Cross-Functional Collaboration Plan

Exercise Overview

This exercise asks you to draft a cross-functional collaboration plan for your own organization (or a realistic hypothetical if you're not currently at a company where this applies).

The plan doesn't need to be long. It needs to be specific, honest, and actionable. A one-page collaboration plan that both Marketing and Sales have agreed on is worth more than a 20-page alignment document that lives in a shared drive no one opens.

Estimated time: 45 minutes for the initial draft. Plan for a follow-up conversation with at least one colleague from another function to pressure-test it.

Part 1: Workflow Map (15 minutes)

Draw or document the current state of your GTM workflow across the four functions. Be honest about how it actually works, not how the org chart says it should work.

For each of the following handoffs, describe what currently happens and identify one specific point of friction:

Marketing → Sales handoff

What is the current definition of an MQL? Is it written down and agreed on by both teams, or does everyone have a slightly different mental model?
How does a lead move from Marketing to Sales? What's the trigger? Who sees it? How fast is the follow-up?
Identify one friction point: a moment where something regularly falls through the cracks, or where the two teams disagree.

Sales → CS handoff

What information does CS receive when a deal closes? How does it get to them?
Is there a handoff document? A warm introduction? A kickoff meeting?
Identify one friction point.

CS → Product feedback

How does product feedback from customers reach the product team? Is there a structured channel, or does it happen ad hoc?
How quickly does product feedback result in visible action?
Identify one friction point.

Product → GTM teams (launch readiness)

How does Marketing, Sales, and CS learn about upcoming product releases?
How much lead time do they typically get?
Identify one friction point.

Part 2: The SLA Draft (15 minutes)

Write a first draft of a Marketing-Sales SLA for your org. Use the following template:

MQL Definition

A lead qualifies as an MQL when it meets ALL of the following criteria:

Firmographic fit: [define company size, industry, or other criteria]
Behavioral signal: [define minimum score, page visits, content downloads, etc.]
Contact fit: [define job title or seniority threshold]

SQL Qualification Criteria

Sales accepts an MQL as a SQL after confirming:

[Your qualification framework — BANT, MEDDIC, SPICED, or your own]

Follow-Up SLA

Marketing commits to: [X MQLs per month, with a quality threshold of X% conversion to SQL over rolling 90 days]
Sales commits to: [first outreach within X hours, CRM logging of every attempt, documented disposition for all rejected MQLs within X business days]

Escalation Process

When Marketing and Sales disagree on lead quality or SLA compliance, the issue is escalated to: [name the person or role], who resolves it within [timeframe].

Review Cadence

This SLA is reviewed on: [monthly / quarterly] by: [VP Marketing and VP Sales, or equivalent roles].

Part 3: Feedback Loop Design (10 minutes)

Choose the feedback loop in your org that is most broken or most absent. Design a minimum viable version of it:

Which loop: [Win/Loss → Marketing, CS → Product, Sales → Marketing, CS → Marketing, or another]

What currently happens: [Be honest. "Nothing structured" is a valid answer.]

What you're proposing:

Owner: Who runs this loop? (One person, not a team)
Cadence: When does it happen? (Weekly, monthly, quarterly)
Format: What does it look like? (A Notion page, a 30-minute meeting, a Slack message, a CRM field)
How is it acted on: Who receives the output? What do they do with it? How is the response communicated back to the source?

Part 4: Shared Metrics Proposal (5 minutes)

Propose 3 shared metrics for your GTM org. For each one:

Metric name and definition
Current value (if you know it) or your best estimate
Target for next quarter
Who owns it (the primary function accountable for moving it)
What all four functions would need to do differently to hit the target

Deliverable

Your collaboration plan should be a single document that combines the outputs of all four parts above. It doesn't have to be polished. It has to be specific.

Once you have a draft, share it with one person from a different function and ask them two questions:

Does anything in this plan surprise you or seem unrealistic?
What's missing that would make this actually useful for your team?

Revise based on their input. That revision is the real exercise.

📌 Capstone Connection

Your collaboration plan draft from this exercise becomes Section 9 of your Module 22 Annual Growth Marketing Plan. Specifically, the SLA draft, the feedback loop design, and the shared metrics proposal map directly to the cross-functional alignment section of the capstone. Save your work.