Picture this: Marketing is throwing a party—they’ve spent months crafting the perfect invitation (aka lead magnet), decorating the place (content strategy), and hyping it up on social media.

Sales shows up late, looks around, and says, “Who invited these people?”

Marketing sighs. “These are the guests we worked hard to bring in! Now go talk to them.”

Sales grumble, “These aren’t the kind of people who BUY. Next time, bring better guests.”

Sound familiar? If you’re working in a small to mid-size B2B company, chances are you’ve seen this age-old tension between marketing and sales. And let’s be honest—this disconnection is costing you money.

But fear not. Today, we will break down why this happens, why it hurts your business, and how to fix it once and for all—without anyone having to stage an intervention.

The Great Marketing vs. Sales Misalignment

Here’s what typically happens:

Marketing’s Job: “Let’s generate as many leads as possible!”
Sales’ Job: “Let’s close deals and hit revenue targets!”

At first glance, these sound like perfectly reasonable goals. The problem is the way these two teams measure success.

• Marketing is judged by lead volume, so companies focus on getting more eyeballs, clicks, and form fills—whether or not those leads are actually a good fit.

• Sales are judged by revenue, so they focus on closing high-quality deals quickly and often dismiss leads that aren’t immediately ready to buy.

Marketing celebrates a record number of leads, while sales grumbles, “None of these leads are worth our time.” The cycle repeats, frustration grows, and suddenly, you’ve got two teams working against each other.

This leads to lost deals, wasted budgets, and a broken customer journey.

How to Get Sales & Marketing Aligned

At GrowthBooks, we believe that marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin—and the best companies treat them as one unified revenue team.

Here’s how we fix this:

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) – No More “Random” Leads

Marketing should not generate leads just for its own sake. Instead of blasting emails to the universe, we define a crystal-clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)—the exact type of company, role, and person most likely to buy.

Right approach: “We’re targeting B2B SaaS companies with 50–500 employees who have no in-house marketing team and struggle with demand generation.”
Wrong approach: “Anyone who downloaded our whitepaper is a lead—go get them, sales!”

When marketing and sales agree on the ICP, sales reps no longer waste time on leads that will never convert. Instead, they are laser-focused on high-intent buyers.

TAM SAM SOM: Is This Market Worth It?

Before jumping into a market segment, we go beyond just “gut feeling” and run a TAM SAM SOM calculation to ensure that the Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) justify the effort.

• TAM (Total Addressable Market): The most significant possible market if every potential customer buys from you.

• SAM (Serviceable Available Market): The portion of the market you can realistically serve based on your product fit.

• SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): The percentage of SAM you can acquire in the short term.

This way, we validate the segment before investing resources instead of chasing hyped-up markets that don’t convert.

Customer Buying Personas: Sales & Marketing Speaking the Same Language

Once we lock in the right market segment, we create detailed customer personas that outline:

• Who they are: Their job title, industry, company size, and challenges.

• How they buy: Their pain points, decision-making process, and budget concerns.

• Where they consume content: The channels and formats they trust the most.

• What messaging resonates: The value propositions that make them say “Yes.”

Instead of marketing talking about “brand awareness” while sales want “hard leads,” both teams are aligned on precisely who they are targeting and how to close them.

2. Segment-Message-Offer Matching – The Right Message for the Right Lead

Now that we know who we’re targeting, we ensure our messaging and offers match the lead’s intent level.

• Cold leads: Nurture them with helpful content and industry insights, not an aggressive sales pitch.

• Warm leads: To move them down the funnel, offer case studies, testimonials, and product demos.

• Hot leads: These leads are ready to buy, and sales should have a clear process for closing the deal quickly.

That’s why we believe in full-funnel marketing, which ensures leads are nurtured through the journey from cold to hot. Without a structured approach, leads either drop out of the funnel too soon or get bombarded with the wrong type of content.

A proper Full-Funnel Marketing approach ensures that every lead receives the right message at the right time, maximizing conversions and revenue.

3. Lead Qualification & Scoring – No More Wasting Sales Time

If marketing hands sales every single lead, sales reps will drown in bad prospects. Instead, we set clear lead qualification criteria and ensure sales only work on high-intent opportunities.

If Marketing hands Sales every single lead, sales reps will drown in bad prospects. Instead, we set clear lead qualification criteria.

For example:

• Cold lead = Downloaded a report but didn’t engage further. (Nurture with email content)

• Marketing-qualified lead (MQL) = Attended a webinar AND visited the pricing page. (Pass to SDR for outreach)

• Sales-qualified lead (SQL) = Requested a demo AND meets our ICP criteria. (Pass to AE to close the deal)

Now, Sales only talks to leads that are worth their time, and Marketing nurtures the rest until they’re ready.

4. ROI Calculation & Business Case – Making Sure Everyone’s Effort Pays Off

The best way to align marketing and sales is to ensure everyone sees the money.

We build an ROI model and business case to track how marketing and sales efforts directly impact revenue.

• Cost vs. Revenue Impact: To ensure the profitability of marketing efforts, we calculate the customer acquisition cost (CAC) and compare it to customer lifetime value (LTV).

• Pipeline Contribution: Instead of counting leads, we show how many marketing-generated leads turn into closed deals.

• Revenue Attribution: We track which campaigns and content influence deals so the budget goes to what works.

• Sales & Marketing Bonus Alignment: Tie marketing and sales compensation to shared revenue goals.

With an ROI calculation in place, there is no more finger-pointing—just one shared goal: increasing revenue.

The End Result: A Revenue-Generating Machine

When you align marketing and sales, here’s what happens:

• Higher close rates – Sales works only on qualified leads.

• Shorter sales cycles – Marketing warms up leads properly before passing them over.

• More revenue – A transparent, predictable system for driving growth.

• No more finger-pointing – Marketing and sales finally become partners, not enemies.

GrowthBooks gives you the playbook to make this happen.

Order Your GrowthBook Today

Each GrowthBooks strategy playbook is crafted to provide thorough, end-to-end growth guidance specifically tailored for a B2B business.

It surpasses generic advice by offering:

• Actionable, step-by-step instructions

• Industry-specific strategies

• Proven frameworks to generate demand & close deals

• Tools uniquely designed for your company’s industry, target market, and customer profiles

Stop relying on scattered tactics and guesswork. Order your GrowthBook today and build a scalable, high-impact B2B marketing and sales engine.

10-Point Sales & Marketing Alignment Checklist for B2B Companies

Want to get your sales and marketing teams working in sync? Here’s a quick checklist to make sure you’re on the right track:

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)—Clearly identify your most profitable customer segments and ensure that both marketing and sales target the same audience.

2. Run a TAM, SAM, or SOM Calculation. Ensure your chosen market segment is worth pursuing before investing time and resources.

3. Create Buyer Personas—Align both teams with a deep understanding of your customers' buying patterns, pain points, and preferred communication channels.

4. Develop a Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy – Nurture leads from cold to hot by delivering the right message at the right time.

5. Establish Lead Qualification & Scoring – Define what makes a lead marketing-qualified (MQL) and sales-qualified (SQL) to avoid wasted effort.

6. Align Messaging & Offers for Each Segment – Ensure marketing campaigns and sales conversations reinforce the same value propositions.

7. Use a Shared CRM & Data Dashboard—Sales and marketing should use the same single source of truth to track lead progress and revenue impact.

8. Define Clear KPIs for Both Teams. Move beyond “leads” vs. “closed deals,” and track shared metrics like pipeline velocity and CAC:LTV ratio.

9. Build a Business Case and ROI Calculation. Show how marketing and sales efforts drive revenue so leadership sees the value of alignment.

10. Create a Sales & Marketing SLA (Service Level Agreement) – Define responsibilities, response times, and goals for both teams to ensure smooth collaboration.

How many of these are you doing today? If your company is missing a few, GrowthBooks can help you implement them.

Want a customized GrowthBook for your business? Let’s talk.

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