One alignment tactic every B2B company should implement
- The podcast episode is classified as B2B.
- Marketing Operations
- Marketing Consultancy
- Sales Enablement, Marketing Strategy
- Part 1Why Marketing wants Sales to love them (and why they’re just not into us).
- Part 2The number one thing marketers do that drives sales teams absolutely crazy
- Part 3Best tip for a new CMO working with a skeptical marketing-resistant sales leader
- Part 4Most radical organizational structure change that improved alignment
- Part 5 One alignment tactic every B2B company should implement
Episode Chapters
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00:25: Weekly Fu el Reviews
Regular weekly fu el reviews are identified as the top alignment tactic for B2B companies to implement immediately.
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00:28: CEO Pipeline Accountability
CEOs should hold CMOs directly accountable to pipeline metrics rather than traditional marketing vanity metrics.
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00:41: Shared Pipeline Ownership
Both marketing and sales teams need counterparts who own pipeline as their primary metric to ensure true alignment.
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00:54: Organizational Structure Challenges
Misaligned organizational structures create gaps where no one owns the critical pipeline handoff between marketing and sales.
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01:12: SDR Team Restructuring
Moving SDR teams under marketing and changing their goals to include both SQLs and pipeline creates better alignment.
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01:24: Balanced Organizational Design
Creating similarly structured organizations on both sides with shared metrics and co ective tissue ensures sustainable alignment.
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02:46: Human Element Importance
Despite metrics and processes, successful alignment still requires showing up as a partner with the right human intentions.
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Episode Summary
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The One Alignment Tactic Every B2B Company Should Implement
Introduction
Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase and co-author of "Yes, It's Your Fault: From Blame to Gain," shares a powerful framework for achieving true sales and marketing alignment in B2B organizations. With extensive experience leading marketing transformations and a deep understanding of go-to-market strategies, Hopping reveals why shared pipeline ownership is the critical factor that separates aligned revenue teams from those stuck in perpetual finger-pointing. -
The Pipeline Ownership Problem
Most B2B companies struggle with alignment because different teams own different parts of the fu el without shared accountability. Hopping discovered this firsthand when she hit a wall in her own organization: "I was held to pipeline. The SDRs were sitting in another organization and held to SQLs. And then sales was held to closed won. And I was like, there's no one on the other side of the fence who owns Pipeline." This misalignment creates gaps where leads fall through, accountability disappears, and revenue suffers. -
Creating Shared Accountability
The solution requires restructuring both goals and organizational design. Hopping moved SDRs under marketing and changed their metrics to include both SQLs and pipeline generation. This shift ensures that when marketing passes opportunities to sales, both teams share responsibility for pipeline health. The key insight: having a counterpart in sales who owns pipeline as their primary metric creates the partnership necessary for true alignment. -
Building Balanced Revenue Teams
Beyond shared metrics, successful alignment requires organizational balance. Marketing needs field marketing leaders who mirror their sales counterparts, creating what Hopping describes as "similarly structured organizations on both sides." This balance ensures proper co ective tissue between teams, where marketing efforts reach all the way to pipeline creation, and sales picks up from pipeline to close. Without this structural balance, even the best intentions fail to produce results. -
The Human Element in Revenue Alignment
While metrics and dashboards provide the framework, Hopping emphasizes that alignment ultimately depends on human behavior. "Show up with the right intention, show up as a partner, show up as a good human being," she advises. In an age of increasing automation and AI adoption, the ability to build genuine partnerships across departments becomes even more critical for driving growth. -
Implementing Weekly Fu el Reviews
If forced to choose just one tactic, Hopping recommends weekly fu el reviews as the starting point for any B2B company seeking better alignment. These regular check-ins force both teams to examine the same data, identify bottlenecks together, and take joint ownership of solutions. Combined with CEO-level accountability for CMOs on pipeline metrics, this creates the pressure and visibility needed to drive real change. -
Key Takeaways for B2B Leaders
The path to sales and marketing alignment isn't complex, but it requires deliberate choices about metrics, structure, and accountability. Start by ensuring both marketing and sales own pipeline as a shared metric. Build balanced teams with equivalent roles on both sides of the revenue engine. Implement weekly fu el reviews to maintain visibility and momentum. Most importantly, remember that behind every metric and dashboard are humans who need to work together with genuine partnership and shared purpose. As Hopping notes, "In the age of AI, turns out being human still really matters." -
- Part 1Why Marketing wants Sales to love them (and why they’re just not into us).
- Part 2The number one thing marketers do that drives sales teams absolutely crazy
- Part 3Best tip for a new CMO working with a skeptical marketing-resistant sales leader
- Part 4Most radical organizational structure change that improved alignment
- Part 5 One alignment tactic every B2B company should implement
Up Next:
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Part 1Why Marketing wants Sales to love them (and why they’re just not into us).
Sales and marketing alignment remains elusive despite decades of effort. Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase, shares proven strategies for bridging the costly departmental divide. She outlines three critical alignment tactics: establishing shared pipeline metrics as the universal success measure, restructuring RevOps to report independently from both departments to eliminate territorial data disputes, and implementing AI-powered SDR tools like Reggie for automated follow-up and Nooks for increased outbound volume.
Play Podcast -
Part 2The number one thing marketers do that drives sales teams absolutely crazy
Marketing and sales teams clash over lead quality versus pipeline readiness. Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase, explains why sales teams dismiss marketing's lead generation efforts. She reveals that sales wants fully qualified pipeline with verified budget, timing, and buyer intent rather than raw lead volume. The discussion covers how marketers can shift from vanity metrics like website visitors to pipeline metrics that sales actually values.
Play Podcast -
Part 3Best tip for a new CMO working with a skeptical marketing-resistant sales leader
Sales leaders resist marketing initiatives when they don't see immediate pipeline impact. Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase, shares strategies for building trust with skeptical sales teams while maintaining long-term brand health. She explains how to balance demand creation with demand capture using a "bank account" approach and demonstrates how modern brand marketing can drive measurable conversions through QR codes, content CTAs, and digital touchpoints.
Play Podcast -
Part 4Most radical organizational structure change that improved alignment
Balancing short-term demand generation with long-term brand health creates constant budget tension. Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase, explains how enterprise B2B companies maintain pipeline flow without emptying the funnel. She outlines the demand creation versus demand capture framework as a bank account model and demonstrates how modern digital brand marketing can drive immediate conversions through QR codes, form fills, and content CTAs while building trust for high-value software purchases.
Play Podcast -
Part 5One alignment tactic every B2B company should implement
Sales and marketing alignment fails when teams optimize for different metrics. Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase, explains how shared pipeline accountability transforms B2B revenue operations. She details moving SDR teams under marketing leadership while aligning both organizations to pipeline metrics instead of separate SQL and closed-won targets. The discussion covers implementing weekly funnel reviews and restructuring compensation models to create true cross-functional partnership.