--- title: "How Sales And Marketing Should Be Working Together" url: "https://adroitmktg.com/blog/sales-marketing-work-together/" description: "I hear this myth frequently about how sales and marketing departments are at odds with each other. I get a painted picture of the two going head-to-head in" type: "blog" updated: "2026-09-23T15:02:28+00:00" --- ## HOW TO NURTURE LEADS WITH BOTH MARKETING AND SALES I hear this myth frequently about how sales and marketing departments are at odds with each other. I get a painted picture of the two going head-to-head in a bloody medieval battle. And just like in medieval times, there's no real victor because everyone loses when the epidemic plague hits, in this case, the plague of no leads and no customers. But it is just a myth. In reality, Sales and Marketing generally know that each is part of the finished puzzle. The problem is that most organizations don't know exactly how the Sales and Marketing pieces actually fit together.61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified.65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing.79% of B2B marketers have not established lead scoring. The overarching theme is that there just isn't any structure in place to regulate how Marketing and Sales interact and work with each other. There's no process, and therefore it is chaos. In a nutshell, Marketing feels good when they generate a lead, and they know Sales want as many conversations as possible. Sales deal with leads all day, so they're the best ones to handle them, right? **Wrong.** The biggest problem between Marketing and Sales is that Marketing doesn't know how to nurture and qualify leads, and Sales is too impatient to wait for leads to be qualified before taking them from Marketing. The solution is a defined lead nurturing strategy that defines what happens to a lead when they enter the funnel, and at what point they are ready to be passed on to Sales. But here's what most organizations miss: **the handoff itself is a systems problem, not a marketing problem.** The diagnosis usually finds that marketing is already delivering leads into a funnel that cannot handle, nurture, or close them. Leads go cold before follow-up, the marketing-to-sales handoff is held together by memory, the CRM is populated but not trusted, and nobody can say which revenue came from what. More traffic into that funnel does not produce more revenue — it produces more waste. The standard sequencing is: fix lead handling and the marketing-to-sales handoff first — routing, response time, qualification, follow-up cadence, ownership, and a CRM whose data can be trusted. Then re-point the existing marketing spend at a funnel that can actually convert it, before adding any new budget. Then invest in channel growth and the long-term strategy on top of a system that converts what it receives. That's the work a [Growth Assessment](/growth-assessment/) is built to surface: whether the constraint is volume or handling, and what to fix first. ### A COOKING METAPHOR An excellent metaphor for how this should work is in the kitchen of a restaurant. Each cook in the kitchen has a specific task that leads to an ultimate goal: the happiness of the customer. Every member of the team needs each other. The head chef couldn't do it with his staff unless he only wants to feed a few customers a night. The rest of the team couldn't do it without the head chef, or there would be no consistency and no quality assurance. The restaurant would lose customers. The separation between the roles is also important. If the head chef swoops in halfway through the task of his staff, important steps could be missed, the finished product could be subpar, and the customer could end up displeased. Conversely, if the staff decides to do the job of the head chef, important final steps could be missed, the finishing touches could fail to wow the customer, and the customer could tell everyone they know that their experience was "just alright" or "forgettable". Ideally, the kitchen would run in perfect order. The customer places the order, and the order is delivered to the staff. The staff does the majority of the legwork: they prep the food, cook the food, plate the food, and taste the food. They pretty much completely finish the dish before the head chef even sees it. When it is delivered for final approval, the head chef only has to make minor adjustments before the process is complete, and the customer is satisfied. This is how Marketing and Sales should be working together, and the process should be seamless. Leads enter the funnel through a form fill out or an email opt-in. Marketing delivers course after course of relevant, quality content to nurture those leads until they're drooling over the idea of working with you and your product. Then, once they're basically begging to sign on the dotted line, the sales team works their sales sweet-talk voodoo magic, and in no time they're a paying customer. Which is good for everyone. Lavish Christmas parties and huge bonuses are on the horizon, love abounds between Marketing and Sales, and your great success will continue to draw the best talent, and the cycle continues. ## MARKETING AUTOMATION MAKES IT REAL In order to make all this work, the systems matter as much as the intent. There is no easy way for Marketing to effectively manage lead nurturing without automation that routes, tracks, and scores leads as they move through the funnel. Any solid platform will have the tools to nurture leads, set up a lead scoring program to standardize when a lead gets passed off to the sales team, and analyze the results and data afterward. [Connecting your data](/services/connect-your-data/) — integrating your CRM, billing, and marketing systems into a single revenue-operations spine — is what turns the handoff from a handshake into a system. That's the difference between a marketing engagement that produces activity and one that produces profitable growth. --- **Ready to find out where the constraint actually is?** [Book an intro call](/contact/) and we'll walk you through what a Growth Assessment uncovers — and what to fix first.