Alright so it looks like I’m turning another one of my rambling LinkedIn posts into a hopefully less rambly blog post. 

This might be an unpopular opinion, but Sales ≠ Marketing, and I’m tired of seeing companies combine two entirely different disciplines into a single role. To be fair, folks who know the difference get it, but most small to midsize companies we work with? Not so much.

At Branch, one of the most common and costly missteps we see is expecting marketing to behave like sales (or vice versa). These are different roles with their own goals, KPIs, timelines, and above all, skill sets. 

There should be departmental alignment and collaboration, but alignment doesn’t mean mashing these roles together and hoping to create – wait for it – SYNERGY.

Think of it this way:

1. Marketing = Creating demand
2. Sales = Converting demand

Marketing focuses on building awareness and reaching the right audience. Sales focuses on building relationships, trust, and closing deals. The means by which your company does any of this may differ from others, but the principles remain the same.

Where this problem comes from

There are a lot of successful companies that have never spent a dime on real marketing. They’ve grown through referrals, word of mouth, or founder led sales, and that can work for a while, but this runway eventually comes to an end, and you can either have a smooth take off or a crash landing. 

I’ve written about this before in a post about the dangers of relying only on referrals, and did a follow-up case study about our client Receptor, who took that post to heart, booked a workshop with us, and immediately went to work shifting their approach to marketing.

Take our client Building Enclosure Science for example. After a decade of dominating their industry, even they realized that it was time to have a separate marketing and sales department with shared overall goals, but independent KPIs. What they were going after was pretty simple: driving sustainable, measurable business growth.

What good alignment looks like

Now, this is just my opinion, but the world is full of them and I’m happy to throw mine in the ring. This is just a starting point – not an exhaustive list – but if you’re not checking off some of these boxes, maybe it’s time to rethink your approach:

1. Shared pipeline goals, different KPIs
2. A clear handoff process
3. Open communication and feedback loops
4. A complete understanding of customer touchpoints, and…
5. Consistent positioning across touchpoints

Almost done here

Strong sales-marketing alignment doesn’t mean consolidation. It means clarity. When each team knows what they’re solving for, how their efforts intersect, and how success is measured, that’s when real momentum kicks in.

Remember – your top line revenue shows how hard you’re working, but your bottom line shows how smart you’re working. 

If there’s one takeaway here, it’s that when these roles blur, your results start to suffer.

Does this sound like your company?

Or were you offended by this post? Then let’s get to work.

Written by Paul Kettelle, Co-Founder & CEO