The Biggest Marketing Blind Spot? Not Talking to Sales

Marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin, but in many organizations, they feel like entirely different worlds. Marketers build campaigns based on data, processes, and instincts. Sales teams, meanwhile, spend their days in the trenches, talking to prospects and hearing the unfiltered truths about your market.

Here’s the hard truth: ignoring sales insights is a huge blind spot. If you’ve never asked a sales rep what they hear on the front lines, you’re missing the conversations that can make your marketing actually work.

Let me walk you through why sales-marketing alignment matters, what to ask your colleagues in sales, and how to turn those insights into campaigns that really resonate.

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Why marketing and sales often feel like two different companies

In many organizations, marketing and sales are siloed. Marketers create personas, craft messaging, and launch campaigns without input from the people actually talking to customers. Sales, meanwhile, knows exactly why buyers choose—or don’t choose—your solution, and which competitors keep coming up.

So why does this gap persist? Often, it’s culture: an “us vs. them” mindset. Marketing thinks sales only cares about short-term wins. Sales thinks marketing is out of touch with real buyers. The result? Wasted effort, missed opportunities, and flat campaigns.

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Why sales conversations are pure gold

Sales reps hear things that don’t show up in your CRM or Google Analytics:

• Objections: Why prospects hesitate or say no

• Competitor mentions: Which competitors come up and in what context

• Deal drivers: Which pain points push prospects to look for solutions

• Decision factors: Why buyers pick your product over another

These insights are hard to capture otherwise—but they’re invaluable. According to Aberdeen, companies with strong sales-marketing alignment generate 32% more revenue, retain 36% more customers, and achieve 38% higher win rates.

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Why marketers don’t talk to sales, and how to fix it

If the value is obvious, why don’t more marketers tap into it? Usually:

• They assume sales insights are anecdotal, not actionable
  
• There’s no formal process to capture feedback
  
• Cultural barriers get in the way
  
• Time constraints prevent collaboration
  
  

Fixing it starts with intention. Book a 45-minute call with an SDR, AE, or Sales Manager. Treat it like a customer interview. Ask open-ended questions and really listen for patterns.

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What to ask when you talk to sales

Don’t just ask “what’s going on.” Dig deeper:

• What pain points make prospects start looking for us?
  
• Which alternatives do they evaluate?
  
• Why do they end up choosing us over competitors?
  
• What patterns do you see in why we win or lose deals?
  
• What objections come up most often?
  
• How do you typically handle them?
  
  

The answers reveal not just what prospects say, but what they actually care about. Below is a snapshot of some of the questions we ask during these conversations.

Turning sales insights into marketing that works

Once you’ve gathered insights, here’s how to put them to work:

1. Build competitor comparison pages
   Use the exact language prospects use to describe competitors and your differentiators.
   
   
2. Optimize landing pages
   Address objections and decision factors directly to improve conversions.
   
   
3. Create BOFU & MOFU content
   Speak the buyer’s language, incorporate real examples, and avoid jargon.
   
   
4. Craft nurture emails
   Anticipate questions and concerns as prospects move through the funnel.
   
   
5. Make sales enablement content
   One-pagers, battlecards, and objection-handling guides help sales act on insights while keeping messaging aligned.
   
   

Your sales team is your most underused research department. Their conversations reveal the real objections, drivers, and priorities of your buyers. When marketing reflects that reality, campaigns stop sounding like marketing, they start driving results.