Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing in B2B

Stop me if this sounds familiar: your marketing team is generating leads, but sales says they’re poor quality. Sales closes deals, but marketing didn’t even know those conversations were happening. Your teams are working hard, just not together.

This misalignment isn’t just frustrating. It’s expensive. When sales and marketing aren’t speaking the same language, you lose momentum, waste budget, and leave revenue on the table. And in a B2B world where buying journeys are complex and attention is scarce, you can’t afford that.

I’ve seen this from both sides. I’ve worked with sales teams who felt marketing “didn’t get it,” and marketers who were fed up being judged on metrics they couldn’t control. But when the two functions align, really align, it unlocks serious growth.

Shorter sales cycles. Better conversion rates. Clearer messaging. And a shared sense of purpose.

Understanding the Root Causes of Misalignment

If your sales and marketing teams feel more like neighbouring countries than a united force, you’re not alone. Misalignment is one of the most persistent problems in B2B and it’s costing you more than just team morale.

Different Goals. Different Metrics. Different Worlds.

Here’s the reality. Sales and marketing are often incentivised in completely different ways.Marketing’s job? Drive leads, boost engagement, and build pipeline.Sales? Close deals and hit revenue targets.

It seems obvious. Of course they’re different. But when those metrics don’t ladder up to a shared business goal, you create two systems with competing priorities. Marketing pushes MQLs to hit a monthly target, while sales dismisses them as “not ready”. Sales chases quick wins at quarter-end, while marketing’s working on a long-term nurture strategy.

The result? Friction. Frustration. Finger-pointing.

Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing in B2B: Communication Gaps and Turf Wars

Let’s be honest. When was the last time your sales and marketing teams sat down to talk through strategy, not just metrics?

In many B2B companies, the two teams operate in silos. There’s no shared space to collaborate, no process for feedback loops, and no mechanism to adjust in real time. Instead, marketing works off assumptions about what sales needs, and sales works off assumptions about how leads are generated. You get two sets of people working hard, but not together.

That disconnection shows up in your messaging, your content, your campaigns, and ultimately, your results.

The Hidden Cost: Your Buyer’s Experience

Here’s where it really bites. Your prospect notices the disconnect.

They read a polished, insight-led whitepaper from marketing, only to get a cold call two days later that’s totally off-topic. Or they attend a webinar, ask for a demo, and then hear nothing for two weeks because the handover process is clunky. Inconsistent experiences break trust. And in a crowded B2B landscape, trust is currency.

The Data Dilemma

Even with all the tech in the world, if your teams don’t trust the data they’re seeing, or they’re looking at different dashboards entirely, you’re not aligned. You’re guessing.

Sales stops logging updates because “it takes too long.” Marketing builds strategies around personas that don’t reflect actual buyer conversations. The gap widens.

So, What’s the Fix?

Alignment isn’t about asking marketing to think more like sales or vice versa. It’s about creating shared ownership over the revenue journey.

That means

• Building a unified view of the buyer, grounded in real data and shared insight

• Creating feedback loops where both teams can learn, adjust, and iterate quickly

• And perhaps most importantly, designing shared goals and KPIs that make success a team win, not a departmental scorecard

In the next section, you’ll see just how much misalignment is costing you, and why bridging the gap isn’t a “nice to have”, but a revenue-critical priority.