Getting Your Sales & Marketing Teams to Work Effectively Together

Sales and marketing serve as the cornerstone of revenue growth in any business. While both are indispensable, they’re not always seen working in harmony. Some companies may lean heavily on one, leaving the other underdeveloped, while others might do both but in a siloed way, missing opportunities for collaboration.

To explore this further, we spoke with Agnes Lan, Vice President of Sales at Change Connect, based here in Markham. She shared her expertise on how sales teams can operate effectively and build stronger connections with their marketing counterparts.

Here are the insights:

Where is the Divide Between Sales and Marketing?

Sales and marketing operate on different levels of interaction with potential customers. Marketing is a one-to-many approach, where a single piece of content or campaign speaks to a broad audience within a target profile. In contrast, sales is a one-to-one interaction, where the focus shifts to understanding and addressing the unique needs of an individual client.

A common challenge between these departments is miscommunication, often rooted in unclear roles within the customer journey. Mapping out this journey can clarify where marketing ends and sales begins.

For example, downloading an ebook may not always indicate that a lead is ready for a purchase. Before COVID, customers typically engaged with sales at about 33% of their journey. However, research now shows that this contact point has shifted to between 57% and 66%.

This change highlights a gap in the journey, between 33% and 57%, where marketing needs to step in and bridge the transition to sales. Marketing efforts in this phase should educate and engage leads, priming them for meaningful interactions with the sales team.

Why Is There a Disconnect Between Sales and Marketing?

The disconnect between sales and marketing often stems from differing expectations about lead warmth. Sales teams typically expect leads from marketing to be highly engaged and close to making a purchase decision, while marketing’s role often focuses on generating awareness and interest. This mismatch can lead to frustration, inefficiencies, and a lack of cohesion between the two departments.

Adding to the complexity, the customer journey has undergone a significant shift, especially following COVID-19. In the past, customers would engage with sales representatives around 33% into their journey, seeking guidance early in their decision-making process. Today, research shows that customers now wait until they are 57% to 66% into their journey before reaching out to a salesperson.

This change means that marketing now plays a larger role in the early stages of the journey, while sales teams often encounter prospects further along but with less insight into the steps they’ve taken. This shift creates a gap in the handoff between marketing and sales, as teams struggle to align their responsibilities and strategies.

How Do You Bridge the Gap Between Sales and Marketing?

Bridging the gap between sales and marketing always comes back to the customer. Ask yourself these questions: What does the customer want? How can you tell that they’ve engaged with the information provided?

From there, work to properly chart the customer journey. By clearly defining each team’s role at various stages of the journey, businesses can minimize miscommunication and improve collaboration. When marketing understands the expectations of sales, and sales is equipped to engage leads at the right stage, the handoff becomes smoother, resulting in better outcomes for both teams—and, most importantly, for the customer.

What Marketing Needs to Bring to the Table

To effectively support sales, marketing must bridge the gap between 33% and 57% of the journey—helping leads progress from the introduction stage to the short list stage, where customers narrow their choices based on research.

At this point, marketing plays a vital role in shaping how customers feel about their options. Addressing customer emotions and providing educational resources is crucial to priming leads for meaningful engagement with sales.

This means:

• At the 33% mark, the goal is to spark initial interest and offer basic awareness.
• By the 57% or 66% mark, leads should feel informed and ready to discuss their needs more specifically.

This transition ensures that customers are prepared to engage with the sales team when the time comes.

Where Sales Needs to Take It from There

Once customers reach the short list stage, sales must take over with a clear plan to educate, nurture, and convert leads into clients.

While marketing primes leads, salespeople are responsible for understanding individual needs and building trust. This requires more than just taking orders—it’s about building relationships that drive decisions.

This means:

• Extending their involvement to further educate leads and provide tailored solutions.
• Aligning reps with leads based on the type of content those leads have engaged with.
• Using engagement touchpoints to better understand each client, ensuring their needs are addressed effectively.

The collaboration between marketing and sales is a joint effort to guide leads through the funnel. Marketing prepares leads to be ready for sales interaction, while sales carries the responsibility of nurturing those relationships. By working together seamlessly, businesses can create a process that better serves their customers and drives success.

How Do You Improve Your Sales Team’s Results?

Listen to the Customer

One of the most common mistakes salespeople make is treating all clients the same without addressing their unique challenges. This approach often fails because it overlooks the importance of active listening, a skill that significantly enhances conversion ratios and strengthens client relationships.

By genuinely listening to what clients share about their needs and concerns, sales reps can better address specific problems, leading to improved outcomes and satisfaction. Ignoring this step risks smaller deal sizes and weaker customer connections.

Understand Pain Points

When addressing client needs, focusing on pain points is key. Clients are often more motivated to solve a problem than to gain a benefit, with research indicating they are willing to pay five to seven times more to remove a pain.

Finding more serious problems reduces the need for discounting, as clients value the solution more than the cost.

For established products that are cost-effective and recognized immediately, companies may find that someone like an order taker will suffice instead of investing in a high-performing salesperson.

Know When to Ask for a Close

Many salespeople struggle with knowing when to ask for a close. Waiting too long can reduce a client’s urgency, leading to lost opportunities.

While nurturing is important, overdoing it or assuming clients will naturally make a decision after being well-informed often backfires. Effective salespeople recognize when the time is right and confidently move towards finalizing the deal to maintain momentum.

Time Management and Accountability

Efficient time management is another challenge for sales reps. Many get distracted by non-essential tasks like excessive networking or lengthy proposal writing, which detract from core selling activities.

To combat this, accountability should be a priority, reinforced by managers who ensure that reps remain focused on high-value tasks.

Management and KPIs

Sales success thrives on clear KPIs (key performance indicators). Employees need well-defined benchmarks to gauge their performance and understand their responsibilities. Every member of the sales team should be aligned on what success looks like, with managers supporting this clarity through joint call strategies and ongoing coaching.

Continuous monitoring of progress allows sales managers to identify areas where conversion rates can be improved, creating a system of ongoing refinement. Standardized sales playbooks offer a foundation, but managers must also encourage consistent improvement in processes.

Managerial Debt

Unresolved managerial debt, such as missing feedback or unclear reviews, can create lasting challenges for employees and teams. Managers must take ownership of closing these gaps by offering final, actionable feedback and prioritizing the team’s productivity over individual accomplishments.

Scheduling postmortem sessions and dedicating time to one-on-one meetings are essential steps in fostering a productive and engaged team. These actions ensure long-term clarity and prevent compounding performance issues, keeping the team aligned and focused.

Change Connect Can Help With Your Sales Team’s Performance

Improving a sales team’s performance requires more than just a script—it demands a focus on strategy, process, and tactics that align with an organization’s goals.

What sets Change Connect apart is their hands-on involvement throughout the execution journey. Their consultants are Change Management certified, bringing expertise grounded in behaviour change psychology. This certification equips them with a framework to guide individuals and teams through change, helping to establish new behaviours that stick.

Many organizations rely on generic sales coaches and pre-written scripts, but these often fall short. Without customization for specific client needs, these scripts become mechanical, leading to weak client connections and poor conversions. Change Connect addresses this gap by ensuring that processes are tailored to the unique requirements of each client, fostering meaningful engagement and improved results.

If any of these issues resonate with you, or if you are looking to take your sales team to the next level, feel free to reach out to Change Connect for an initial assessment.

About Agnes Lan

Agnes Lan is the Vice President of Sales at Change Connect Inc., where she specializes in sales process improvement for SMBs and enterprises. With over 13 years of experience at Change Connect, she has held key roles as Director and Principal Consultant, helping organizations streamline their sales strategies and achieve meaningful results.

Her academic achievements reflect a strong foundation in business and technical expertise. Agnes holds a BASc from the University of Toronto and an International MBA from HKUST Business School and Indiana University. She has further honed her skills through executive programs at Stanford and Harvard, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and board acumen. In addition, she holds a Masters Certificate in Analytics & AI from the Schulich School of Business, emphasizing her forward-thinking approach to data-driven sales strategies.

Beyond her corporate achievements, Agnes contributes to the community through leadership roles, including serving as VP Communications for the Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs. With her extensive experience and credentials, Agnes continues to guide businesses toward smarter, more effective sales processes.