Your sales team is complaining that the leads from marketing are “junk.” It’s an age-old business problem, and the frustration is palpable on both sides. Marketers feel their hard work is unappreciated, while salespeople feel like they’re wasting time chasing dead ends. This isn’t just a communication breakdown; it’s a fundamental misalignment between two teams that should be partners. This friction costs companies valuable time, money, and most importantly, momentum.
Here are the primary reasons your sales team hates your leads and what you can do to fix it.
Why the Leads Are “Bad”?
The core issue boils down to a single word: misalignment. Marketing and sales teams often operate in silos with different goals, metrics, and even vocabulary.
You Have Different Definitions of a “Qualified Lead”
Marketing’s job is to fill the pipeline, and they’re often measured on the quantity of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) they generate. Sales, on the other hand, is measured by revenue and cares about a sales-qualified lead (SQL)—someone who is ready to buy now. An MQL might be a person who downloaded an ebook, but they may have no budget or authority to purchase. If the sales team is constantly sifting through these “suspects” to find the real prospects, it’s a huge waste of their time.
You’re Not Selling to the Same Person
The marketing team spends countless hours crafting buyer personas, but if they aren’t working directly with sales to build them, they’re likely incomplete. Salespeople are on the front lines, hearing the customer’s real pain points, budget constraints, and objections firsthand. If marketing is creating content and campaigns for a persona that doesn’t fully reflect the ideal customer, the leads they generate will be a poor fit for the sales team.
The Follow-Up is Too Slow
In the digital world, speed is everything. If a lead fills out a form on your website, but it takes your sales team 48 hours to follow up, the lead has likely moved on or forgotten about you. This is a common point of frustration for marketers who feel their hard-earned leads are being wasted, and for salespeople who feel like they’re chasing cold trails.
The Feedback Loop is Broken
Without a consistent process for feedback, marketing has no way of knowing what’s working and what isn’t. Sales will complain about lead quality, but unless they can provide specific, actionable feedback on why a lead was a bad fit, marketing can’t make adjustments. This creates a cycle of blame and resentment, where both teams feel unappreciated.
How to Fix It
The solution is simple in concept, but requires consistent effort to implement: align your teams from the top down. This means breaking down the silos and getting both teams to work toward the same, unified goal.
Create a Shared Vocabulary and a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
This is the single most important step. Get your sales and marketing leaders in a room to define what a “qualified lead” truly is for your business. An SLA is a formal, documented agreement that outlines the responsibilities of each team. For example, it can state that marketing will deliver X number of qualified leads per month, and sales will follow up with 100% of those leads within 24 hours.
Develop Buyer Personas Together
Since sales talks to customers all day, they have invaluable insights. Invite members of the sales team to marketing’s persona-building sessions. Better yet, have marketers sit in on sales calls and listen to the real conversations. This firsthand experience will help them create more targeted campaigns that attract leads who are a genuine fit.
Establish a Two-Way Feedback Loop
Set up regular meetings where sales can provide direct, actionable feedback on the quality of leads and the effectiveness of marketing materials. Marketing, in turn, can share what’s working and how they’re optimizing campaigns based on sales’ insights. This open communication is crucial for building trust and a sense of shared ownership.
Align Your Goals
Instead of measuring marketing by MQLs and sales by revenue, create shared KPIs. When both teams are measured on the same metrics—like lead-to-opportunity conversion rate or customer acquisition cost (CAC)—they are inherently motivated to work together to achieve a common goal. This can be as simple as a shared dashboard in your CRM or a joint monthly report.
Conclusion
The disconnect between sales and marketing is not an inevitable rivalry; it’s a symptom of a fixable problem. The solution lies in building a unified approach. By creating a shared definition of a qualified lead, establishing a robust two-way feedback loop, and aligning on common goals, both teams can move beyond frustration and blame. When sales and marketing work as true partners, they can effectively target the right audience, generate higher-quality leads, and ultimately, drive sustainable revenue growth together.
