At Demand-Genius, we see the friction between Sales and Marketing every day. We've also seen a big shift in the appetite of revenue leaders to take tangible steps to resolve that friction.

It's not hard to understand why. Just 5% of the B2B buyer journey takes place with Sales reps. As B2B buying has digitised, Sales and Marketing friction has gone from a cultural issue to a critical blocker to revenue growth.

As leaders take more tangible actions to align these two oldest of enemies, one consequence is that we are seeing more and more Marketers take on direct Revenue targets. This can throw up several new challenges for a Marketer.

For starters, it puts more focus on the age old problem of attribution. As functional KPIs give way to team revenue goals, it is critical to be able to demonstrate a contribution to that collective goal.

It also, quite deliberately, puts more emphasis on a strong relationship with Sales to achieve Marketing goals. As goals shift from lead generation to demand-generation and revenue impact, Sales reps move from a stakeholder  to a vital distribution channel.

As Marketers we love intent data. but the best intent data you are ever going to get your hands on resides with the people talking to prospects.

Similarly, reps are finding it harder than ever to get time with prospects. 75% of buyers actively avoid interacting with Sales reps. More than ever, reps rely on Marketing to stay front of mind, particularly in longer, more complex sales cycles.

So, how do you create Sales and Marketing Alignment?

The good news is that GTM leaders recognise the need and are taking steps to align incentives.

The bad news is, in many organisations, the problem runs deeper. It is often culturally entrenched and reflects a mindset that is not going to be shifted easily.

We thought it would be useful to take a look at some of the signals we see that might indicate the Sales and Marketing relationship is more fractured than you think, and a few practical steps Marketers can take to improve things.

‍5 Signs that your relationship with Sales is broken

1. MQLs are being ignored

I was speaking to a Marketing leader recently who was agreeing an SLA with their Sales team.

This is great, but the question put to me was "what should the MQL follow-up rate be?

Um... 100%?

I get it, there's something scary about 100%. It seems unrealistically perfectionist.

But here's the thing. Sales reps like leads. No sales rep worth their salt is ignoring good leads. So why would we set the expectation at anything less than 100%?

But anything under 95% is a sign of a serious breakdown in the sales and marketing relationship.

Rightly or wrongly, Sales reps have lost faith in the leads you are delivering and view following up as a waste of their time.

Either that or there is an operational issue that's seeing leads fall through the cracks. Either way, you have an alignment problem.

An easy way to work out which is to segment lead follow up and look at how high performers are treating your leads versus the average and below average reps. If high performers don't value your leads, you need to take responsibility for understanding why and solving the problem.

Again, Sales reps like leads. If they're ignoring them, you need to tackle that head on.

2. Reps sharing PDFs

This is a classic.

Marketing wants content to be shared via the link, but reps habitually download PDF versions and share them directly.

Honestly, in 2025 this shouldn't be an issue - this is not a difficult problem to solve from a technology perspective. That's not the reality in a lot of organisations we speak to, and this can be a big source of friction.

It's also a sign of a broader problem. If reps are doing this, they think you place your own attribution needs above their buyer's experience. And quite frankly, they're right.

It's a tell take sign of a broken relationship. You are each working towards your own ends and need to agree on how, as an organisation, you can provide the best possible buyer experience. I would expect the answer lies in solving the technology issues that created this problem in the first place.

3. Reps not sharing content at all.

Even worse, I speak to a lot of Marketers who complain that Sales reps aren't leveraging content at all.

In 2025, this is insane.

Per Gartner, "Information Connectors" outperform "Information Authorities" in Sales.

Why? Because 94% buyers don’t trust sellers (G2).

If a rep wants to influence a buyer, they need to position themselves as a thought leader. The most effective way to do that is not to teach, but to guide. Don't sell the idea, sell the content that sells the idea.

Reps need to stay front of mind, and they need to educate. If reps aren't leaving every call looking for resources they can share to support this goal, you need to have a serious look at why.

Are their calls too transactional to uncover the pain points your content speaks to? Maybe.

Or is it that your content is missing the mark? Or just that they don't know how to find it and how to leverage it?

4. No Content Requests

The best content leaders operate like product managers. They consolidate inputs from all directions into a roadmap that maximises business value and impact.

The skill is say no without deterring those inputs. Otherwise soon you’ll lose your insight into front line conversations and your content will suffer.

If you’re not getting requests, it’s not because there aren’t topics coming up that your reps would love to offer a perspective on, or that they don’t want to be seen as a thought leader.

It's because they don't believe their request will be heard.

Again, to solve this, try to operate like a Product Manager.

Build an objective and transparent process for handling content suggestions.

Adopt a scoring system and review the weighting routinely as your overall content and revenue goals evolve.

You shouldn't always say yes and become reactive, but you should always be able to provide a well reasoned no that doesn't deter ideas moving forward.

5. Disjointed Messaging

Moving away from the content roadmap, one exercise that is always interesting is to go through the outreach of top performing reps and compare the messaging to what Marketing is putting out.

In the best organisations there is continuity between what marketing thinks the value prop is and what reps see to be resonating on the front line.

You might be surprised by how much the message diverges. Even in effective organisations you’ll often find that there are segments or niches where the reps have uncovered a perspective or position that you can start to leverage in your Marketing.

What can you do to fix it?

Messaging Review

I mentioned it above, but I can't stress enough how valuable a detailed look into existing practices can be.

This requires more than digging into the data.

Data can be revealing, particularly in terms of understanding if there is a problem. It can also feel more like an exercise in finger pointing than in understanding the root cause, though.

Digging deeper into how messaging differs in different parts of the organisation will reveal so much more about the root cause of a problem. It is well worth doing, particularly if the data is pointing to the existence of a problem.

Service Level Agreement

Once you've understood the problems that exist and committed to solving them, you need to agree on a way of working together moving forward.

Implement a service level agreement between Sales and Marketing and routinely monitor adherence to it.

Again, this isn't always about accountability.

MQL follow-up SLA not being met? Sure, this might be a question of laziness, but it could also reflect lower quality.

It's important to be having that conversation monthly or at least quarterly so that you can make the required changes before behaviours become entrenched.

Content Experience

We referenced this earlier, but your customers and your internal stakeholders need to see that you value the experience of your buyers above your own personal attribution needs.

We've long been proponents of reader-led content experiences.

As an industry we need to get away from building a content gating or CTA strategy around what we need - MQLs, data, attribution - to building it around what our customer needs.

This is better for buyers, but it is also going to help you build a better relationship with your Sales team. They need to see that closing their deal is your #1 goal.

Demonstrate your Impact

I've deliberately avoided the word "attribution" here, because I think there is a connotation with that term that it is about claiming credit.

That's not the point here.

It is about developing your ability to understand how the different components of a go-to-market function are contributing to the overall picture. This will inform budget allocation but also, improve alignment between Sales and Marketing.

Understand how marketing engagement impacts the key metrics reps care about, and how they can leverage your work to improve those metrics.

For example, how does engagement with content during the sales process impact the time it takes to close a deal, or the likelihood of that deal closing?

You rely on Sales as a crucial bottom-of-funnel distribution channel, so this information is critical to driving the behaviours you want.

Sales reps operate under a lot of pressure to close deals. A strong working relationship depends on your ability to demonstrate that you are helping them to do that.

How can Demand-Genius help?

Your content should be driving revenue, not just generating traffic.

At Demand-Genius, we track exactly how Sales is using your content, and how it’s influencing pipeline and revenue.

Want to see it in action? Book a demo today.