Service level agreement

A service level agreement (SLA) between marketing and sales is an internal contract that states what each team commits to deliver at the lead hand-off. It covers how many qualified leads marketing supplies, how fast sales follows up, and what happens when either side misses. It turns arguments about lead quality and follow-up into shared targets that both teams measure.

The term comes from vendor contracts. Pipeline CRM notes that an SLA traditionally set out what customers could expect from a provider. Between marketing and sales, the two teams are the parties instead.

How it is measured

An SLA pairs a marketing commitment with a sales commitment. In the example from Pipeline CRM, marketing commits to 100 qualified leads per month and sales agrees to follow up within 24 hours.

Each side then gets one ratio:

• Marketing attainment = qualified leads delivered / qualified leads committed
• Sales follow-up compliance = leads contacted inside the agreed window / leads handed off

Worked example

Under the Pipeline CRM commitment, the marketing denominator is 100 every month. The sales numerator counts only leads touched within 24 hours. A lead called on day three counts against sales, even if it later converts.

To set the lead commitment, start from the pipeline target and work backward with the reverse funnel calculator. Then check the conversion assumptions against funnel conversion benchmarks.

Feedback and escalation

The agreement needs a return path. In the Glue Up template, sales returns rejected leads with a reason: lead fit, interest or missing data. If targets are missed two months in a row, an escalation path triggers a departmental review. The same template suggests a quarterly review date.

Usual mistakes

• Treating the SLA as a one-time document. Glue Up describes it as something that should not be "a PDF tucked in a drawer."
• Committing to a lead volume before both teams agree on what "qualified" means.
• Rejecting leads without a reason, which leaves marketing nothing to fix.
• Ending the agreement at the sales hand-off when the revenue depends on what happens after the sale.

When it matters

It matters most when you own a pipeline number but not the follow-up. With an SLA, missed pipeline traces back to a specific broken commitment and a named owner.