This week, we’re talking about what happens when sales and marketing either work beautifully together… or stare at each other across the office wondering who dropped the lead-shaped ball.
We dig into the classic sales-versus-marketing tension: marketing says sales ignores the resources and leads, sales says marketing sends things that look suspiciously like “busy work with a logo on it,” and somewhere in the middle sits the customer, quietly wondering what problem we actually solve.
We also look at what to do when there isn’t a marketing department. Spoiler: marketing still has to happen. Whether it’s building a clear narrative, answering customer questions publicly, or turning everyday sales conversations into useful content, we make the case that marketing is a function, not just a department with branded pens.
Naturally, we also find time for a maple-syrup old fashioned, a life lesson from the CN Tower, and the shocking revelation that “more leads” is not always the same as “more sales.” Who knew? Well… apparently we should have.
Sales says marketing doesn’t send good leads.
Marketing says sales doesn’t follow up properly.
Customers say, “Sorry, what do you actually do again?”
In this episode, we talk about working with — or without — a marketing department, and why the real issue is usually alignment, not effort.
A few things we unpacked:
Marketing is not just logos, events, giveaways, or “making things look nice.” It’s the function that helps the market understand who you help, what problems you solve, why those problems matter, and why anyone should trust you.
Sales is not just waiting for perfect leads to arrive in a neatly wrapped bow. If the marketing function disappeared tomorrow, someone still has to build credibility, create conversations, and help customers move from “vaguely interested” to “yes, this might actually solve my problem.”
The big takeaway for us: sales and marketing need to align not just on the big commercial outcome, but on the journey. What counts as a good lead? What happens next? Who owns each step? What metrics tell us whether the system is working, rather than just keeping everyone impressively busy?
And for smaller teams without a marketing department, we shared a simple cheat code: when a customer asks a good question, don’t just answer it privately. Turn that answer into a post, article, or reusable piece of content. Then send the answer. Congratulations, you’ve just done marketing without needing a committee, a lanyard, or a suspiciously expensive booth backdrop.
As ever, we remain humble, mostly aligned, and only mildly distracted by maple syrup cocktails.