Alignment isn’t whether the two teams are polite in meetings. It’s whether they share definitions, targets, and a single view of what happens to a lead. Here are the signs they don’t — and misalignment always shows up as leaked pipeline before it shows up as an argument.
1. “Qualified” means two different things
Ask marketing what an MQL is, then ask sales what makes a lead worth their time. If the answers don’t match, every handoff is a small translation loss. This is the most common root cause I see, and the most quietly expensive.
2. The targets pull in opposite directions
If marketing is paid on volume of leads and sales is paid on quality of pipeline, they’re optimising against each other by design. Marketing hits its number by sending more; sales hits its number by ignoring most of it.
3. Neither team can see the full lifecycle
When marketing’s view stops at “lead sent” and sales’ view starts at “opportunity created”, nobody owns the middle. The handoff itself — the highest-risk stretch — is a blind spot for both.
4. Feedback is anecdotal, not structured
“Marketing leads are rubbish” is a vibe, not data. If there’s no closed loop telling marketing which leads became revenue, they can’t improve, and the resentment calcifies into permanent distrust.
5. There’s no written SLA
If there’s no agreement on how fast sales works a lead and what marketing owes in return, then everything runs on goodwill — which evaporates the first busy quarter.
6. They only meet to assign blame
Aligned teams review the funnel together and fix it together. Misaligned teams meet when the number’s missed, to work out whose fault it is.
What alignment actually takes
Alignment is a system, not a relationship. Shared definitions, a written SLA, one lifecycle view, and a closed feedback loop. Get those in place and the goodwill follows; rely on goodwill alone and it won’t survive contact with a hard quarter.
If you’re not sure where your two teams are drifting apart, a free 30-minute health check will show you the specific seams.
Related reading
See seven signs your handoff is leaking pipeline and your MQL target is why sales doesn’t trust marketing.