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"Marketing and sales are disconnected"
Two teams optimizing different definitions of a good lead. The gap is normally in the handoff and the shared story, not in either team's effort.
What it looks like from the inside
Marketing reports a strong month and sales says the leads were weak.
The pitch deck and the website describe two different companies.
Nobody owns the moment a lead becomes an opportunity.
Objections that sales hears daily never make it into the messaging.
Pipeline reporting requires reconciliation before anyone trusts it.
Where to look first
Narrative
Whether both teams tell the buyer the same story.
Conversion
What happens in the first hour after a lead arrives.
Sales
Which objections repeat, and whether marketing hears them.
Revenue model
Whether both teams are paid against the same outcome.
What usually causes it
Three read the same from the outside. The tell is what separates them.
No agreed definition of a qualified lead
The tell
Each team can produce a number that makes their own quarter look fine.
A broken handoff
The tell
Response times stretch and context gets retyped rather than passed along.
Two narratives
The tell
Sales invents its own framing because the official one does not survive a live call.
What good looks like
One story, one definition of a good lead, and one funnel both teams can read. Conversion improves before spend does.
Ways forward
Three ways in, depending on how much of this you want to carry yourself.
Read on your own
Read it through first
Pieces on narrative, qualification, and designing the handoff.
Browse the library→Work through it with your team
Run it with your team
A working session format your marketing and sales leads can run together.
See workshops→Not sure this is the whole story?
These situations travel together more often than not. Read a neighbor, or tell us what is going on and we will point you at the right starting place.