Many business-to-business (B2B) leaders struggle with sales and marketing alignment, even when they think these teams work well together. The data tells a different story. Forrester found that 65% of sales and marketing staff see a disconnect between their departments’ leaders. That gap creates real problems: lost deals, employee turnover and confused customers who receive mixed messages. More importantly, misaligned teams lose sight of what matters most – customers.
“The most important thing is what the customer wants, yet these conversations often don’t happen between departments,” says Chris Gumas, director of customer experience at Ruland Manufacturing Co.
He believes that when teams start sharing customer insights, they move past finger-pointing and begin solving problems together. This kind of B2B sales and marketing alignment doesn’t happen by accident.
Fixing misalignment starts with leadership.
Start at the top
Bringing teams together takes active leadership. Without clear direction from executive leaders, departments drift apart, hurting customer relationships and slowing growth.
“Your chief revenue officer, chief sales officer and chief marketing officer need to be on the same page,” says Kim Svoboda, CEO of Aspiration Catalyst. “That alignment has to start in the C-suite and flow from there.”
Suzie Fenton, senior manager, marketing communications at Spartech, points out that organizational structure often creates hidden barriers.
“When marketing reports to sales executives, it leads to a disconnect in messaging priorities and strategic execution,” she says. “Marketing becomes a peripheral responsibility, resulting in stalled initiatives, underused resources and unclear performance targets.”
Without clear alignment on expectations, marketing struggles to set meaningful goals. If sales targets aren’t met, marketing is seen as ineffective – creating a cycle that hurts future budgets and resources.
Allison Wagner, director of marketing and business strategy at Morrison Container Handling Solutions, adds that sales and marketing leaders must work closely together, so their teams will follow their lead.
“They need to decide how the teams will communicate and what it means to function as one team,” she says.
Meanwhile, Fenton emphasizes that alignment must start at the highest level.
“The president or CEO must recognize the strategic importance of the sales and marketing teams working together,” she says. “This might mean elevating an existing marketing role or hiring for a marketing function that’s on the same organizational level as the sales vice president, signaling that marketing isn’t just a support function but a strategic partner.”
This leadership alignment isn’t just about strategy. In short, leaders must actively demonstrate collaborative behavior.
“Leadership can’t just lead from an ivory tower,” says Dan Whalen, a prominent technology CEO and executive leader. “They need to show up to support collaboration and help people understand why it matters.”
Beyond leadership, sales and marketing teams face several obstacles. First, incentives often don’t match. Marketing focuses on lead volume while sales chases revenue. Furthermore, no one clearly owns key processes. Finally, communication often breaks down.
Build trust through transparency
Sales and marketing teams often struggle to understand each other’s roles and contributions, which creates confusion and misalignment.
“Everything should be an open book, Gumas says. “The more transparency you have across the organization, the more likely someone outside a team will ask a helpful question.”
Ben Vlieger, chief sales and marketing officer at Felins, emphasizes that face-to-face interaction is crucial for building trust between teams.
“When teams don’t see each other regularly, friction builds up faster,” he says. “If sales needs to call in a favor from marketing and they haven’t seen each other recently, there isn’t the immediate willingness to help that there is when team members are face-to-face regularly.”
Gumas believes transparency helps solve this. When teams share goals and priorities openly, they build trust and ask better questions. Simple actions – like regular interactions and informal lunches – go a long way.
Certainly, setting expectations early is crucial. Christopher Clemmensen, executive vice president of Marketing at Echo Global Logistics, recently demonstrated this when working with a new leader.
“I gave him background on our marketing capabilities and how we could add value,” he says. “Then, I asked what success looked like for him at 12, 24 and 36 months as he establishes the division. This approach builds understanding from day one and shows marketing’s commitment to sales success.”
Regular touchpoints help maintain this alignment.
“We hold monthly sales and marketing meetings where teams share recent results and upcoming plans,” Clemmensen says. “It’s a chance for collaboration and getting sales buy-in before projects launch – not after.”
Define ownership and expectations
Teams need clear structure and process ownership. Without defined responsibilities, crucial tasks like creating product documentation and performing competitive analysis often get overlooked because no one officially owns them, Whalen says.
Clemmensen uses everyday interactions to teach strategic thinking and proper process.
“When a sales representative suggested advertising with a professional sports team, I used it as an opportunity to demonstrate strategic thinking,” he says. “In addition to understanding if it was a fit for our target market, I asked if we typically lost business to a competitor who advertised there, or if stealing their market share was our objective. When the answer was no to both, it became clear this was just a tactic without a strategy.
“That conversation helped the sales team understand how we think about marketing decisions,” Clemmensen continues. “Instead of jumping to tactics, we need to start with objectives, then develop strategies that support those goals. Once you understand that framework, you make better marketing decisions.”
Svoboda adds, “Teams need to spell out what they expect from each other. What should marketing deliver? What should sales do with those deliverables? Without clear answers, teams often work at cross purposes.”
Even basic industry terms can cause problems.
Wagner recommends asking sales and marketing teams separately how they define a marketing-qualified lead (MQL) and a sales-qualified lead (SQL).
“Those definitions should match,” she says. “They often don’t, and that’s one of the clearest signs of misalignment.”
Vlieger sees this breakdown often happen during handoffs. When no one owns a step in the process, things fall through the cracks.
Make customer insights the foundation
Teams can get wrapped up in their own metrics. But real alignment starts with a shared understanding of customers’ needs. Gumas believes marketers should interact directly with customers.
“I’m about to hire another marketing person, and I’m going to require that they do some selling,” he says.
He doesn’t expect them to become sales reps, but wants them to follow up on quotes, answer phones, gather feedback, and work trade show booths.
“When you talk to customers, it’s different than sitting there and dreaming up an ideal customer profile,” Gumas says. “The job is so much harder if you don’t talk to customers.”
Above all, these interactions help marketing teams create content that’s more relevant – and help sales teams trust that the leads are qualified.
Whalen agrees that marketers need firsthand knowledge of customers’ problems.
“Marketing teams need to understand real B2B customer needs; not just create stories about end users,” he says. When sales and marketing understand customers, they work better together.”
Consequently, a disconnect in customer understanding has broad implications.
“When marketing falls under sales leadership, companies often struggle to articulate the true value of their products and services,” Fenton says. “And if a company doesn’t fully understand its value proposition, customers and prospects certainly won’t.”
Build unity through shared goals
Good collaboration doesn’t happen by accident. It takes shared work and shared goals. Svoboda says joint projects help people build stronger relationships.
“When we have something we’re working on together, it brings out the best in people,” she says.
She suggests that marketers loop in sales early, before any plans are finalized.
“Sales wants to be part of the process,” she explains. “Don’t bring them something that’s already done. Come with a blank sheet of paper and ask how you can help them hit their goals.”
Most importantly, shared decision-making builds trust and ownership. But for deeper alignment, teams need shared incentives, too.
“Leaders need to find ways to create more shared goals, so both teams stay focused on the company’s values and mission,” Whalen says.
Sales and marketing often have different compensation plans. As a result, that can drive them in opposite directions. Vlieger’s company addressed this by tying both departments’ compensation to revenue.
“We still use other metrics to guide our campaigns, but revenue is what really matters,” he says.
Wagner sums up the core challenge in a simple question:
“How are we going to make our teams feel like one team?”
The answer lies in collaboration – from reviewing trade show leads together to launching new products and creating shared sales materials.
Use technology the right way
When technology can support B2B sales and marketing alignment, it’s not the first step. Whalen says companies should start by getting the basics right.
“First, align on your customer relationship management (CRM) system,” he says. “Thoroughly understand its intended capabilities and structure your team playbooks accordingly. While it might be tempting, avoid individual team or member customizations.”
Wagner notes that many teams use tools that don’t work well together.
“Sometimes, we’re using completely different technologies, and they aren’t integrated,” she says.
Similarly, Fenton emphasizes the importance of centralizing sales and marketing resources.
“Ensuring that all salespeople have access to the most recent marketing collateral means messaging stays up to date and aligned with the latest goals,” she says. “A robust CRM with a document library can centralize materials and provide 24/7 access, freeing marketing from responding to individual requests about existing content.”
Create true B2B sales and marketing alignment
Building strong sales and marketing alignment isn’t about more meetings or fancier tools. It’s about challenging how teams think and work. Based on insights from our experts, here are six concrete steps to achieve lasting B2B sales and marketing alignment:
1. Prioritize open communication.
- Hold regular joint sales and marketing calls.
- Encourage informal networking, especially during trade shows and training.
- Coach teams to give and receive feedback with care.
- Include marketing in sales training.
2. Define ownership expectations.
- Assign clear owners for key processes – especially handoffs.
- Align definitions for MQLs and SQLs.
- Tie both teams’ compensation to revenue.
- Use a single CRM and keep usage consistent.
3. Focus on customers.
- Have marketers participate in sales activities.
- Run targeted customer surveys throughout the year.
- Talk to customers during product development.
- Share customer feedback between teams.
4. Design collaboration into daily work.
- Start projects with input from both teams.
- Review trade show leads together.
- Launch joint initiatives with shared ownership.
- Build and maintain a shared sales content library.
5. Get the basics right before adding tools.
- Standardize CRM use first.
- Avoid over-customizing your systems.
- Integrate key tools like email marketing with your CRM.
- Add self-service options for customers where possible.
6. Lead by example.
- Ensure top-level alignment across departments.
- Have leaders share and present one another’s content.
- Attend and support team events together.
- Celebrate cross-functional wins.
Strong B2B sales and marketing alignment creates a powerful force when teams build trust, share goals and stay focused on customers.
