Sales and Marketing Alignment: Stats and Trends for 2023

Sales stand on one side of the ice. Marketing on the other. Both wear matching sequined leotards. The music starts, the spot light turns on. Sales does a Biellmann spin. Marketing does an Axel. They come together for a camel spin. Tens across the board. 

This is the type of success that can happen when sales and marketing are aligned. In fact, businesses with aligned marketing and sales teams are up to 67% more efficient at closing deals. Sales and marketing alignment is potentially the biggest opportunity to grow your business; when they're united, there's a higher chance of achieving your goals like ROI and revenue. 

Plus, misaligned goals can demotivate, reducing sales' perception they can achieve their goals. On top of this, misaligned goals signal unnecessary difficulty. 

As Krista Neher, CEO at Boot Camp Digital said, “The key to success is understanding that sales and marketing are complementary – not competitive. Strong marketing supports sales teams.” 

If you want more sales enablement info, we've got just the in-depth eBook for you. If you want the down low from a download, check out  The What, Why, How of Sales Enablement, here!

What, you need further convincing? Right, right, okay then. Check out these stats.

Why do companies need alignment?


  • Well-aligned sales and marketing teams drive more than 200% revenue growth from marketing tactics.
  • Organisations with aligned departments can achieve up to 38% higher sales win rates
  • Marketing and sales alignment leads to 36% higher customer retention.
  • Aligned organisations save 30% on their customer acquisition cost. Plus, their customers have a 20% higher lifetime value.
  • Gaining new customers can cost 5X as keeping existing ones.
  • Companies with “tightly aligned” departments reach 24% faster revenue growth and 27% quicker profit growth for three years.
  • Companies see an average of 19% faster revenue growth and 15% profitability when sales and marketing teams are aligned. 
  •  Over 80% of sales and marketing executives describe each other’s departments positively

sales alignment graph

What are the benefits of alignment?

  • 85% of marketers with an SLA think their marketing strategy is effective.
  • Organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions enjoy 36% higher customer retention rates
  • 47% larger purchases result from nurtured leads than non-nurtured leads
  • Companies with “dynamic, adaptable sales and marketing processes” report an average of 10% more sales people on-quota compared to other companies
  • According to sales and marketing alignment stats, 56% of aligned companies meet their revenue goals. Furthermore, an additional 19% manage to beat their targets.
  • Businesses with aligned sales and marketing teams experience a 36% higher customer retention.
  • According to sales and marketing statistics, when both teams work in coordination, businesses see a 27% faster profit growth.
  • Organizations with robust alignment can grow by 20% annually.
  • According to sales and marketing alignment stats, when both teams work together, company revenue can increase by up to three times.
  • On average, aligned companies have up to 19% faster revenue growth and a 15% increase in profits compared to non-aligned companies.
  • Marketing data shows 8% of sales reps and marketers align around their conversion strategy. 34.6% report alignment around asset and content development, while 31.8% do so for analytics and metrics.
  • An effective partnership between sales and marketing is the #1 success factor attributed to achieving revenue goals

What are the sales and Marketing alignment benefits for B2B?

  • 60-70% of B2B content created is never used. In many cases, this is because the topic is irrelevant to the buyer audience.
  • B2B companies’ inability to align sales and marketing teams around the right processes and technologies costs 10% or more of revenue per year.
  • 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to sales, but only 27% of those leads will be qualified.
  • Just 56% of B2B organizations verify valid business leads before they are passed to sales.
  • B2B statistics show 60%-70% of all created marketing content remains unused.
  • One-third of B2B sales and marketing teams don’t have a standing meeting.
  • Sale stats show the alignment of sales and marketing teams can lead to 38% higher sales win rates.

What are the risks with misalignment?

  • Studies show failure to align sales and marketing teams around the right processes and technologies costs B2B companies 10% or more of revenue per year ($100 million for a billion-dollar company).
  • 60% of global respondents in a LinkedIn survey believed that misalignment between Sales and Marketing could damage financial performance. 
  • Misalignment between marketing and sales teams costs companies an average of 10% of revenue per year. 
  • An estimated $1 trillion dollars a year are lost due to a lack of sales and marketing coordination in the US alone.
  • 76% of content marketers are forgetting sales enablement
  • Companies with strong sales and marketing alignment achieve 20% annual growth rate. Companies with poor sales and marketing alignment have a 4% revenue decline

What impact does alignment have on sales?

  • Almost all (94%) of the top-performing salespeople surveyed by LinkedIn called the marketing leads they receive either “excellent” or “good." 
  • Sales and marketing alignment can help your company become 67% better at closing deals.
  • 46% of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow upon more than 75% of marketing-generated leads (source).
  • 65% of sales reps say they can’t find content to send to prospects.
  • 50% of sales time is wasted on unproductive prospecting.
  • 76% of content marketers forget about sales enablement in their marketing efforts.
  • Sales closing statistics show alignment helps organizations to be 67% more effective at closing deals.
  • Businesses with “dynamic and adaptable sales and marketing processes” have an average of 10% more sales reps hitting their quota compared to other companies.
  • Businesses with strong sales and marketing alignment: Are 67% more effective at closing deals, Are 58% more effective at retaining customers Drive 208% more revenue as a result of their marketing efforts. 
  • In tightly aligned organisations, the top source of leads rated by sales came from marketing (at 39%) versus 30% generated solely by sales. This compares with 44% for sales and just 16% for marketing in less aligned companies.
  • 65% of sales reps say they can’t find content to send to prospects, representing the most common complaint cited by sales teams 

What impact does alignment have on marketing?

  • 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. This is often due to a lack of lead nurturing.
  • Sales reps ignore 50% of marketing leads
  • Aligning both teams could lead to 209% more revenue from marketing . 
  • 61% of marketers send all leads to sales. Still, only 27% of those leads are qualified.
  • 56% of B2B marketers verify business leads before they pass them to the sales department.
  • According to marketing statistics, 59% of marketers believe they know what kind of content sales teams need them to create. On the other hand, only 35% of sales reps agree with that.
  • 68% of marketers believe sales teams don’t take advantage of the marketing content’s full potential.
  • When marketers align content on specific stages of the buyer’s journey, they can achieve up to 73% higher conversion rates
  • One of the curious marketing facts is that nurtured leads close a deal 23% faster than non-nurtured ones.

Wider company Impact

  • 87% of sales and marketing leaders say collaboration between sales and marketing enables critical business growth.
  • The most common measurement of success for content marketing programs is Total Sales. 
  •  
  • 76% of content marketers forget sales enablement 
  • 95% of shoppers prefer companies that provide them with relevant content through every step of the buyer’s journey. 
  • Demand generation and sales training teams report the least alignment around asset/content development (34.6%) and analytics/metrics (31.8%)
  • Only 1 in 2 companies say sales and marketing have a formal definition of a qualified lead.

This post is part of our Martech stats series, which compiles key data and trends. Others include: 

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