Lean Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing

Lean Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing: Why It Matters

Sales funnels and campaigns lose speed and money when hand-offs drag and data is fuzzy. Lean removes wait steps; Six Sigma removes variation.

Conversions up 37 % — Betfair’s outbound calls jumped from 47.8 % to 65.5 % after a DMAIC revamp. – isixsigma.com
Productivity up 20 % — a Canadian municipality’s DMADV redesign for advertising eliminated extra approvals, saving $53 k a year. – isixsigma.com
Hard costs down 15 % — the same project cut print spend by $90 k right away. – isixsigma.com
Market share wins — Coca-Cola’s Six Sigma call-center overhaul helped sales grow at twice Pepsi’s pace post-crisis. – isixsigma.com

Lean Tools Every Sales & Marketing Team Can Use

Value-stream map lead-to-cash — expose idle queues between marketing, SDR, and sales.
Kanban for campaign tasks — visual boards throttle work-in-progress so launches flow.
5S your CRM fields — keep only data reps actually use; archive the rest.
Obeya wall — one board for targets, backlog, and daily blockers.

Six Sigma Methods for Sales & Marketing Metrics

Metric	What to Track	Why It Helps
Conversion rate	Opportunities ÷ qualified leads	Shows funnel health
Cycle time (lead response)	Minutes from inquiry to first contact	Faster replies drive win rates
Cost per acquisition	Campaign spend ÷ new customers	Flags wasteful channels
Return on marketing investment (ROMI)	Incremental profit ÷ spend	Validates budget

DMAIC gives each metric a fixed path: baseline ➜ root-cause ➜ pilot ➜ control.

Lean Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing: Quick Wins and Real Stats

Same-day follow-up after automating lead lists lifted Betfair conversions 37 %. isixsigma.com
Central creative brief cut duplicated review steps, raising marketing productivity 20 %. isixsigma.com
Standard FAQ scripts in a Six Sigma call-center reset halved repeat calls and drove post-launch sales past Pepsi. isixsigma.com

Lean Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing: Step-by-Step Start-Up

Pick one pain — e.g., slow lead response.
Map current flow — include every wait and rework.
Label each step — value-add, needed, waste; delete pure waste.
Baseline numbers — conversions, minutes, dollars.
Analyze causes — 5 Whys, Pareto, regression.
Pilot change — one campaign or region.
Control — dashboards, SOPs, weekly audits.

Wrap-Up

Lean Six Sigma in Sales & Marketing means faster lead handling, clearer data, lower spend, and higher close rates. Start with one metric, fix what the numbers show, lock the gain, and iterate.