When marketing and sales chase different KPIs, conversion flatlines

(This post is adapted from “4 Key Conversion Keywords That B2B Marketers Must Check”.)

“Marketing brought in 1,000 leads this month!”

“Yeah,” the sales team sighs, “but only 50 are worth calling.”

Sound familiar?

Reports look full, but deals don’t move.

It’s not a performance issue—it’s a misalignment issue.

The two teams simply aren’t standing on the same funnel.

🤯 What happens when marketing and sales move separately

Marketing reports lead volume.

Sales tracks closed deals.

At first glance, both KPIs sound fair—but when metrics diverge, so does focus.

• Marketing chases quantity.

• Sales complains about quality.

The result? A half-working funnel where leads leak through the cracks.

This isn’t a lack of effort—it’s a lack of system alignment.

Example: Marketing runs ads to “all IT companies,”

but Sales only values leads from firms with 50+ employees and $10M+ annual revenue.

Leads pile up. Conversions stall.

Because they’re not talking to the same customer.

🧩 Enter Allbound: one funnel, shared ownership

Top-performing B2B teams today are turning to Allbound—

a strategy that unifies inbound and outbound into one continuous motion where

marketing and sales operate on the same funnel.

The idea is simple:

It’s not about who generated the lead, but whether both teams are raising the lead’s likelihood to convert.

Winning teams share three key structures:

1️⃣ Shared Lead Definition

Marketing and sales agree on the same ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).

Alignment starts with a shared definition of a “good lead.”

2️⃣ Shared KPI System

Both teams own the metrics from MQL → SQL → Closed-Won.

Marketing doesn’t stop at lead volume, and Sales doesn’t ignore the top funnel.

3️⃣ Regular Feedback Loop

They review lead quality and campaign outcomes together.

One simple question—“How were the leads this month?”—reshapes the next campaign.

Once these are in place, the funnel stops breaking in the middle.

🤝 Share the flow, not just the numbers

The real power of Allbound lies in information flow.

When Sales says, “Lead quality was strong this month—especially from blog traffic, lots of decision-makers,”

Marketing instantly uses that data to refine next month’s targeting.

When Marketing reports, “Leads who viewed this content converted 3× higher,”

Sales enters meetings already knowing what the prospect cares about.

Companies running this kind of collaboration see 67% higher lead-to-deal conversion rates on average.

Because the strongest way to align a funnel is to share data and speak one language of performance.

✅ 3 Steps to Make Allbound Work

✔️ Step 1: Redefine “qualified lead.”

Agree on a clear ICP across teams—role, company size, budget, decision authority.

✔️ Step 2: Unify KPIs.

Use joint metrics like overall conversion rate or MQL→SQL ratio.

When both teams track the same number, alignment follows naturally.

✔️ Step 3: Build a feedback loop.

Hold regular syncs to review lead quality and campaign outcomes.

Let the data talk—so emotions don’t.

Teams using Featpaper view proposal-engagement data and campaign-lead data in the same dashboard.

They can literally see, together, where each lead stopped.

Marketing speaks in Sales’ language; Sales speaks with Marketing’s data.

📈 When both teams share one funnel, conversions rise naturally

Once you’ve defined your ICP precisely, mapped content by stage,

and used data to locate bottlenecks—now it’s time to align the people.

Allbound isn’t just a new workflow.

It’s the act of sharing one funnel.

In the end, B2B conversion isn’t about reach—it’s about alignment.

When your teams move as one continuous flow, your funnel stops leaking.

But executing Allbound requires one integrated framework:

ICP · Content · Data · Collaboration.

If you want to see how all four connect into a single system, start here:

💡 How do you define ICPs precisely?

💡 How should content and CTAs map across awareness stages?

💡 How can data expose and fix real conversion bottlenecks?

💡 How do you operationalize Allbound in your team?

Featpaper’s full guide — “4 Key Conversion Keywords That B2B Marketers Must Check” —

brings all four pillars together into one practical playbook.

If you’re ready to make conversion a system, not a stroke of luck, start there.

👉 Read the full version