You've got big dreams—scaling projects, delighting clients, and building a legacy. But there's a villain lurking: the disconnect between your sales results and your marketing. Your agency partner is pumping out leads that sales can't work with, or sales is doing all the lead gen and closing deals without the right support. Sound familiar? This misalignment isn't just annoying; it's costing you real revenue and growth.
When sales and marketing act like estranged cousins, your pipeline pays the price.
For you to maximize your profits, sales and marketing need to function as one revenue-generating machine. When your agency and your sellers operate in silos, leads fall through cracks, opportunities get wasted, and everyone points fingers while deals walk out the door. Below are five alignment strategies we roll out for remodeling, landscaping, and home‑service businesses that want predictable growth. Master them and watch finger‑pointing disappear.
The Three Most Common Alignment Failures
Failure #1: The "Set It and Forget It" Handoff
Your agency generates leads and considers their job done. Sales eventually gets around to calling when they have time, but most aren't good leads. Meanwhile, prospects hire competitors who responded immediately.
Fix: Make sure your agency is aligned with your sales strategy, and iImplement automated lead routing with immediate notification requirements. Make 5-minute response time a non-negotiable standard.
Failure #2: The Quality Blame Game
Sales complains that marketing leads are "tire kickers." Marketing insists they're delivering qualified prospects. Nobody looks at the data to see what's actually happening.
Fix: Create detailed lead scoring and track conversion rates by source. Let data settle the quality debate, not opinions.
Failure #3: The Communication Black Hole
Marketing has no idea what happens to leads after handoff. Sales has no idea what messaging prospects saw before first contact. Both teams operate blind to the other's activities.
Fix: Implement shared dashboards and weekly alignment meetings. Create visibility into the complete customer journey.
The Five Pillars of Sales and Marketing Alignment
1. Shared Ideal Customer Profile, Journey, & Message Library
What it is
A living document that defines your best‑fit project (budget, location, job type), the journey your prospects take on the way to a signed contract, and the core messaging pillars sales and marketing use at every touchpoint.
Why it matters
If your agency’s ads attract bargain hunters while sales chases high‑margin remodels, you pay double—once for wasted clicks and again for lost calls. One ICP keeps media targeting and discovery calls in sync.
How to implement
- Interview your five most profitable clients—capture pains, triggers, buying criteria.
- Translate findings into a one‑page ICP and headline‑to‑CTA swipe file.
- Force‑rank future campaigns against the ICP; anything off‑spec goes to the parking lot.
Additionally, marketing and sales need to understand the complete customer journey, not just their piece of it. Map out every touchpoint from first awareness to signed contract:
- How prospects discover you
- What information they need at each stage
- Common objections and concerns
- Decision-making timeline
- Preferred communication methods
When both teams understand the full journey, they can work together to move prospects forward instead of accidentally creating friction.
Owner’s Red‑Flag Question
“Show me the last campaign asset and the discovery call script. Do they speak the same language?”
2. Shared Technology and Scorecard
A huge alignment killer is data silos. Marketing tracks leads in one system, sales manages prospects in another, and nobody has a complete picture.
What it is
A shared dashboard—visible to your agency account lead and your sales manager—that tracks pipeline dollars and closed‑won revenue against the monthly goal. No vanity metrics, no separate scorecards.
Why it matters
When the agency is judged on revenue, not impressions, it optimizes for lead quality. When sales sees real‑time pipeline attribution, it hustles to convert hot opportunities. Everyone rows toward the same number.
How to implement
- Integrate ad platforms → CRM so every deal carries a first‑touch source.
- Give the agency “observer” access to the CRM dashboard; give sales visibility to ad spend pacing.
- Review pipeline health in a 20‑minute weekly Revenue Huddle with both parties present.
Critical tracking requirements:
- Lead source attribution
- Response times
- Appointment set rates
- Proposal delivery tracking
- Close rates by source
- Revenue attribution
Owner’s Red‑Flag Question
“Can the agency and sales manager both tell me our gap to goal—today?”
3. Closed‑Loop Win/Loss Feedback
What it is
A 48‑hour loop where sales logs win/loss reason codes and the agency mines that data to refine targeting and creative.
Why it matters
Ad copy written with live objections outperforms guesses. You turn every lost deal into a conversion test, not a sunk cost.
How to implement
- Add mandatory Win/Loss Reason picklists in CRM (price, competitor, scope, timing).
- Agency extracts patterns monthly and proposes copy and audience tweaks.
- Track uplift on next‑month close rates to measure impact.
Owner’s Red‑Flag Question
“Which objection lost the most revenue last month, and where is that addressed in the agency’s new creative?”
4. Shared Definition of a Qualified Lead
This is where most alignment breaks down. Marketing thinks a qualified lead is someone who downloaded a guide or filled out a contact form. Sales thinks a qualified lead is someone ready to sign a contract next week.
The solution: Create a clear, documented definition that both teams agree on. For example:
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): Homeowner with substantial budget, specific project in mind, realistic timeline, decision-maker or influences decision-maker.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): MQL who has responded to outreach, agreed to appointment, and confirmed budget and timeline.
Both teams must use the same scorecard. No exceptions.
Owner’s Red‑Flag Questions
“How many leads last week failed our Qualified Lead checklist, and what did that cost us in ad spend?”
“Of the qualified leads, how many missed the 10‑minute follow‑up and why?”
5. Revenue Ops Cadence Owned by a Neutral Advisor
What it is
A fixed meeting rhythm - Monthly Deep Dive, Quarterly Game Plan—facilitated by a neutral Revenue Operations lead (that’s us).
Why it matters
Without a referee, agencies defend click metrics and sales defends conversion excuses. A 3rd party RevOps owner keeps the discussion data‑driven and forward‑looking.
How to implement
- Monthly Deep Dive: forecast accuracy, channel reallocations, offer tests.
- Quarterly: strategic pivots and budget resets—no knee‑jerk changes mid‑flight.
Owner’s Red‑Flag Question
“Which Q2 channel underperformed forecast, and what budget shift did we lock for Q3?”
The Bottom Line
Your marketing agency might be generating great leads. Your sales team might be excellent at closing. But if they're not aligned, you're leaving massive revenue on the table.
The companies that dominate their markets don't have the best marketing or the best sales—they have the best alignment between marketing and sales. They turn their entire customer acquisition process into a smooth, efficient machine that converts prospects into contracts.
Don't let another month pass with marketing and sales pointing fingers at each other while deals slip away. Fix the alignment, and watch your close rate soar.
Is your sales and marketing alignment costing you deals?
Book your free 30-minute Pipeline Inspection and we'll show you exactly where prospects are falling through the cracks between marketing and sales. You'll get a clear action plan to fix the gaps and start converting more leads into contracts.
