Most marketers think they support sales. But ask their sales team and you’ll probably get a very different answer.
Before we get into it, listen to Episode 11 of Revenue Rewired on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or Amazon Music. Sarah and I unpack what “sales-first marketing” means, why most teams aren’t doing it, and how StringCan pivoted to put revenue at the center of everything.
When we launched StringCan nearly 15 years ago, I was fresh off a job where a head of sales told me something that stuck:
“Your job in marketing is to make my team successful.”
At the time, I wasn’t sure how to take that. But it reshaped the way I looked at marketing forever. Over time, it became the foundation of how we approach growth for every client.
We now say it clearly: StringCan is a sales-first agency. That’s not just a catchy line. It’s a complete mindset shift. And it took years (plus a global pandemic) to fully embrace what that actually means.
Why Did a Marketing Agency Start Speaking Sales?
Like many businesses, COVID shook things up. We had a healthy mix of B2B and B2C clients before 2020. But when the world shut down, a lot of the B2C work slowed or stopped completely. That moment forced us to ask a tough question:
What actually moves the needle for our clients?
So we started digging. We met with every client—past, present, and prospective. We didn’t just talk to the marketing folks. We asked to meet with the sales teams, too.
And what we heard was loud and clear: marketing might be getting attention, but it wasn’t always driving sales. That disconnect lit a fire. We started reengineering our entire approach to focus on revenue alignment across marketing, sales, and operations.
“Marketing that doesn’t support sales is just noise.”
That realization didn’t come from a conference or a book. It came from sitting down with real teams who were trying to hit real numbers and couldn’t afford fluffy campaigns that made no impact.
The Real Disconnect (And Why It Still Exists)
If you're wondering, “Don’t most marketing agencies already think this way?” I’ll tell you what I’ve seen. The answer is... not really.
We still meet with companies every month that have separate sales and marketing departments. Each team has their own goals, metrics, and meetings. But there’s zero shared accountability.
Sales wants better leads. Marketing wants more credit. Nobody’s talking about the handoff, the follow-through, or the full pipeline. That’s not strategy. That’s survival.
As we put it on the episode:
“Sales and marketing still have this beef. They’re chasing the same outcome but operating like enemies.”
And here’s the truth. Until leadership sees this as a cultural issue, not just a tactical one, it won’t change.
Strategy Doesn’t Work Without Shared Goals
One of the best ideas from the episode came straight:
“What if sales and marketing had the same KPI?”
It sounds radical, but think about it. If marketing is only measured by impressions and engagement, and sales is measured by closed deals, you’ll never get alignment.
But if both departments are accountable to revenue goals, they have no choice but to collaborate. That’s where the shift happens.
We’re trying this inside StringCan, too. I run sales. Sarah runs marketing. We’ve swapped KPIs, challenged each other, and shared the pressure. It’s made us sharper, more empathetic, and more effective. It’s also helped us understand how lonely it can feel when you don’t have a counterpart who really gets what you’re navigating.
“Just because you’re both trying to get to the same place doesn’t mean you have to take the same route. But you do need to be in the same car.”
So What Can You Actually Do?
Here are three things I’d recommend if you want to bring sales-first thinking into your organization:
1. Run the “Who Are You Focused On Today?” Test
Ask everyone—from marketing to sales to ops—who their focus is today. If you get ten different answers, you don’t have alignment. That’s a problem.
2. Create Shared KPIs
Even if you don’t go all in on revenue-based targets, start by overlapping goals. Make marketing partly responsible for lead quality or sales velocity. Make sales accountable for CRM hygiene and feedback loops.
3. Do the Freaky Friday Swap
Let your sales and marketing leads walk in each other’s shoes. Sit in on each other’s meetings. Take a sales call. Review a nurture sequence. You’ll build trust fast and probably spark better ideas than your last brainstorm.
“If sales thinks marketing is all fluff, and marketing thinks sales is all talk, you're not solving problems. You're just fueling the fire.”
Alignment Is the Strategy
This isn’t about getting marketing a seat at the table. It’s about building one revenue table where everyone is accountable for growth. That’s the culture we’ve built at StringCan, and it’s the foundation of the work we do with clients.
Marketing doesn’t work in a vacuum. And sales can’t hit goals alone. But when both teams are focused on solving the same problems, for the same audience, with the same goals in mind, growth gets real.
Let’s Get Sales and Marketing on the Same Page
If you’re tired of finger-pointing and frustrated by a pipeline that leaks between departments, we get it. At StringCan, we help B2B companies align marketing, sales, and strategy so everyone’s rowing in the same direction. Let’s talk about what sales-first could look like for you.
Work Habits & Productivity
Jay, the CEO of StringCan, oversees strategy and vision, building culture that makes going into work something he looks forward to, recruiting additional awesome team members to help exceed clients goals, leading the team and allocating where StringCan invests time and money.
Jay, the CEO of StringCan, oversees strategy and vision, building culture that makes going into work something he looks forward to, recruiting additional awesome team members to help exceed clients goals, leading the team and allocating where StringCan invests time and money.
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