Breaking the Silos: Aligning Sales and Marketing for Real Revenue Growth

Two Tall Guys Talking Sales

In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, Kevin Lawson and Sean O’Shaughnessey dive deep into one of the most misunderstood dynamics in business: the relationship between sales and marketing. Pulled directly from a thought-provoking question inside the B2B Sales Lab community, this conversation explores how sales teams can contribute meaningfully to marketing efforts and why that collaboration drives better revenue generation. Whether you lead a sales team, run marketing campaigns, or wear both hats in a small business, this episode gives you practical strategies to align your teams, sharpen your messaging, and enhance sales success.

Key Topics Discussed

• The Role of Sales in Marketing & Content Development (00:00) How sales leaders can become strategic contributors to content and campaign direction.

• Being the Voice of the Customer Across the Business (00:02) Why sales must act as a conduit of market intelligence, not just for marketing but across production, delivery, and operations.

• Sales Behavior That Builds or Breaks Internal Trust (00:04) The importance of accountability and humility when offering feedback to other departments.

• Making Marketing a Regular Part of Sales Meetings (00:08) A tactical breakdown of how to engage marketing in the sales rhythm without derailing productivity.

• Field Collaboration: Invite Your Internal Teams to Ride Along (00:10) Why taking engineers or operations managers on customer calls creates stronger cross-functional empathy and better customer experiences.

• Marketing Assets: Create Them, Use Them, Give Feedback (00:12) How to close the feedback loop on content effectiveness and ensure sales uses what marketing builds.

Key Quotes

“Sales is accountable for driving the revenue, but sales is also accountable for working with marketing to get to a market-facing message that addresses current needs.” — Kevin Lawson (00:00)

“Your job in sales is to be the best-run department in the company. If you’re not, your opinion probably doesn’t matter.” — Sean O’Shaughnessey (00:08)

“Please, oh please, use the tools your marketing team creates for you. If you don’t, that’s on you.” — Kevin Lawson (00:12)

“There’s no better way to get internal teams aligned with customers than to take them on sales calls. Let them breathe your air and eat at Burger King between meetings.” — Sean O’Shaughnessey (00:11)

Additional Resources

• B2B Sales Lab Community: A peer group for sales professionals focused on sharpening sales processes, messaging, and revenue management. www.b2b-sales-lab.com

A Significant Actionable Item from this Podcast

Hold a joint sales-marketing meeting each quarter.

Schedule a dedicated 30-minute session within your sales team’s recurring meeting where your marketing counterpart joins to review current messaging, upcoming campaigns, and voice-of-the-customer insights. Let marketing ask questions, present new content, and gather sales feedback. Use this as a structured loop to align both teams on business acumen, sales strategies, and revenue goals.

Why You Should Listen Now

If you’ve ever wondered why your sales messaging isn’t landing or why marketing feels “out of touch,” this episode is for you. Kevin and Sean pull back the curtain on how high-performing sales organizations dissolve silos, share real-time customer feedback, and co-create assets that drive revenue. Whether you're a VP of Sales, a marketing leader, or a business owner trying to scale effectively, you'll walk away with ideas you can implement this week to align your teams for better revenue generation and sales success. Tune in now and start building the team your customers deserve.