In my role as V.P. of Sales & Marketing with Red Sage, I specialize in vetting and onboarding new partnerships for the agency.  I’m also a long-time startup mentor for companies within HudsonAlpha’s Institute of Biotechnology.  That means I spend a lot of time talking with CEOs, presidents, executive leaders, entrepreneurs, and so on, trying to understand their business growth challenges and define marketing opportunities with them.

I ask a lot of targeted business development and sales questions, so I can determine what strategic mix of marketing, advertising, public relations, etc. will deliver the best return on investment.

As a result, I’ve pretty much seen and heard it all when it comes to “challenges” between sales and marketing teams.

“My sales teams are doing all the work, I’m not sure what ROI I’m actually getting from marketing.”

“We spend a lot in marketing, but sales reps say none of the leads coming in are qualified.”

“I want a better sales-marketing alignment.  I don’t think everyone’s on the same page on where to spend time and money.”

Desire for Sales–Marketing Alignment is Growing

Out of curiosity, I did a quick ChatGPT search, to see what the trend-line looks like for searches related to sales and marketing alignment.  I validated this in Google’s Keyword Planner and was not surprised to see that starting back in October 2024, queries around “sales and marketing alignment” shot up, and have continued an upward climb overall.

Variations on “align sales and marketing goals” are common queries.  Searchers are often looking for frameworks for setting shared KPIs (e.g. revenue targets, pipeline metrics) instead of conflicting quotas.  In more advanced circumstances, they might be looking for a sales–marketing “SLA” (Service Level Agreement) to firm up joint goals.

I’ve certainly FELT this shift in the business world, talking with both B2B and B2C-focused companies.  At recent conferences in the destination, attraction and experience industry, which has its own unique splits when it comes to sales and marketing, peers have also voiced frustration.

Embracing a “Smarketing” Philosophy for Greater ROI

So how do you actually get sales and marketing working together seamlessly?  Well, I can’t promise it’ll all be rainbows and unicorns all the time, but I do have a lot of experience designing purposeful integrated marketing and advertising that fuels a qualified sales pipeline.  One thing I’ve learned is that high-functioning companies, regardless of size, need to embrace a “smarketing” philosophy from the top.

If you’re the one who sets the high-level vision for your company’s growth, this change starts with you – specifically, a commitment to build transparency.

My personal mantra on “smarketing” integration is that marketing should live in service of sales.  Fellow marketers, I know that might be… frustrating… to read.  But it’s true.  Marketing exists to grow brand/market share that will drive sales outcomes.  Whether you’re building a qualified inbound conversions pipeline, or funneling leads direct to live sales reps, the goal is the same – set the table for sales to close deals!

Aligning Sales-Marketing Communication & Breaking Down Silos

Here’s what I’ve learned works really well for activating a “smarketing” philosophy immediately… Adopting any of these will help you in your journey.  Adopting all of them is even better!

#1: Share your business development vision.

77% of companies say holding frequent sales–marketing meetings is their #1 alignment tactic.  Why?  It works.  But there’s another step that can yield even greater outcomes.  At least once a year, if not bi-annually, growth leaders should bring sales and marketing teams together for a “high-level” overview of the company’s growth strategy.  This communication should include VERY CLEAR tie-ins with how marketing strategy + sales strategy are expected to meet growth targets.

#2: Develop shared KPIS and track them.

One of the challenges some agencies have is proving to clients through data, exactly how marketing is driving sales.  It’s unfortunately VERY common for marketing teams to be focused exclusively on marketing metrics (e.g. impressions, view-throughs, event conversions, ROAS) while sales teams are focused exclusively on closings and contract values.

Initiating shared KPIs across both groups, with visibility and regular outcomes review is critical for breaking down the silos.  The old saying we “manage to what we measure” applies here… so give your teams a foundation from which they can start to understand what’s working and what’s not within the larger pipeline.

#3: Get your tech house in order.

In 2026, integrating tools (CRM, automation platforms, analytics) so both sales and marketing teams share insights is increasingly crucial for business success.  Another fun fact from Google’s data… There’s been a boom in searches recently around “sales and marketing alignment tools” and best all-in-one CRMs that pull together databases, lead scoring, and marketing-sales dashboards.  It should be obvious, but if it’s not… I’ll say it plainly.  The more technologies your employees have to manage, the less effective they will be.

Sometimes people will ask me for guidance on effective lifecycle marketing strategies.  I always stress that a quality tech stack is huge.  To do LCM well, you mut have a “single view” of your customer’s engagement with you through time (whether you’re selling plumbing maintenance service or booking trips to Madrid.)

#4: Help your teams become a real team.

Last but not least, make sure you foster opportunities for sales and marketing teams to get to know one another.  You know, as people.  Joint planning sessions, interdepartmental trainings, shared customer feedback – all of it goes a long way to make people feel like they’re rowing in the same direction.  There’s no room for blame culture in a high-functioning, high-ROI “smarketing” department.  But to eliminate blame, you need a foundation of trust.

Frameworks to Operationally Align Sales & Marketing

Long-term, adopting an operational framework can also ensure you align sales and marketing well.  For rapidly-growing or scaling organizations or mid-sized companies, this can be the most effective path.  Here are a few which you may have heard of (or heard me talk about in conversations…)

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) – ABM is a strategic approach requiring tight sales–marketing coordination.  It had a big spike in interest in 2021 and 2022, coming out of the pandemic, and has continued to draw interest.  By some estimates, 60% of companies were using ABM to align teams by 2021.

Sales Enablement – The term “sales enablement” (equipping sales with content, insights, and training from marketing) has been surging in interest for a long time.  This framework is a favorite of mine… and I routinely advocate for new, stronger sales enablement practices within our agency.  Over time we’ve seen reduced friction, faster proposal generation, and increased onboarding clarity around goals and objectives for new partners.

Aligning Sales & Marketing for Tourism, Destinations and Attractions

Because our agency has special expertise in destination, attraction, and experience marketing, I’d love to share a few last notes specific to that segment.

In tourism, sales and marketing often talk past each other because they’re optimizing for different moments in the traveler journey.  To solve this, here are a couple of strategies…

Align Around Traveler Intent, Not Just Leads

Get your teams together (or work with your agency research partner) and jointly define intent stages (e.g., dreaming → planning → booking → on-site → advocacy.)

Map which channels and content marketing owns at each stage (inspiration content, itineraries, offers) and where sales or partners step in (group sales, ticketing follow-ups, travel trade, convention sales.)

Then, agree on what “sales-ready” means in your context:

• A meeting RFP
• A group inquiry
• A high-value package search
• A repeat visitor signal

Why does this work?  Sales teams get actual context, not just form fills.  Marketing focuses less on raw volume and more on intent quality, which is critical in seasonal markets.  And, in the end, both teams rally around the same traveler outcomes!

Use Shared Storytelling From Real Visitor & Partner Feedback

Tourism buyers respond emotionally. Sales teams hear this every day—but marketing often doesn’t.

To fix this, create a simple monthly feedback loop where sales shares:

• Objections they hear (“too crowded,” “hard to get to,” “not family-friendly”)
• Phrases visitors actually use to describe the experience
• Which images, itineraries, or offers help close the deal

Marketing can then turn that input into:

• Campaign messaging
• Content themes
• Sales enablement assets (one-pagers, itineraries, visuals)

In a process like this, messaging is way more authentic and conversion-minded.  Sales feels more invested in marketing outcomes and like they have a “voice” at the table.  Over time, marketer content comes to reflect real traveler language—not just brand language.

 

For a strategy consult on improving your own smarketing outcomes in 2026, connect with me at mstark@redsageonline.com!