A RevOps SLA is a written, two-sided agreement that sets out what marketing owes sales and what sales owes marketing at the handoff — typically the quality and volume of leads marketing delivers, and the speed and depth with which sales works them. It turns “work together” from a hope into a contract.
What it covers
A good SLA is specific on both sides. Marketing commits to a defined number of qualified leads that meet an agreed definition. Sales commits to working every one within a set time — say, first touch within an hour during business hours — and to a minimum number of follow-up attempts before a lead is closed out.
Crucially, it’s mutual. A one-sided SLA where only sales is held to a standard fails, because marketing’s incentive to protect lead quality disappears.
Why it matters
The handoff is the highest-risk point in the funnel because ownership changes hands. An SLA makes the expectations at that moment explicit, so leads don’t fall into the gap between “marketing’s done” and “sales hasn’t started”. Without one, follow-up runs on goodwill, and goodwill is the first thing to go in a hard quarter.
The SLA also gives you something to measure. When you can report “sales worked 82% of leads within the hour and marketing hit 94% of the quality bar”, the monthly funnel meeting stops being about blame and starts being about a number you can move.
The common mistake
Writing an SLA and never measuring it. An unmeasured SLA is a document, not an agreement — it changes nothing. The value is in the reporting that holds both sides to it, reviewed regularly enough that drift gets caught early.
The other common failure is setting the numbers without the data to support them. Base the follow-up window and quality bar on what your funnel actually shows, not on a benchmark you read somewhere.
Related reading
See sales and marketing alignment and lead routing SLA benchmarks.
More in Insights.