Aligning Sales and Marketing: Lessons from Both Sides of the Table

This episode opens with a simple visual that says everything: the “sales couch” and the “marketing chair.”

Two seats. One revenue function. And a relationship that can either create momentum or burn time, money, and trust.

In this conversation, Jami and Andrew trade perspectives from both sides of the table. Both have lived in sales and marketing roles, which makes the discussion refreshingly practical. No theory. Just what actually happens inside growing B2B organizations when alignment is strong, and what breaks when it is not.

The core truth: sales secures work, marketing makes it easier to close

A clean definition shows up early:

• Sales is securing work (winning clients, projects, renewals, revenue).
• Marketing should make that job easier (clarity, confidence, credibility, and support through the buyer journey).
  
  

Or as the episode frames it: marketing is anything that supports a sale.

The problem is not that sales and marketing want different outcomes. It’s that they often operate on different clocks, with different incentives, and without a shared picture of what “good” looks like.

When to “turn on marketing” depends on where you are

One of the strongest threads in the episode is this: alignment starts with understanding the stage of business you’re in.

They reference a simple growth model:

• Seeker
  
• Starter
• Builder
• Grower
• Scaler
• Giver
  
  

The big takeaway is timing.

Before product-market fit, the work is sales-led (and should be)

In early stages, the temptation is to say, “We need leads, let’s turn on marketing.”

But if you have not nailed your ICP and offer, marketing becomes an expensive way to create noise. The better move is to get out, have conversations, and “skin your knees.” Learn what the market responds to. Tighten the message through real selling.

Marketing still matters here, but it looks different:

• Language and positioning support
• Lightweight, on-brand messaging
• Iteration through real conversations
• Momentum without overbuilding
  
  

After product-market fit, marketing becomes the accelerator

Once the business hits a more defined Builder-to-Scaler transition, “turning on the spots” makes sense. Now the story is stable enough to scale. Now systems and tracking matter. Now marketing can add leverage instead of confusion.

The hidden cause of misalignment: marketing is systematic, sales is reactive

A big moment in the episode is when they unpack why misalignment shows up even in good companies.

Sales tends to respond to what is happening now:

• the next deal
• the new vertical
• the pitch tomorrow
• the fastest path to quota
  
  

Marketing tends to work inside a system:

• campaigns that take time
• buyer journeys that are measured in months
• messaging consistency
• long-term brand equity
  
  

Neither is wrong. The issue is when those two approaches operate without a shared plan. That is where leaders need to step in and define a longer horizon.

The alignment unlock:
a shared 3-year picture and 1-year goals

The episode keeps coming back to this idea: if sales and marketing do not agree on where the business is going, everything turns reactionary.

Alignment begins when leadership can clearly answer:

• Where do we want to be in 3 years?
• What does “well-oiled” look like?
• What are the 1-year goals that move us toward that picture?
• What are the definitions everyone will use (lead, MQL, SQL, expectations)?
  
  

When that picture exists, sales can still test and experiment, but it happens inside a frame. Marketing can still build deliberately, but it stays connected to revenue reality.

That is the sweet spot: nimble execution under a shared direction.

The EOS tool that is often underrated: the Proven Process

They make a strong EOS-based case that one tool does more alignment work than most teams realize:

The Proven Process within the EOS Marketing Strategy.

Why it matters:

• It forces clarity on how you deliver value.
• It gives marketing and sales shared language.
• It ties operations into the promise being sold.
• It moves the business from “experimental” selling to “systematic” selling.
  
  

A Proven Process is not just a credibility play externally. It is an internal alignment mechanism that keeps sales, marketing, and delivery telling the same story.

When employees believe it, customers buy it.

Marketing is not lead generation
(but lead generation is part of marketing)

A key distinction shows up mid-episode:

• Marketing is the plan and the activity that supports revenue.
• Lead generation is one outcome of marketing, not the whole job.
  
  

Marketing also supports:

• customer attention and retention
• employee engagement
• internal alignment
• corporate communication
• sales enablement (decks, emails, narrative, case studies)
  
  

This is part of why “ROI on marketing” becomes such a loaded question. You can measure outcomes, but marketing rarely pays back instantly.

Which leads to the next point.

Buyer journey reality: marketing takes time

They outline a familiar B2B arc:

1. A buyer becomes aware of their pain
2. A buyer becomes aware of possible solutions
3. A buyer becomes aware of your category/product
4. A buyer becomes aware of the partner they trust to buy from
   
   

That journey can take 9 to 18 months. So when teams demand proof in 90 days without acknowledging the journey, they create a predictable pattern:

• wasted spend
• broken trust
• constant “start over” cycles
• frustration between sales, marketing, and agencies
  
  

The episode lands this clearly: smart work takes time.

And the longer you wait, the shorter the fuse gets.

The operational layer:
tech stack maturity is an 18-month game

They also go deep on the infrastructure side. Alignment is hard without clean systems.

CRM, marketing automation, attribution, integrations, process discipline, and reporting loops are not quick wins. Done well, maturity is built brick by brick:

• start awareness
• capture leads
• qualify and tag
• move through CRM stages
• attribute outcomes
• close the loop back to marketing
  
  

Their experience: it often takes 18 months to build, and another 18 months to mature.

The point is not to delay action. It is to avoid pretending this is an overnight switch.

Strategy sets the stage. Activation builds momentum.

Where leads should go first: business development as a filter

One practical recommendation: don’t throw raw marketing leads directly to quota-carrying closers.

Instead, treat business development as a filter that separates the qualified from the noise, protects sales time, and preserves clean data.

They also highlight that the tracking and attribution burden should not sit on the salesperson. The CRM should serve sales, but the marketing engine should handle most of the qualification mechanics before a lead becomes “sales-ready.”

They close with a set of mistakes that show up constantly in growing companies.

1. Expecting ROI in 90 days only

If you measure marketing like a light switch, you will keep turning it off right when it starts to work.

2. Ignoring the buyer journey

If your category buying cycle is long, your marketing expectations must match it.

3. Promoting the top rep into sales leadership too early

This one hits hard: the best closer is not always the right builder of a mature sales function. When that happens, the org over-optimizes for closing and under-invests in building alignment, systems, and scalable process.

4. No “currency of exchange” between teams

When multiple salespeople constantly request urgent one-off needs from a small marketing team, priorities collapse. Sales starts building their own materials. Marketing starts policing. Trust erodes.

Final takeaway: trust the process, surface the issues, build momentum

The episode ends where EOS always brings you back:

• Alignment is not an event. It is a process.
• If you have issues, put them on the list.
• Prioritize. Solve. Repeat.
• And do it with empathy on both sides of the table.
  
  

Sales and marketing alignment is rare, but when it happens, it is incredible.

Not because the teams agree on everything.

Because they share the same direction, the same language, and a realistic plan to build traction one 90-day cycle at a time.

Show Notes: Inside the 90™ Episode #29