sales and marketing team to work together by using the same definitions and sharing the same goals. One important aspect in this regard is developing a unified picture of the funnel including the terminology you use for each stage.

How to Define Your Funnel Stages

One of the easiest ways to define funnel stages is to adopt a common terminology such as the following: 

 

• Visits
• Leads (or Information qualified leads)
• Marketing qualified leads
• Sales qualified leads
• Opportunities 
• Customers