The board meeting is approaching. Marketing has its calendar up to date; sales brings a list of open proposals. Revenue is still below expectations. Someone asks what is happening, and the explanations begin: the leads are no good, salespeople are not following up, the agency does not understand the business. The meeting ends with more requests for everyone. What has changed to make next month any different?

At MarkLovers, we hear these complaints when a company asks us to review its marketing. Sometimes the conversation begins with the website or an unsatisfactory supplier. Reconstructing what happened to sales opportunities reveals disagreements that have gone unresolved for some time. One of the most costly is fairly basic: marketing and sales have different ideas about what they should achieve together.

AI brings the discussion back to the boardroom

The pressure to adopt artificial intelligence has accelerated the debate about how to organize commercial functions. McKinsey addresses this in its report on the future of B2B sales, published in July 2026. It proposes connecting marketing, sales, pricing and customer service, and notes that this transformation requires a review of incentives and responsibilities for data. It also needs senior leadership support.

That requirement is reaching companies still debating who was supposed to call a lead. Before automating follow-up, someone needs to agree on what warrants a call and who will make it. Buying the tool leaves that decision unresolved.

The lead sales rejected and marketing never understood

Consider a lead received after an industry event. Marketing records it and passes it to the sales team. A salesperson decides the company is not a good fit and stops pursuing it. They may be right. The problem arises when nobody can explain what evidence supported that decision.

Was the absence of a need established? Was the right person contacted? Perhaps the project was a good fit, but the budget belonged to the next financial year. Without that information, marketing will keep finding similar leads, and sales will keep rejecting them.

Aligning marketing and sales requires an agreed definition of an opportunity and a record of what happens to it. The reasons for pursuing or rejecting a lead need to be open to review. That review produces adjustments unlikely to emerge from a meeting devoted to assigning blame.

A shared goal for marketing and sales

If the company wants to enter a new engineering segment, counting submitted forms tells it little on its own. It needs to know how many leads belong to that segment, which ones sales accepted and what happened in subsequent conversations.

Leadership needs to define what it expects from that market and what resources are available to pursue it. Marketing can then research buyers, develop arguments and choose where to reach them. Sales needs to share what it learns: objections, competing suppliers or conditions that make closing difficult. This exchange allows the strategy to be adjusted as it unfolds.

Metrics help track that work. For example, the progress of opportunities accepted by both functions shows where the process stalls. Win rates and margins help assess commercial results. Each team retains its own responsibilities; a shared goal gives them a reason to resolve problems that cross functional boundaries together.

The brand also plays a part in the buying decision

Some technical businesses win contracts through referrals or established procurement processes. Their executives often ask us what marketing can contribute in those circumstances. It is worth looking at what a buyer does after learning about a potential supplier.

They may review its track record, check references or request a presentation to share with other decision-makers. Along that journey, the company has to explain why its offer deserves consideration. A technical argument that makes sense to operations may need a different explanation for the person authorizing the investment.

Our article on commercial clarity and the value proposition explores this difficulty. When the market receives confusing messages, salespeople end up answering questions in every meeting that the company could already have addressed.

This also affects measurement. A reputation initiative should be assessed against the change it seeks among relevant audiences and over a reasonable period. Judging it solely by sales attributed to the last click leaves much of its potential contribution outside the analysis.

What gets lost between one channel and the next

McKinsey’s Global B2B Pulse 2026 survey, conducted among nearly 4,000 decision-makers in 13 countries, reports that buyers use an average of ten channels during their journey. The finding calls for a closer look at what happens between those interactions.

A conversation at a business gathering may continue by email and lead to a technical site visit. The team receiving the buyer should know what was discussed before and what is needed now. Building a community may be a priority for a chamber of commerce; a company selling projects to construction firms will have different needs. The business model should guide channel choices and how their contribution is assessed.

What leadership needs to agree with marketing and sales

A newly appointed president wants to signal the start of a new administration. They request a brand refresh and better communication. That is understandable: they need the change to be visible. Soon, however, they will have to decide what the company wants to communicate and whom it intends to persuade.

This is where endless revisions often begin. Each person asks for something different, and the supplier tries to reconcile contradictory instructions. An incomplete brief makes matters worse, particularly when nobody inside the company has time to guide the external team.

Supplier assessment should consider the agreed scope and the information provided. Internal capacity also needs scrutiny. If more responsibilities are added to an already overstretched team, leadership must decide what to postpone or what resources to bring in.

Before asking for another plan, review what is already happening

A useful starting point is to reconstruct a few recent opportunities with marketing and sales in the same conversation. Where did they originate? Who was involved? What is known about the outcome? Differences between the accounts help identify what a diagnostic review should investigate.

At MarkLovers, we examine these difficulties alongside the value proposition and available resources. From the diagnosis, we develop the strategy and advise leadership during implementation. Execution remains with the client and its teams or suppliers.

If these discussions sound familiar, let’s talk about what is happening between marketing and sales. We can help you identify where work is getting stuck and what decisions leadership needs to make so the teams can move forward.

Frequently asked questions

Who should lead marketing and sales alignment?

The heads of both functions should agree on how they will work together and review their results. General management needs to support those agreements and intervene when priorities conflict or decisions exceed the teams’ authority.

What should be measured when the B2B sales cycle is long?

The progress of opportunities and the reasons they stall help assess the process before deals close. Positioning initiatives need their own indicators, chosen for the audience and objective. The assessment period should reflect the buying cycle.

What should be defined before implementing a CRM?

Who will use the information and which decisions it will inform. From there, teams can agree on sales stages and qualification criteria. They also need to assign responsibility for recording progress and checking that the system reflects what happens to each opportunity.