Beyond the Handoff: Building a Revenue-Driven Partnership
The challenge of aligning sales and marketing remains one of the most persistent hurdles in B2B go-to-market strategies. Despite the shared goal of driving revenue, these teams often operate in silos, leading to inefficiencies, misaligned priorities, and lost opportunities. In a recent roundtable discussion hosted by Joaquin Dominguez, Head of Marketing at Adzact, industry leaders from sales, marketing, and product management explored the core friction points, strategic solutions, and the evolving role of AI and data in fostering better collaboration.
Host
Joaquin Dominguez, Head of Marketing at Adzact, led the insightful conversation.
Guests
Keith Rabkin, Chief Revenue Officer, PandaDoc
Red Drummond, Senior Marketing Manager, Wood Mackenzie
Jason Recacho, Solutions and Ecosystems Expert
Mark Towler, Product Marketing Expert
The Core Challenges in Sales and Marketing Alignment
The discussion opened with a consensus: one of the fundamental issues in sales and marketing alignment is misaligned incentives. While both teams work towards revenue growth, their metrics and short-term objectives often diverge.
Keith Rabkin highlighted that sales teams typically prioritise immediate revenue, while marketing often focuses on long-term brand building and pipeline development. This disparity can lead to frustration, with sales teams demanding more ‘ready-to-close’ leads and marketing teams emphasising broader engagement and awareness strategies.
Another major challenge is the friction in lead handovers. Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) have traditionally been the primary success metric for marketing teams, but the shift towards sales-qualified leads (SQLs) has become more prominent. By focusing on SQLs, marketing can ensure that leads passed to sales are genuinely primed for conversion. However, achieving this requires precise targeting, rigorous qualification, and continuous communication between the teams.
Additionally, the role of incentives was examined. Mark Towler shared an instance where a company’s sales team prioritised a high-commission product over the ideal customer progression strategy, leading to short-term gains but long-term inefficiencies. Such cases highlight the importance of structuring incentives that promote company-wide objectives rather than departmental silos.
“Sales is always looking at what can close this quarter, while marketing is trying to ensure that there’s a steady pipeline for future quarters. When these timelines don’t align, friction is inevitable” - Keith Rabkin
Strategic Solutions: Bridging the Gap
1. Aligning on Unified Goals and Metrics:
To mitigate these misalignments, participants emphasised the need to align both teams on common objectives. Keith Rabkin suggested tying marketing and sales incentives to a single metric, such as pipeline contribution or revenue influence, rather than separate KPIs. A shared understanding of success ensures that both teams pull in the same direction.
2. Enhancing Lead Qualification and Handover Processes:
Red Drummond pointed out that reducing friction in the lead handover process is critical. One solution is to define a clear set of criteria that marketing and sales both agree upon for qualifying leads. Marketing automation and lead scoring models can also support this, ensuring that only high-intent leads progress to sales.
3. Strengthening Internal Communication and Collaboration:
Jason Recacho highlighted the importance of structured communication channels, advocating for regular joint meetings where sales and marketing review performance, address roadblocks, and refine their strategies collaboratively. A lack of communication can cause misalignment, leading to ineffective campaigns and wasted efforts.
“Marketing and sales might be working towards the same goal, but if they’re using different maps, they’ll never reach it together. Creating structured, ongoing communication bridges that gap and ensures alignment is maintained, not just assumed” - Jason Recacho
4. Role of Product Marketing in Sales Enablement:
The conversation also underscored the crucial role of product marketing in equipping sales teams with the right messaging and tools. Mark Towler likened product marketing’s role to ‘marketing internally to sales teams,’ ensuring they are armed with compelling value propositions tailored to different personas. "Salespeople are 99% focused on meeting their monthly number, so if you want their attention, you need to immediately prove that your enablement efforts will help them close more business, faster," he explained. This means ensuring that training is simple, digestible, and immediately applicable to their sales process. This ensures sales teams can engage prospects effectively without reverting to outdated messaging.
“If marketing and sales aren't aligned on what a good lead looks like, then handovers become a constant source of frustration rather than a seamless process” - Red Drummond
Leveraging AI and Data for Smarter Alignment
The role of data in sales and marketing alignment cannot be overstated. However, as Mark Towler noted, no organisation operates with 100% clean and accurate data. Many companies struggle with outdated or inconsistent data sets, which can derail even the most well-intended marketing strategies.
1. Data Quality and Integration:
Keith Rabkin recommended a tiered approach to data management, prioritising high-impact areas such as CRM integrity and lead data accuracy. Ensuring a ‘single source of truth’ through shared dashboards can help both teams make data-driven decisions without discrepancies.
2. AI-Driven Insights for Targeting and Engagement:
Red Drummond highlighted how AI-powered analytics can refine targeting strategies, allowing marketing teams to segment audiences more effectively and tailor engagement tactics. Automated workflows, such as lead nurturing sequences, can also optimise engagement for different account tiers, ensuring sales teams focus their efforts on the most promising prospects.
“Salespeople are 99% focused on meeting their monthly number, so if you want their attention, you need to immediately prove that your enablement efforts will help them close more business, faster” Mark Towler
Breaking Down Organisational Silos
The conversation concluded with a reflection on how company culture and leadership influence sales and marketing collaboration. Red Drummond shared an example of joining a startup where sales initially resisted marketing’s involvement. By establishing structured quarterly alignment meetings and fostering open communication, the company was able to shift from siloed operations to a collaborative approach.
Mark Towler stressed that leadership buy-in is essential. "The most crucial part of enablement is following up to ensure that not only is the training you've provided being implemented, but that it's actually working," he emphasised. When executives reinforce the importance of cross-functional alignment and model this behaviour, it cascades throughout the organisation, embedding collaboration as part of the culture. By following up, listening in on calls, and iterating on what works, teams can build trust and ensure long-term success.
Conclusion
Achieving true alignment between sales and marketing requires more than just structural changes—it demands a cultural shift towards shared goals, transparent communication, and data-driven decision-making.
Businesses can create a seamless go-to-market strategy that maximises revenue potential by unifying incentives, improving lead handover processes, leveraging AI-driven insights, and fostering a collaborative culture. As the market evolves, organisations prioritising alignment between sales and marketing will gain a decisive competitive advantage.
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