From Frenemies to Power Couple: Achieving True Marketing-Sales Alignment in B2B SaaS

The Age-Old Battle: Marketing vs. Sales

It's the monthly review meeting. The sales team is grumbling about low lead conversion, while marketing is frustrated that their "hot leads" aren't being followed up. Sound familiar?

This tension between marketing and sales is as old as the departments themselves. As more B2B SaaS companies transition from lead generation to demand generation, this divide can become even more pronounced. Marketing focuses on brand awareness and engagement metrics, while sales wants to know when they'll see more qualified opportunities in their pipeline.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

True marketing-sales alignment isn’t about handoffs or finger-pointing. It’s about creating a unified revenue team—working together toward common goals, speaking the same language, sharing insights, and collaborating across the customer journey. Misalignment often stems from differing goals, lack of communication, and inconsistent metrics or messaging.

The good news? These problems are fixable, with an open mind and a set of well-framed practices.

Let’s explore five key strategies to achieve true marketing-sales alignment, drawn from real-world experiences.

1. Establish Shared Goals and Metrics

First and foremost, alignment begins with shared goals and a common set of metrics. When marketing and sales operate with different objectives, frustration is inevitable.

In one project, I encountered a classic case of misalignment. The marketing team was celebrating a 50% increase in MQLs, while the sales team complained about wasting time on unqualified leads. Each side focused on different dashboards, leading to finger-pointing. The solution was to bring both teams together to define shared goals and select a few key metrics that mattered to both: pipeline velocity, conversion rates at each stage, and customer acquisition cost.

Once we aligned these metrics, we implemented a shared Salesforce dashboard accessible to both teams and held bi-weekly meetings to review and reflect on these metrics.

The result? A 20% increase in SAL-to-opportunity conversion rate and a 15% reduction in sales cycle length. More importantly, the blame game stopped as both teams now spoke the same language.

Key Takeaways:

• Implement a shared dashboard accessible to both teams
• Focus on full-funnel metrics that reflect the entire customer journey
• Hold regular joint meetings to review and discuss performance
• Start with 2-3 shared KPIs and expand as alignment improves

2. Foster Continuous Collaboration and Communication

One of the most common struggles I've seen in revenue teams is the disconnect between marketing's content creation and sales' actual needs.

I bet every marketer has experienced this: on the one hand, the materials that you spend hours crafting often go unused, while on the other hand, sales frequently makes last-minute requests for custom presentation for their specific prospect.

This disconnect, while common, can be solved with consistent, open communication.

A marketing leader at a SaaS startup shared her experience with me. She implemented weekly "smarketing" stand-ups—15-minute meetings designed to keep both teams in sync. At first, there was resistance, but over time, the meetings became indispensable.

Each meeting covered:

1. Quick wins from the past week
2. Top priorities for the coming week
3. Roadblocks or support needed
4. An open floor for questions

After three months of consistent stand-ups, the startup saw a 40% decrease in last-minute content requests and a 30% increase in the usage of existing marketing materials.

Key Takeaways:

• Keep meetings brief and focused
• Ensure both teams contribute to the agenda
• Use these meetings to align on priorities and address challenges
• Complement meetings with a shared project management tool for ongoing collaboration

3. Implement Integrated Technology and Knowledge Sharing

Misaligned technology can be a significant roadblock. At a previous company, the marketing team used HubSpot while sales lived in Salesforce. The result? Data discrepancies, miscommunication, and manual work.

To address this, we established a single source of truth by selecting Salesforce as our primary CRM, fully integrating it with HubSpot for marketing automation. We also built a shared knowledge base in Notion, giving both teams easy access to sales playbooks, marketing materials, and customer insights.

This integration took six months to implement and train the teams, but the results were clear. We saw a 25% increase in lead-to-opportunity conversion and saved countless hours previously spent on manual reconciliation.

Key Takeaways:

• Choose a primary platform and ensure seamless integration between marketing and sales tools
• Invest time in proper setup and training
• Regularly audit data quality and consistency
• Create a shared knowledge base accessible to both teams

4. Develop Joint Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategies

Alignment becomes critical when targeting high-value accounts. A tech startup I advised was struggling with enterprise accounts because marketing ran generic campaigns, while sales relied on cold outreach.

We solved this by collaborating on an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy. Both teams worked together to select target accounts, co-created content tailored to those accounts, and held weekly check-ins on progress. Using 6sense for ABM implementation, we saw a 3x increase in engagement from target accounts and closed two major enterprise deals.

Key Takeaways:

• Use ABM tools like 6sense to provide shared insights on target accounts
• Involve both marketing and sales in account selection and strategy
• Create customized campaigns and content for key accounts
• Maintain regular check-ins to adjust strategies as needed

5. Measuring Alignment Success

After implementing alignment initiatives, a SaaS company I worked with struggled to quantify their impact. To overcome this, we developed an Alignment Score based on several key metrics: SQL/MQL agreement rates, average sales cycle length, win rates, customer acquisition cost, marketing influence on won deals, and internal Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Tracking this Alignment Score quarterly allowed us to tie it to team performance evaluations. Within a year, the score improved by 40%, correlating with a 30% revenue increase.

Key Takeaways:

• Develop a composite Alignment Score using relevant metrics
• Include both quantitative (e.g., conversion rates) and qualitative (e.g., internal NPS) measures
• Regularly review alignment metrics with both teams and leadership
• Tie alignment metrics to performance evaluations to reinforce their importance

Achieving true marketing-sales alignment isn’t a quick fix or a one-time project—it’s an ongoing journey that requires commitment, open communication, and continuous refinement. However, the benefits of alignment are undeniable: better efficiency, improved customer experience, and accelerated growth.

The goal isn’t to make marketing and sales the same. It’s about leveraging the strengths of each team to build a unified revenue engine.

Are you ready to start your alignment journey? Take our comprehensive assessment to discover your current alignment status and receive tailored recommendations. Every step forward brings you closer to a more aligned and successful organization.