You’ve launched a campaign, generated leads and now — nothing. The leads aren’t turning into sales. Sales says the leads aren’t good enough, marketing says sales didn’t follow up fast enough. Sound familiar? The real issue is your teams aren’t aligned.
With no sign of competition letting up, this disconnect means missed opportunities. To drive real revenue growth, sales and marketing need to work together.
Why sales and marketing misalignment hurts your business
Why silos exist
Silos between sales and marketing often stem from misaligned goals, disconnected tools and poor communication. Marketing focuses on lead generation and brand awareness, tracking metrics like web traffic and MQLs. Sales zeroes in on closing deals and revenue.
These different priorities and separate reporting structures naturally cause teams to work in isolation. Without shared data or common tools, it’s easy for both teams to play by different rules.
The real-world impact of misalignment
Misaligned teams directly impact revenue. Companies with strong sales and marketing alignment see 208% more revenue from marketing efforts. Without clear communication, leads fall through the cracks. Marketing might deliver leads, but sales doesn’t follow up fast enough or misses key insights like buyer personas or content performance. This leads to wasted time, lost revenue and poor customer experiences.
When sales and marketing aren’t aligned, the customer feels it too. Inconsistent messaging and poor handoffs confuse prospects and damage trust, making it harder to close deals.
Relatable examples
Picture this: marketing runs a successful campaign and generates plenty of leads. Weeks later, those leads are untouched. Sales says the leads weren’t ready, and marketing wonders why there was no follow-up. The issue? No shared definition of a “qualified lead.”
The solution is simple: collaboration and a shared lead scoring system. By agreeing on what qualifies a lead, both teams know exactly when it’s time for sales to engage. This alignment prevents missed opportunities and keeps everyone focused on the same goal.
Dig deeper: How to optimize sales and marketing processes for efficient customer acquisition
Shared metrics: A common ground for success
To create alignment, focus on shared metrics like pipeline growth and conversion rates. These metrics drive collaboration by showing both teams how their efforts contribute to business outcomes. When marketing sees how their work impacts closed deals and sales recognizes the value of high-quality leads, accountability is built across both teams, leading to real growth.
For shrinking marketing teams, shared metrics help prioritize efforts on the most impactful areas — like nurturing leads with the highest potential for conversion — so both teams can maximize efficiency.
Key metrics both teams should care about include:
- Conversion rates: Track how leads move through each stage of the funnel. This shows whether campaigns generate qualified leads and if sales converts them effectively.
- Lead response time: Quick follow-up increases the likelihood of closing a deal. Monitoring this ensures fast action from sales and high-quality leads from marketing.
- Pipeline growth: A healthy pipeline is a shared success. Marketing fills the pipeline with leads and sales nurtures and closes them.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV): Focusing on CLV encourages both teams to attract and retain high-value customers, ensuring long-term business success.
How to implement shared metrics
- Set up shared dashboards: Use tools like Salesforce or HubSpot to track key metrics in real time. This keeps everyone aligned and informed.
- Schedule regular reviews: Weekly or bi-weekly meetings help review performance and plan next steps.
- Create accountability systems: Tie incentives to shared metrics like pipeline growth or conversion rates to keep both teams engaged.
Dig deeper: KPIs that connect: 5 metrics for marketing, sales and product alignment
How to make cross-departmental cooperation part of your culture
Effective communication is the foundation of collaboration between sales and marketing. Without open channels, insights are lost and strategies don’t adjust quickly. Regular joint meetings to review campaign updates, lead quality and sales pipeline health are key.
Use tools like Slack or Teams for real-time communication and shared boards like Trello or Asana to manage tasks. These tools ensure transparency and quick responses, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
For smaller marketing teams, streamlined processes are even more crucial. By keeping communication open and using efficient tools, marketing can do more with fewer resources, maximizing their impact and supporting sales more effectively.
Creating joint workflows
Agree on lead-scoring criteria, so both teams know when a lead is sales-ready, then move quickly to content collaboration. Marketing should create sales-focused content like case studies, product demos and one-pagers to help sales teams close deals. Involve sales in content creation to ensure messaging aligns with customer needs and objections, making it easier for them to engage and convert leads.
Success stories
Successful companies have reaped the rewards of strong sales-marketing collaboration. HubSpot’s “Smarketing” strategy aligns sales and marketing with shared KPIs and dashboards, resulting in higher conversions and better revenue outcomes.
Similarly, Zendesk developed a lead-scoring system in partnership with both teams, streamlining the handoff process. This collaboration improved lead quality, and produced faster response times and more closed deals, strengthening the relationship between their sales and marketing teams.
Dig deeper: 7 ways to end the sales and marketing Catch-22
Using technology to foster alignment
The right technology aligns sales and marketing by streamlining communication and providing shared data.
CRM systems like Salesforce provide visibility into the customer journey, eliminating guesswork about lead status and follow-up actions. Marketing automation tools like Marketo streamline lead nurturing and ensure timely handoffs to sales, boosting conversion rates with real-time data.
Project management tools like Asana or Trello keep tasks on track, reduce bottlenecks and improve collaboration by making progress visible to both teams.
How to choose the right tech stack
Ensure seamless integration between CRM and marketing automation tools to provide a single source of truth. Choose user-friendly tools that simplify tasks and encourage adoption, allowing both teams to stay aligned and work more efficiently.
Using data to drive collaboration
Real-time data sharing lets marketing pass campaign insights to sales, enabling sales to provide feedback on lead conversions. This feedback loop helps both teams adjust strategies and drive better performance.
Dig deeper: How to align B2B sales and marketing teams
Continuous alignment is key to keeping sales and marketing on the same page
Maintaining alignment requires consistent communication, feedback and shared victories.
- Regular check-ins: Hold joint meetings weekly or bi-weekly to review metrics and align strategies.
- Building a feedback culture: Encourage real-time feedback from both teams to continually adjust and improve.
- Celebrating wins together: Acknowledge shared successes to strengthen collaboration and keep teams motivated.
By staying aligned through these practices, sales and marketing can work as a unified team, driving sustained revenue growth and long-term success.
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