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Want More Pipeline? Stop Treating Marketing Like Sales

Want More Pipeline? Stop Treating Marketing Like Sales

29th Edition: Through the Funnel (Marketing News & Jobs)

MarketingHQ
December 09, 2025

News From MHQ to You 📰

Companies have quietly blurred the lines between marketing and inside sales.

Both produce pipeline. Both "reach out." Both get pressured for short-term results.

So leadership assumes they're the same engine.

That's how marketing gets marginalized reduced to the MQL hamster wheel and "send another email"requests

But here's the truth:

Inside sales captures demand. Marketing creates it.

Confuse the two, and your entire GTM model bends in the wrong direction.

Why the Confusion Happens:

On paper, they look similar: both feed the funnel, both get measured on pipeline, both get asked to "go faster."

But the motions couldn't be more different:

Inside Sales → 1:1, direct, conversion-focused
Marketing → 1:many, narrative-driven, trust-building

Inside sales works because trust already exists. Marketing is the function that creates it.

Marketing & Sales Must Work Together — But They're Different Crafts

Nobody would ask a backend engineer to "just do some frontend for now… it's all code, right?" Nobody tells a product manager to "hop on some sales calls…you both talk to customers."

We respect that these are distinct skills requiring different expertise.

Yet somehow, marketing gets treated as "sales, but scaled." Or worse: "sales prep work."

Both functions require deep specialization. Great marketers understand positioning, narrative design, buyer psychology at scale, and how to create demand in crowded markets. Great salespeople understand objection handling, deal orchestration, relationship building, and converting interest into revenue.

They need to be tightly aligned. But alignment doesn't mean interchangeable.

When leadership treats them as the same skillset, both functions suffer. Marketing gets pulled into short-term conversion work they're not built for. Sales doesn't get the strategic demand creation that makes their job possible.

What Happens When You Treat Marketing Like SDRs

Teams shift into short-term mode
Brand and narrative get deprioritized
Demand creation stops
Marketing becomes order-takers

This is how marketing becomes "the email team" instead of the growth engine.

What This Actually Costs You

Here's what most leaders miss: when marketing chases this quarter's pipeline, you're not just underinvesting in brand… you're actively burning future demand.

Every dollar spent on another retargeting campaign is a dollar not building category authority. Every hour your team spends on MQL reporting is an hour not creating the narrative that makes inbound actually work.

The opportunity cost compounds. Companies that treat marketing like lead gen for 2-3 years often find themselves starting from zero when they finally realize brand matters.

A Real Example

A Series B SaaS company spent two years treating marketing like an SDR factory. Everything was judged by "pipeline this quarter."

$2M burned on retargeting + cold email tools. Zero brand presence.

When their VP of Sales finally asked prospects "How'd you hear about us?" the most common answer was "I've never heard of you."

Meanwhile, their competitor invested in category content and community. When they launched inside sales six months later, reply rates were 3x higher.

Same market. Different philosophy. Very different outcomes.

Marketing Does What Inside Sales Can't

In short:

Inside sales is the megaphone. Marketing is the reason anyone listens.

Why Your CRM Is LyingMap your real buyer journey

Before that "cold outbound" reply, here's what actually happened:

Your buyer read 8 blog posts over three months. Saw your CEO's LinkedIn post shared by a peer. Listened to your podcast in the car. Noticed your brand mentioned in a Slack community. Searched "[your category] vs [competitor]" and found your comparison page.

Then your SDR sent an email.

CRM says: "sourced: inside sales."
Reality: Marketing created the readiness.

Studies show that B2B buyers engage with 11-13 pieces of content before making a purchase decision. Yet most CRMs attribute the deal to the last touchpoint, the conversation. This systemic misattribution leads to chronic underinvestment in the channels that actually drive buying behavior.

If you optimize only for what's trackable, you'll underinvest in what actually works.

This Is Inbound-Led Outbound

This is what Adam Robinson calls "inbound-led outbound" and it makes a ton of sense!

The concept is simple but powerful: use marketing to create awareness and intent signals, then use inside sales to convert that warmth into conversations. You're not cold calling strangers. You're reaching out to people who already know who you are, what you do, and why you might matter to them.

This flips the traditional model. Instead of: "Generate leads → pass to sales → hope they close," it's: "Build demand → identify intent → convert interest."

Marketing creates the conditions. Inside sales captures the momentum.

When these motions work together instead of competing for credit, everything accelerates. Reply rates jump. Sales cycles shrink. Win rates climb. Because you're no longer interrupting, you're arriving at the right moment.

What Best-in-Class Actually Looks Like

The best marketing teams we've seen operate like this:

Marketing owns category creation, narrative, and demand generation. Inside sales owns qualification and conversion.

Each function is measured on what it can actually control; marketing on awareness, consideration, and inbound volume; sales on conversion rates and velocity. Neither is judged by the other's metrics.

This alignment is what separates companies with 20% reply rates from those struggling to hit 2%.

The data backs this up: companies with strong sales-marketing alignment achieve 19% faster revenue growth and 15% higher profitability. And organizations with tightly aligned revenue teams see 36% higher customer retention rates.

How to Reset the Conversation With Your CEO

Use this script:

"Inside sales converts interest. Marketing creates it."

"If we optimize only for what's trackable, we'll starve demand creation."

"Our goal isn't more leads, it's more demand."

"Marketing doesn't chase buyers. We make buyers chase us."

Clear. Calm. Confident.

What High-Performing CMOs Do Differently

Re-align expectations: marketing ≠ MQL factory
Rebuild the narrative: who we serve, why we win
Focus on buyer attention, not just attribution
Separate demand creation from lead capture
Build a "buyers come to us" engine for 2025

This reframes marketing from order-taker → strategic growth partner.

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