Ending the Battle: Sales vs Marketing
How Sales and Marketing Can Finally Fight on the Same Side
For as long as we have had corporate silos and team targets, Sales and Marketing have been two departments with overlapping missions, but with just enough friction to spark an occasional turf war. In the B2B world, especially for high-touch sales environments, this misalignment is not just a cultural quirk. It is an expensive inefficiency.
I have observed this dynamic across multiple organizations (some I’ve worked with, others I’ve studied) and the pattern is painfully familiar: marketing works hard to support sales operations, sales hustles to close deals, and somewhere in the handoff, things get murky. Leads fall through the cracks, accountability blurs, and fingers start pointing. Add to that a common (and problematic) perception: Marketing’s job ends at brand awareness, then it is Sales’ responsibility to take over and convert. In some places, marketing is even seen merely as the “event organizer” or “content factory” for the sales team.
Too often, these two systems operate like parallel universes. One ends where the other begins, with no shared map for the crossover. This results in dropped leads, misalignment in messaging, and misfires in follow-up timing. What if we stopped treating Sales and Marketing as two sides of a coin and instead saw them as a single, synchronized growth engine? Here we go.
Context Matters: Low-Touch vs. High-Touch Sales
Before we dive deeper, a quick primer: the Sales-Marketing interplay looks very different depending on the nature of product and market involved.
- Low-touch sales (like most SaaS self-serve models) often rely on 1:N digital marketing efforts and conversion-driven UX. Marketing owns most of the journey, where the buyer can discover, onboard, and start using the product with little to no human interaction. Think: free trials, automated onboarding, in-app guides.
- High-touch sales, on the other hand, involve longer cycles, more stakeholders, and personalized engagement, especially in markets like Indonesia where relationship-building and compliance processes (e.g., procurement auctions) are critical.
Sometimes, even low-touch products require high-touch engagement in certain markets due to buyer behavior or compliance requirements. That’s where partnering with system integrators or field sales becomes essential.
This article focuses on discussing the high-touch sales model, where the Sales-Marketing relationship can make or break the funnel/pipeline.
Where the Disconnect Lies, Let's Reframe the Handshake: MQL as the Bridge
Many organizations still treat the marketing funnel and sales pipeline as separate creatures. As if prospects magically teleport from a webinar to a closed deal. There is this true connective tissue between the marketing funnel and sales pipeline, which is the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)—a lead that has shown sufficient engagement and fits the ideal customer profile.
But here is the catch: an MQL is not just someone who downloaded a whitepaper or clicked an ad. It is a lead that meets mutually defined readiness criteria, developed collaboratively by the marketing and sales team. That definition must be co-owned by marketing and sales.
This shared definition can (and should) be quantified using a lead scoring model based on ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) fit, engagement levels, and buying signals. When both teams agree on what "sales-ready" looks like, handoffs become smoother, and leads get a consistent experience across the funnel.
Where Accountability Lives: The Role of SLA
Once an MQL definition is in place, the next critical step is a Sales-Marketing Service Level Agreement (SLA). Think of this as the contract that defines responsibilities on both ends:
"Marketing will deliver $100,000 in lead value to sales each month. Sales will follow up with every MQL within 24 hours."
This makes expectations crystal clear. Marketing is accountable for volume and quality. Sales is accountable for follow-up and conversion.
Here is a nuance I have noticed: In some organizations, I have seen a reluctance to define an MQL or formalize an SLA, because accountability might feel risky. Vague definitions (ambiguity) are a convenient hiding place. But in the long run, that vagueness slows down growth and erodes trust (remember, it’s a costly inefficiency). No SLA = no ownership = guaranteed frustration.
Activate, Not Just Outreach
In traditional sales models, the first stage of the pipeline is often labeled “Prospecting” or “Lead Outreach.” But not all leads deserve a pitch immediately. Therefore, in high-quality MQL-driven systems, I would recommend this stage to evolve to “Lead Activation” (the act of engaging only those who are ready, based on the shared MQL definition).
Sales is not chasing cold leads; they are activating pre-qualified ones. The focus shifts from quantity to quality, reducing wasted effort and increasing conversion potential. Once a lead is activated and engaged, it moves into Sales Qualification, where frameworks like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) or CHAMP (Challenges, Authority, Money, Prioritization) help vet for real opportunity.
When Leads Are Not Ready: Recycle, Don’t Throw It Away
Not every MQL will become an SQL. Some stall. Some ghost. Some turn out to be mislabeled MQLs. Others hit procurement delays or budget freezes. But just because a lead is not ready now doesn't mean it's a dead end.
Instead of letting them go cold, they should be tagged as Marketing Recycled Leads (MRL) routed back into a structured nurture track. This process not only preserves potential opportunities but also creates a feedback loop between Sales and Marketing, helping both teams refine lead quality, scoring models, and messaging.
Criteria for MRLs could include:
- No engagement within X days
- Disqualified by sales but still aligns with ICP
- Timing or budget issues, not a complete “no”
This kind of recycling ensures that no qualified lead is wasted, and every contact gets its appropriate place in the funnel, whether now or in the future. It also helps Marketing maximize the value of its lead pool by continuing to nurture those who still fit the profile but need more time or touchpoints.
Nurture content might include:
- Educational webinars
- Whitepapers and ROI calculators
- Re-engagement campaigns
- Market trend newsletters
- Objection-handling content
The goal? Maintain awareness. Build trust. Stay top of mind. And when the timing is right, bring them back into the activation stage, warmer, wiser, and more likely to convert.
Final Thought: Beyond Frameworks and The Human Element, This is Still an Art
There is no perfect equation for aligning Sales and Marketing. Every business has its own rhythm, quirks, and politics. But foundational elements like:
- The use and a shared definition of MQL
- Clear accountability with Sales-Marketing SLA
- Recycled lead to nurture track
…can go a long way in building trust, improving handoffs, and fueling real revenue growth.
At the end of the day, Sales and Marketing alignment is not just about processes; it is about people. Relationships, communication, incentives, and trust. Frameworks help, but nuance rules. You might already know this stuff intuitively. This article just puts a few names and models to the friction you have probably felt firsthand.
So let’s end the battle. Sync the gears and make it a real growth engine.
Disclaimer
This article is written based on my cumulative observations of Sales–Marketing dynamics across several organizations I have worked with, as well as insights I have gathered from courses and frameworks I have studied along the way. I am not claiming to introduce anything radically new here, just hoping to distill what I have learned into a perspective that might resonate, spark thought, or help others see the familiar a little more clearly.
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