How to Get Marketing Programs Driving Enterprise Sales

Modern deals need sales and marketing on the same buyers

If you’re an enterprise sales leader, your plate is usually full with responsibilities like: ARR growth, sales efficiency, training, and all the deals you need to close this quarter. Marketing support is probably your last priority. However, most sales leaders don’t realize that marketing can help reps close deals faster, increase ARR, and multithread decision makers.

The average week for a sales leader looks like this: reviewing ARR targets, forecast calls, sales efficiency meetings, and jumping into deals that need your help. That makes complete sense, but it also means marketing support can fall to the side. It’s also understandable to see how even knowing what to ask marketing can be a gap.

On top of that, Salesloft’s 2025 survey found that 86% of sellers said their pipeline quota is higher than last year. The top barrier cited by 55% of respondents? Buyers just don’t want to talk to sales reps.

On the marketing side, a 2026 Harris Poll Survey found that nearly two-thirds of 300+ respondents said they’re evaluated on pipeline contribution, not lead volume. However, only 19% feel very confident measuring performance across the full funnel.

So what’s the takeaway?
Both teams own the same number, but might not realize they’re working different plans.

On top of that, enterprise deals have gotten harder to win alone. Across about 1.8 million opportunities, Gong found that won deals carried roughly twice the buyer contacts of lost ones, and on deals over $50K, engaging multiple stakeholders is tied to about a 130% lift in win rate. That's a lot of people for one rep to reach on their own, and it's where marketing can help your reps multithread every priority deal.

What signs highlight fragmented campaigns and programs?

We've worked side by side with strategic sales reps at global enterprises, and the same patterns show up again and again:

• Disconnected motions: marketing runs campaigns on its own calendar while sales works deals on theirs.
• Siloed tactics: webinars, ads and content that may not touch a live opportunity, or run independetly from sales initiatives.
• Misaligned ICP and messaging: marketing targets one profile while reps sell to another.
• Missed pipeline and revenue: engagements that lack follow ups, or messages that don't reach the entirety of a buying group.
  
• Tools creating more silos: more platforms, more dashboards, more independent work, but less sharing and less visibility.
• AI that adds market noise, not clarity: AI was supposed to help, but buyers are now flooded with automated outreach that sounds way too similar. In a 2026 Gartner survey, 51% of B2B buyers said they're more likely to get misleading information from GenAI, and 69% turn to sales reps to validate what AI tells them.

Enterprise sales is still about relationships. AI can surface signals, but it can't build trust with a buying group. That still takes people, and it works best when sales and marketing do it together.

So where do you start?

You can't fix alignment overnight. Shared targets, org design and comp plans take quarters to change. But there are things marketing can do right now to help your reps at the field level to multithread their most important deals.

That's what this guide is about: practical steps, what they should look like, and the questions to ask your marketing team. At the end, you'll find a 5-step checklist to get started this week.

What alignment looks like in an ideal world

In the strongest enterprise teams we've seen, alignment doesn't just live at the leadership level.

It shows up at every level:

• Marketing and sales executives own the same pipeline and revenue targets. They work as one team, report off the same dashboard, and roll up to board metrics together.
• Field directors (your Director of Demand Gen and Sales Director) plan side by side every quarter. Sales challenges get shared openly, marketing builds campaigns that confidently support reps, and pipeline and revenue are tracked weekly.
• Sales and marketing managers are aligned day to day. They execute the plan their directors set, and they help shape it too, because they're the ones talking to prospects and customers every day.
• Technology is shared where it matters. Both teams work off the same core GTM stack, with function-specific tools layered on top.

Integrated programs that help sellers sell

When this is working, marketing isn't running campaigns next to sales. It's running integrated programs built to help sellers sell. Sales feedback comes in as deals happen, and marketing adjusts in real time instead of waiting for the next quarterly review.

The big shift is that the work becomes proactive, not reactive. Marketing spots what your reps will need before they ask, instead of scrambling to build a deck the night before a big meeting.

The payoff for your sales team:

• More pipeline and revenue from the accounts that matter most
• Larger deal sizes, because more of the buying group sees the value
• Faster deal velocity, because buyers show up better informed
• Sales trusts marketing programs, and actually uses them
• Multithreaded decision makers, leading to more opportunities in live deals

I saw this firsthand when I built the enterprise customer ABM program at Demandbase. By working side by side with sales leadership, the program contributed to 8-fig in revenue, delivered 74% SQL-to-pipeline conversion, and closed deals 1.9x faster.

Most teams aren't there yet, and that's okay!

Each of the five concepts below moves you a step closer.

1. Involve sales with marketing planning

If sales only sees the marketing plan once it's already built, it will always feel like marketing's plan, not a shared one.

The data backs this up. In Gripped's 2025 survey of 230+ SaaS marketing leaders, teams that meet with sales weekly or more saw 40% higher pipeline growth, while teams meeting monthly or less were twice as likely to miss their revenue targets.

Your reps are the closest people to your buyers. They hear the objections, the priorities and the internal politics in every account. That's the most valuable input marketing can get, and it's free!

This isn't about order-taking

A lot of marketers worry that asking sales for input will turn them into order-takers. We get it, and that's not what this is.

It's a collaborative approach to planning. Marketing asks sales for ideas early, then uses its own expertise to build programs that actually help sellers sell. And when sales sees how much thought and planning goes into a strong marketing program, the respect tends to go both ways.

What it should look like

• Marketing asks sales for ideas early in planning, not after campaigns are built
• Sales leaders join quarterly marketing planning and bring the challenges they're seeing in deals
• The target account list is agreed by both teams before any campaign launches
• Marketing and sales review pipeline together every week, not just at quarter end
• Reps have a simple way to share feedback on campaigns and content, and they see it acted on

The payoff for your reps: marketing programs built around their accounts and their deals, from day one.

What to ask your marketing team

• When is the next planning cycle, and how can sales be part of it?
• Are we working off the same target account list?
• How can sales support marketing planning and in program execution?
• Can we share a list of 5 common sales objections before your quarterly planning?
• Can we set up a weekly pipeline review with marketing in the room?

2. Align marketing's campaigns with relevant sales challenges

Marketing campaigns are often planned months in advance, built around product launches or broad themes. Meanwhile, your reps are dealing with what's happening in their deals this quarter: a new competitor, a stalled segment, or a pricing objection that keeps coming up. If the campaign doesn't speak to those challenges, it's just noise.

It sounds obvious, but it's one of the most common gaps we see. Isolated campaigns with siloed tactics don't move the needle. A one-off webinar here and a paid campaign there won't help your reps close.

What works is an integrated program, where every channel (paid, events, webinars, email) supports the same campaign theme, and that theme reflects what your reps are actually hearing in their deals. When campaigns miss that mark, the content simply doesn't get used. Research from SiriusDecisions (now Forrester) found that up to 70% of content produced by B2B marketing goes unused. Your reps won't use what doesn't help them, and your buyers won't remember it.

For enterprise teams: in global organizations with 80+ marketers, getting every campaign aligned to your deals isn't realistic. Instead, focus on the marketers assigned to your segment or region. They're the ones who can shape programs around your accounts.

What it should look like

• Campaign themes are built from what reps are hearing in live conversations
• Every channel (paid, events, webinars, email) runs under the same theme and ICP, so buyers hear one consistent story
• Messaging addresses the objections and competitors showing up in deals right now
• Marketing checks in with sales mid-campaign and adjusts when the challenges shift
• Reps know what's running in market and can reference it in their outreach

The payoff for your reps: campaigns they actually want to use, because they support the conversations already happening in their deals.

What to ask your marketing team

• What sales challenges is this quarter's campaign built to solve?
• Where did the messaging come from, and did anyone talk to reps first?
• How will we know if it's helping in deals, not just generating engagement?
• What is the ICP of these campaigns?
• How is each tactic supposed to support sales?

3. Find current marketing campaigns or programs helping live deals

Most marketing is built to create new pipeline, and that matters. But in enterprise selling, some of the biggest wins come from helping deals that are already open move forward. That's why best-in-class marketing teams run integrated programs across the full funnel, not just the top.

Think about it this way: B2B deals often take hundreds of touchpoints before they close, and timing is everything. The right message at the right moment can move a deal forward. The wrong one (or none at all) lets it stall. A six or seven-figure deal can involve a dozen stakeholders over many months, and your rep can't be in front of all of them all the time. But marketing can, adding threads into the deal that your rep wouldn't reach on their own.

The goal is simple: educate your prospects as much as possible before they're in the room with your reps.

What it should look like

• Signal-based programs that run automatically, triggered by intent data, website visits or engagement, with marketing reporting back the insights sales can act on
• Air cover for priority opportunities: targeted ads and content reaching the wider buying group while your rep works the main contacts
• Content built for sales blockers: for example, a curated webinar or ebook that tackles the most common objections, aimed at deals in the closing stage
• Deal-specific assets when needed, like a custom case study, an ROI story or an executive briefing
• Content mapped to the deal stage, so reps have something useful to send at each step
• Joint deal reviews where marketing and sales look at open opportunities together and decide where support will help most

We cover air cover and multi-channel tactics in more detail in our enterprise ABM guide.

The payoff for your reps: buyers who already understand the value, and fewer deals stalling on the same objections.

What to ask your marketing team

• Which of our open opportunities is marketing actively supporting right now?
• Who in those buying groups is engaging with us, and who isn't?
• What could marketing build this month to help a stalled deal move forward?

4. Ensure your ABM marketer helps with account planning

In enterprise deals, single-threading loses fast. Your champion changes roles, goes quiet, or simply can't sell the deal internally on their own. Suddenly a deal that looked solid in the forecast has nowhere to go.

Selling to a buying committee is hard. In Gong's analysis of more than 1 million executive sales cycles, a won deal between $50K and $250K typically involves at least 10 stakeholders. Each one has different priorities, and most will never take a call with your rep.

Timing matters too. Gong found that win rates drop about 6% when an evaluation starts with an executive, but rise about 5% when executives come in around the third touchpoint. Reaching the right people, in the right order, takes a plan.

That's a lot for one rep to manage, and it's exactly where an ABM marketer earns their place. They should be in your account planning sessions, not waiting for a list at the end of them.

What it should look like

• Marketing helps sales map the org chart for each priority account and fills in the gaps reps don't have time to research
• Together, you identify who to multithread: the budget owner, influencers, end users, procurement and finance
• Marketing warms up the wider buying group, so your champion isn't selling alone and executives know your name before the first meeting
• Marketing runs targeted programs to reach the stakeholders your reps can't get to directly
• Account plans are shared documents that both teams update, not a sales-only spreadsheet

When working with clients to build enterprise customer ABM programs, account planning with sales is the foundation. We set up a formal account selection and nomination process alongside sales leadership, so both teams worked the same priority accounts for at least six months. That shared plan made it possible to run 1:1 programs for the largest accounts and reach stakeholders sales couldn't get to alone. Each 1-1 account had its own account plan, org chart, and campaign.

The payoff for your reps: more threads in every priority deal, and a champion who isn't selling alone.

What to ask your marketing team

• Which decision makers or influencers in our top accounts has marketing reached this quarter?
• Where are our buying group gaps, and what's the plan to close them?
• Can our ABM marketer join our next account planning session for our top 2-45 accounts?
• What can you share about my account's marketing activity and engagement?

5. Bake sales into the event strategy

Buyers want to meet in person again. In Bizzabo's 2025 State of Events survey, 78% of B2B event organizers called in-person events their most impactful marketing channel, and 54% of attendees planned to attend more of them. But here's the catch: 70% said they struggle to show ROI.

That gap usually comes down to one thing: sales wasn't part of the plan. Reps get an invite list a week out, show up, collect badges, and the follow-up fades. Here's what changes that.

Start with an accurate invite list

It sounds simple, but it's not. Is your invite list built from the same data and tools your reps use? We've seen a VPs at a strategic accounts tagged incorrectly in CRMs all the time, even with AI tools, which meant they didn't get a seat at the executive dinner. When that happens, sales loses trust in marketing, and in the data.

Agree on a workflow for every event

Every event needs a simple, succinct workflow for before, during and after, with clear owners on both the sales and marketing side. In global companies, that same workflow should apply to every event marketer and every regional rep, so results don't depend on who happens to be running the event.

Give people a reason to talk

On it's own, networking dinners rarely drive the most pipeline. The events that work best add real substance: bring in your product team, internal experts and customers alongside the prospects and decision makers you want in the room.

Then add a short, five-minute talk with genuinely useful insight. Not a pitch! Just something that gives everyone a reason to talk and makes it easier for your reps to start real conversations. This works especially well at executive dinners.

What it should look like

• Sales and marketing pick events together, based on where target accounts will actually be
• Invite lists come from shared data, and reps review them before invites go out
• Reps help build the invite list and personally invite the people they want in the room
• Every event has a pipeline goal, set before it happens, not reported after
• Follow-up is planned in advance, with messaging and owners agreed for each target account
• A pre, during and post-event workflow that every event marketer and regional rep follows
• Smaller formats like executive dinners and roundtables get as much attention as big conferences
• Content that adds value: experts, customers and a short insight talk, not just a dinner

The payoff for your reps: the right people in the room (often new threads into your target accounts), something worth talking about, and follow-up that actually happens.

What to ask your marketing team

• Which target accounts are we expecting at the event?
• Will there be an executive sponsor at the event?
• How can my reps work with your events team to drive the right attendance?
• What's the pipeline goal, and how will we track it?
• How did you decide on the location of the event?
• Is the content built for decision makers or practitioners?
• What's the follow-up plan for the 48 hours after the event?

All you need to do is start a conversation

You don't need a reorg to get more out of marketing.

Pick one of these five questions and bring it to your next sync with marketing. In our experience, most marketing leaders want to be closer to the deal. They just need to know where sales wants the help.

And here's a 5-step checklist for more marketing support

1. Share your top 3 sales challenges with marketing this week
2. Pick 5 priority opportunities for marketing to actively support
3. Invite your ABM marketer to your next account planning session
4. Set a pipeline goal for your next event before it happens
5. Book a weekly pipeline review with marketing in the room

Alignment is a long game. But every one of these steps helps your reps reach the right people sooner and multithread more of their deals, and that's where the pipeline (and the revenue) follows.

Questions, answered

What does marketing and sales alignment mean in enterprise selling?

It means both teams own the same pipeline and revenue targets, work off the same target account list, and plan together. In enterprise deals with large buying groups, it also means marketing actively supports live opportunities, not just top-of-funnel lead generation.

How can marketing help sales reach decision makers?

By mapping buying groups in priority accounts, identifying gaps in who reps are talking to, and running targeted programs to reach stakeholders reps can't get to directly. Air cover advertising, deal-specific content and well-planned events all help. Together, that's how marketing helps your reps multithread every deal.

What should sales leaders ask their marketing team?

Start with what's connected to live deals: which open opportunities marketing is supporting, which economic buyers have been reached, and whether both teams are working the same account list.

How long does it take to fix sales and marketing alignment?

Structural changes like shared targets and comp take quarters. But field-level improvements, like joint account planning and weekly pipeline reviews, can start right away.

Want help getting your teams on the same accounts?

We're a fractional account-based demand generation team that's spent our careers selling enterprise tech working alongside sales. Book a free consultation.

More resources

• Salesloft: 2025 State of Pipeline Generation
• Fast Company: A big shift in measuring marketing impact (Harris Poll, 2026)
• Gartner: 69% of B2B buyers turn to sales reps to validate AI-generated insights (2026)
• Gong: When and how to multi-thread when selling to executives
• CIENCE: Single-threaded is a red flag (Gong data)
• Forrester: It's not content, it's a lack of buyer insights
• Event Marketer: 14 datapoints on the state of B2B events (Bizzabo 2025 data)
• Gripped: The Big SaaS Marketing Survey 2025
• Demand Shop: Enterprise ABM guide
• Demand Shop: Enterprise ABM at Demandbase case study