Practical ways to better engage with your sales teams

Most B2B businesses agree that sales and marketing should work closely together, yet in practice the relationship can often feel disconnected. Both teams are focused on growth, but they don't always see the world in the same way, and that gap makes it harder to win and grow the accounts that matter most.

We believe strong relationships with sales are built through everyday behaviours, not processes or workshops, and that marketers are well placed to take the first step.

We see six ways to build a stronger relationship.

(They are written with marketers in mind, but several work just as well from the sales side)

Spend time together. Join each other's team meetings and be part of the conversation rather than waiting to be invited. Being present regularly builds familiarity and trust far faster than an occasional briefing.

Understand each other's world. Ask about the accounts, conversations and challenges that matter most on each side. Listen more than you talk, and it quickly becomes clear where you can help each other.

Get commercial. Sales teams have targets, and those targets drive their priorities, their time and their decisions. Understanding the numbers they are measured on, and talking in those terms, makes marketing far more relevant to them.

Ask to visit a customer. As a marketer, visiting a customer with a sales colleague gives you valuable first-hand context that no report can replace. Hearing the customer describe their challenges helps you shape marketing plans around the issues they face.

Share what you learn and ask for feedback. Insight on markets, trends and the stakeholders in their accounts is often more useful to sales than an update on marketing activity. Share what you learn, and ask for honest feedback on what is working and what isn't.

Be open, with boundaries in place. Create a space where sales feel comfortable bringing ideas and requests, but be clear about how requests come in and what marketing can and can't take on. Boundaries protect the work that matters most and make the relationship more sustainable.

How to move forward

We believe the strongest results come when sales and marketing work as one team around the accounts that matter most. That is at the heart of account-based marketing (ABM), and our 7 Questions Behind Effective ABM series explores how to build that shared approach, starting with where to focus and how you will work together.

When did you last spend a day in your sales team's world?