If you’ve ever been in a meeting where sales and marketing are smiling politely while secretly plotting each other’s downfall, welcome to the club. It’s one of the oldest workplace rivalries—right up there with IT vs. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
Marketing swears sales doesn’t follow up on their carefully nurtured leads. Sales, meanwhile, is convinced marketing lives in a dream world of branding fluff and LinkedIn polls that do nothing for revenue. And the executives? They just want numbers to go up—without the passive-aggressive email chains.
So, how do we fix this? How do we get sales and marketing to work together instead of at odds? Let’s break it down.
Step One: Admit You Need Each Other
Like it or not, sales and marketing are a package deal. Marketing builds awareness, nurtures leads and creates demand. Sales closes the deal. Neither side wins alone. It’s like trying to make tea without a kettle—something essential is missing.
Instead of finger-pointing, start with a shift in mindset: you’re both responsible for revenue. Not just leads. Not just closed deals. Revenue. Period.
Step Two: Get in the Same Room (Literally and Figuratively)
If sales and marketing only cross paths once a quarter—or worse, at the holiday party—it’s no wonder there’s a disconnect. Regular alignment meetings should be mandatory. Weekly or biweekly at a minimum.
What should you actually discuss?
- What’s selling right now? Sales should share what’s converting—and what’s getting ignored.
- What objections keep coming up? Marketing can create content to help tackle those roadblocks.
- Are the leads any good? If they’re not converting, figure out why.
Bonus tip: If these meetings start feeling like therapy sessions, that’s actually a good sign.
Step Three: Speak the Same Language
Sales loves talking about pipeline, revenue, and quota. Marketing, on the other hand, is all about engagement, brand awareness, and lead generation. It’s like one side is speaking French while the other is deep into Klingon.
Solution? Find shared metrics. Instead of arguing over MQLs and SQLs, focus on things like:
- Pipeline contribution – How many deals can be traced back to marketing?
- Win rates by source – Which marketing-driven leads actually convert?
- Sales velocity – How fast are leads turning into revenue?
When you’re working toward the same outcomes, you stop debating what an “MQL” actually means.
Step Four: Align Your Content and Outreach
A common headache: marketing cranks out tons of content, but sales never use it. Or worse, sales create their own DIY one-pagers that look like they were made in PowerPoint 2003.
How to fix it:
- Create content sales actually needs. Don’t assume—ask them.
- Train sales on how to use it. A perfectly timed case study can be the difference between a signed contract and radio silence.
- Make assets ridiculously easy to access. If sales have to dig through a maze of SharePoint folders, they won’t bother.
Step Five: Stop the Blame Game and Start a Feedback Loop
The fastest way to reignite the sales vs. marketing feud? Marketing blaming sales for ignoring leads, and sales blaming marketing for sending bad ones.
Instead, create a feedback loop:
- Sales follows up on leads (properly). Not just once. Not just with a single email. A real, structured follow-up process.
- Marketing adjusts based on feedback. If a campaign flops, don’t just scrap it—figure out why.
- Agree on what “good” looks like. If you don’t have shared definitions of success, you’ll always be at odds.
Step Six: Celebrate Wins (Together!)
When a big deal closes, sales celebrate. But if marketing helped nurture that lead, they should be celebrating too. Likewise, when a campaign brings in high-quality leads, sales should recognize it.
It’s a simple mindset shift: you’re on the same team. Act like it.
From Ceasefire to Collaboration
Sales and marketing will always have their differences. That’s fine. But if you focus on shared goals, clear communication, and mutual respect, you can move from an uneasy truce to a powerhouse partnership.
Or at the very least, you can stop side-eyeing each other in meetings.
