Marketing and sales misalignment doesn’t always show up as a big problem. Sometimes, it looks like a campaign that gets clicks but no follow-up. Or a sales team chasing leads that were never really interested. Over time, those small disconnects add up and drag performance down.
The fix is shared context. When both teams see the same data, trust the same scoring system, and track the same goals, it’s easier to move in the same direction. That’s where smart tools make a real difference, not by adding more work, but by removing guesswork.
In this blog, we’ll break down where things usually go wrong and show you how HubSpot tools can tighten the handoff between teams and run campaigns that convert.
A good campaign moves the right people through the right steps until they’re ready to buy.
To achieve this, marketing and sales must work as a unified team. Marketing can’t just send leads into the void and hope for the best. And sales can’t follow up without knowing where those leads came from or what they’ve already seen.
The best campaigns are built on shared goals, smooth handoffs, and real-time data. When both teams are aligned, they know who they’re targeting, what’s already been said, and what needs to happen next.
That kind of collaboration isn’t just nice to have. 87% of sales and marketing leaders say it’s what drives real business growth.
Even when marketing and sales have the same end goal, it’s easy for things to break down along the way. Maybe the handoff between teams isn’t clear. Maybe they’re working off different data. Or maybe they just define a “good lead” differently.
You’ll miss opportunities, waste time, and have campaigns that never reach their full potential.
Let’s look at three of the most common alignment problems and how you can solve each one using simple, built-in HubSpot tools.
Marketing brings in a lot of leads. But not all leads are ready to buy, and not all of them are worth the sales team’s time.
When marketing and sales don’t agree on which leads matter most, things start to fall apart; salespeople waste time chasing weak leads. Strong prospects slip through the cracks. And both teams get frustrated.
A big part of the problem is that “good lead” means different things to each team. Marketing may focus on engagement, such as email clicks or website visits.
Sales might care more about job title, company size, or budget. Without a shared system to measure lead quality, both teams end up working in silos.
That disconnect has real consequences. 52.2% of sales professionals say the biggest impact of misalignment is lost sales and revenue. When there’s no clear way to tell which leads are worth pursuing, you lose time, deals, and trust.
HubSpot’s lead scoring tool gives both marketing and sales a shared way to decide which leads are worth focusing on. Instead of guessing, both teams can see a score that shows how likely a contact is to become a customer.
You can build the score using two types of data: what a lead does (like clicking a CTA or booking a meeting) and who they are (like their job title, industry, or company size).
If you’re using Marketing Hub Enterprise, you can combine both into one score for an even clearer picture.
Lead scoring is highly flexible. You can:
Once your scoring system is live, it updates automatically. You can use it to build smart lists, send alerts when a lead crosses a score threshold, or trigger workflows that help your team follow up at the right time.
With shared criteria and real-time updates, lead scoring helps both teams focus on the leads that actually matter, making it easier to work together and close more deals.
Even when a campaign goes out on time, problems can still pop up behind the scenes. Marketing might have no idea whether sales followed up on a lead. Sales might not know which email a contact has already received. And both teams end up working with half the picture.
This lack of visibility leads to missed connections, repeat messages, and slow follow-up. It also makes it hard to track what’s working. If the handoff between marketing and sales isn’t clear, neither team can confidently say what’s helping close deals.
That disconnect has a ripple effect. 22.1% of salespeople say better alignment between sales and marketing helps them close more deals. So when both sides work in sync, it’s not just about feeling more organized. It directly leads to stronger outcomes.
HubSpot’s sequences tool helps bridge the gap between marketing and sales by giving both teams visibility into what’s being sent and when. It’s not just a tool for follow-up. It’s a way to plan, automate, and track outreach that builds on what marketing has already done.
With sequences, you can send a series of timed emails to a contact and even build in task reminders to ensure no step is missed.
As soon as a contact replies or books a meeting, they’re automatically removed from the sequence. This means contacts aren’t overwhelmed, and your team isn’t wasting time on someone who’s already responded.
Sequences help both teams stay on track by allowing you to:
You can also connect sequences to marketing campaigns, so all contacts enrolled are clearly linked to a specific effort. That makes it easier to measure campaign impact, not just based on opens and clicks, but on actual meetings booked and conversations started.
With sequences, both marketing and sales can see the full journey a lead is on. And when you can see what’s happening, it’s easier to work together and get results.
It’s hard to improve a campaign if you can’t tell what worked. When tracking is unclear or inconsistent, marketing and sales teams are left guessing.
Which email drove the most traffic? Which ad led to a meeting? Without clear answers, it's difficult to know where to invest time and budget.
The problem often starts with how links are tracked. If links don’t include proper tracking parameters or if they aren’t tied to a campaign inside your CRM, then the visit gets recorded, but the story behind it is lost.
This isn’t just a marketing problem. It limits sales, too. When teams can’t trace a lead’s journey, they miss chances to personalize outreach.
That’s why 79% of sales professionals say their CRM improves alignment. When campaign tracking is built into your system, everyone works from the same data.
HubSpot’s tracking URL builder lets you create custom links with UTM parameters that tie every visit to a specific campaign. This gives your team a clean way to track where your traffic is coming from and how each campaign performs.
These tracking URLs are especially useful for:
To create a tracking URL in HubSpot, simply choose your destination URL, assign a campaign, select a traffic source (such as "email" or "paid search"), and fill in optional fields like medium and content.
From there, the visit data shows up in your HubSpot reports and campaign dashboards. With tracking URLs in place, both marketing and sales can see how leads first found you, what they clicked on, and how those interactions connect to revenue.
When marketing and sales are out of sync, even a strong campaign can fall flat. Misaligned lead priorities, poor visibility, and unclear tracking make it hard to follow through and see results.
But with the right tools in HubSpot, these challenges become easier to fix. Lead scoring helps teams focus on the right contacts. Sequences keep outreach organized and visible. And tracking URLs show what’s working and why.
Stronger alignment doesn’t have to mean more work. It just means building smarter systems that help your teams work better together.
Origin 63 helps growing teams get the most out of HubSpot. From setting up lead scoring to building campaigns that track real results, we make sure your tools are working as hard as you are.
Let’s build your next smart move together.