Many brands want to implement account-based marketing strategies to target high-ticket accounts better, but for many, one major roadblock stands in their way:
A misalignment between sales and marketing.
The problem for many companies is that these two teams feel like they’re speaking different languages, operating in silos — your marketing teams generate leads, your sales team tries to close the deal and, somewhere in between, you’re letting valuable opportunities slip away.
This disconnect, unfortunately, is the biggest reason that ABM campaigns fail. So, how do you fix it?
By aligning your sales and marketing from the ground up, that’s how. When these two teams are fully aligned, your ABM strategy becomes a powerful, revenue-generating machine!
So, if you’re ready to stop letting high-value opportunities slip the cracks and start building an ABM strategy that works, today’s blog is what you need. Today, we’re showing you how to align your sales and marketing team to create an ABM strategy that actually converts!
Let’s dive in!
Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Essential for ABM Success
Account-based marketing isn’t just a nifty marketing strategy — it’s a targeted and highly personalized approach that only works if your sales and marketing team are working as one.
Unlike traditional lead generation, where marketing casts a wide net and then hands off leads to the sales team, ABM requires a more coordinated effort. Both teams have to work together to identify, engage, and then nurture those high-value accounts with the right messaging and on the right platform. When the teams aren’t aligned, is when gaps like inconsistent messaging and poorly nurtured leads start to emerge.
But when teams do align, ABM can then transform into a high-performing, revenue-generating strategy that moves prospects seamlessly through the funnel and creates a more efficient and effective sales process.
The Biggest Roadblocks for Sales and Marketing Alignment
However, despite the clear benefits of alignment, many companies find themselves struggling to get their sales and marketing teams on the same page.
Let’s get into some roadblocks that prevent even the best ABM strategies from happening.
- Different Goals, Different Metrics — Marketing teams focus on lead generation, engagement, and brand awareness, while sales is all about revenue, quotas, and closing deals. If you can’t agree on a way to measure success, don’t be surprised when your teams struggle to align.
- Siloed Data and Insights — Marketing has tons of insights on prospect behavior, engagement, and intent, but if that data never makes it to sales, it’s just useless. Likewise, sales has firsthand knowledge of pain points, objections, and buying signals, but marketing often isn’t looped in. The result? Missed opportunities and wasted effort.
- Inconsistent Messaging — If your marketing team is telling one story and your sales team another that doesn’t reinforce—or worse, contradicts— the first story, it confuses your prospects and makes it harder to build trust. ABM relies on a seamless experience across all touchpoints, and when the messaging isn’t aligned, it weakens the whole strategy.
- Lack of Communication — How often do sales and marketing teams actually sit down to collaborate on strategy, share feedback, or adjust messaging together? If the answer is “never,” “rarely,” or “what?!,” then it’s no wonder they feel like they’re working separately. Without regular check-ins and a shared game plan, it’s easy for both teams to operate in silos.
- Lead Quality Disputes — Marketing works hard to generate leads, but sales might dismiss them as not qualified or not ready to buy. Meanwhile, marketing might feel that sales isn’t following up properly. When there’s not a shared definition of what a qualified lead is and looks like, potential deals could be slipping through the cracks.
- No Clear Process for Lead Handoff — Even when marketing does generate solid leads, if there’s no system in place for how and when sales should follow up, those leads can go cold. A slow or unstructured lead handoff can be just as bad as having no leads at all.
5 Steps for Better Sales and Marketing Alignment
Now that we’ve covered the biggest roadblocks, let’s talk solutions!
Knowing what needs to change is just the first step; now, it’s time to take action. To turn your sales and marketing alignment from dream to reality, you need clear, concrete steps that both teams can easily follow.
Here’s how to put these strategies in motion and make sales and build an ABM strategy that actually works!
Step 1: Create a Sales and Marketing Playbook
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A good coach has a strategic playbook that all players have access to for good reason.
It keeps everyone on the same page. Your sales and marketing playbook should outline exactly how leads move through your funnel, guidelines for messaging, follow-up timelines, and responsibilities for each team.
Here are some pointers to include in your playbook and stop guessing how to work together:
- Define what a high-value ABM lead looks like – What industries, company sizes, and job titles fit your ICP?
- Establish ownership at each stage – Who is responsible for outreach, nurturing, follow-ups, and closing?
- Document key messaging points – Ensure sales and marketing tell the same story across content and conversations.
- Create standardized templates – Develop email sequences, call scripts, and engagement workflows for consistency.
- Map out the customer journey – What content or touchpoints move a prospect from awareness to conversion?
- Set SLA (Service Level Agreements) expectations – How quickly should sales follow up with marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)?
Step 2: Set Up a Shared Revenue Goal (Not Just Separate KPIs)
Marketing is usually measured by lead volume and sales by closed deals, but this creates some tension when good leads just don’t convert.
Instead, align both of your teams under a shared revenue goal.
- Shift from MQLs vs. SQLs to RQLs (Revenue Qualified Leads) – Define a single lead qualification standard both teams agree on.
- Create compensation structures that reward collaboration – Instead of only rewarding closed deals, incentivize engagement and nurturing efforts.
- Use attribution models to track marketing’s contribution to revenue – Multi-touch attribution can show which campaigns influence closed deals.
- Set shared pipeline conversion benchmarks – What percentage of MQLs should become SQLs? What’s the ideal lead-to-close ratio?
- Establish a feedback loop – If sales is rejecting leads, marketing should know why so they can refine targeting.
By making revenue both teams’ north star instead of anything else, you can eliminate the constant back-and-forth over lead quality.
Step 3: Build an Automated System
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Being aligned isn’t going to help much if your leads are slipping through the cracks because of slow response times or disorganization.
To prevent that, your sales and marketing teams need an automated system to make sure that all high-value leads are followed up at the right time and with the right strategy.
Here are some ways to get it done:
- Use AI-driven lead scoring – Prioritize leads based on behavior, engagement, and intent signals.
- Set up real-time alerts – Notify sales immediately when a high-value prospect downloads a whitepaper, visits a pricing page, or engages with an email.
- Implement automated nurturing workflows – Use multi-step email sequences, retargeting ads, and personalized outreach to keep leads warm.
- Sync CRM and ABM tools – Platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Marketo should provide both teams with real-time data.
- Automate meeting scheduling – Use tools like Calendly to let leads book sales calls instantly when they’re ready.
Remember, automation isn’t just about making things more convenient for your team (though it certainly does that), it’s about making sure that none of your valuable prospects are left waiting!
Step 4: Have Joint Sales and Marketing Pipeline Reviews
If your marketing and sales teams are only seeing each other during quarterly reviews, it’s already too late.
Instead, your teams should meet regularly to see what strategies are working and which aren’t. Here are some tips to set these up:
- Hold weekly or biweekly check-ins – Then you can assess lead performance, bottlenecks, and engagement trends in real time.
- Use sales insights to improve marketing content – What objections are sales hearing? What messaging resonates best?
- Track where leads drop off – Are prospects engaging but not booking meetings? Are certain industries converting better?
- Analyze conversion rates at every stage – Where are leads getting stuck? Is sales following up quickly enough?
- Refine lead qualification criteria – If leads aren’t converting, adjust targeting based on past closed deals.
- Foster a feedback-driven culture – Encourage open discussions on what’s working and what needs improvement.
Step 5: Use Customer Data to Improve Your ABM Strategy
Your sales and marketing alignment isn’t a one-and-done thing.
ABM is about precision, and that precision improves with every customer interaction. So, make sure your teams are learning from the data instead of just following a static strategy. The best ABM strategies evolve over time, after all, and using real customer data and account insights to shape your strategies is
Here are some pointers:
- Gather feedback from closed deals – What messaging resonated most? What objections stalled deals?
- Analyze engagement trends – What content formats (webinars, whitepapers, case studies) drive the most engagement?
- Leverage predictive analytics – Identify accounts most likely to convert based on historical data.
- A/B test content and outreach – Experiment with different email subject lines, call scripts, and ad creatives to see what works best.
- Monitor post-sale engagement – Are customers sticking around? Use this insight to refine targeting and messaging.
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Looking for Creative Support to Fuel Your ABM Strategy?
Getting your sales and marketing teams on the same page is just the first step.
A good ABM strategy also requires the right content, messaging, and campaigns to help your brand connect with your high-value accounts!
So, if your brand is looking for some creative and marketing support to help make your ABM campaigns a success, then Designity is here to help.
Designity is an innovative Creative as a Service platform that is made up of the best of the best in fields like graphic design, copywriting, SEO, digital marketing, social media marketing, video production, motion graphics, and more – everyone you need to create personalized ads, high-converting landing pages, or case studies and other content to engage your high-value accounts!
Check out our account-based marketing service page and portfolio to see how Designity’s experts have been the answer for brands just like yours. If you like what you see, go ahead and book your demo call!
We can’t wait to get you started with a two-week trial so you can test-drive our 100+ design and marketing services and see firsthand why Designity is the ABM solution you’ve been looking for!
Are you ready to take your ABM strategy to the next level?
