Growth is rarely a straight line.
It is also rarely achieved alone.
For many companies, the biggest roadblock to revenue growth is not market conditions or product fit; it is the strained relationship between two functions tasked with generating that growth: marketing and sales.
Marketing complains about sales follow-through.
Sales complains about lead quality.
Both teams double down on their own priorities, and a cycle of distrust begins.
But when marketing and sales build genuine trust, the dynamic changes completely. They stop pulling in different directions and start moving together. The entire revenue operation accelerates.
We’ve written before about building a unified revenue team, where marketing, sales, and customer success learn to operate as one. Here, we’ll focus on the two functions most often at odds, marketing and sales, and explore how trust between them becomes the hidden engine of growth.
The Tension That Holds Growth Back
In many companies, marketing and sales operate as if they are on opposite teams. Each side holds deeply ingrained perceptions about the other.
- Marketing sees sales as impatient and short‑sighted, more interested in quick wins than building lasting relationships.
- Sales views marketing as detached from reality, more focused on fluffy campaigns than producing leads that actually convert.
These attitudes aren’t just personality clashes. They create operational silos:
- Marketing runs campaigns without insight into what truly closes.
- Sales follows up on leads they don’t trust, wasting time and energy.
- Both report to leadership with conflicting metrics and narratives.
The result is predictable: misaligned goals, inefficient processes, and lost revenue opportunities.
Why Trust Changes Everything
Growth demands experimentation.
Experimentation requires risk.
And risk, when shared across functions, demands trust.
When marketing and sales trust each other, they build a loop of learning:
Marketing listens to sales feedback on lead quality and adjusts targeting in real time.
Sales relies on marketing’s positioning and messaging to frame conversations that resonate.
Together they test new plays, measure impact, and adapt quickly.
Trust is not blind comfort; it’s the confidence that the other team is working with you, not around you. It’s what allows both sides to challenge assumptions without fear of blame.
This environment turns tension into collaboration. It creates a rhythm where both functions stretch beyond their comfort zones, knowing the other will do the same.
A Realigned Revenue Team Drives Better Outcomes
When marketing and sales operate from trust, the benefits ripple throughout the revenue engine:
- Higher revenue: aligned messaging and smarter targeting lead to better conversion rates and larger deals.
- Increased efficiency: no more duplicated efforts or chasing leads that don’t fit.
- Improved customer experience: customers get a consistent story from first touch through post‑sale support.
- Stronger company culture: collaboration replaces blame, lifting morale across teams.
This alignment isn’t theoretical. Companies that intentionally build these relationships see the difference in their numbers and in their people.
Where Many Startups Get Stuck
Early‑stage companies feel this tension even more acutely.
They are under pressure to prove traction. They hire marketing and sales leaders at different times. They have no shared history to build trust on.
With no foundation, both teams default to protecting their own metrics:
Marketing floods the pipeline with volume, hoping something sticks.
Sales cherry‑picks leads, ignoring campaigns that don’t immediately deliver.
The founder watches a system that should be a growth engine turn into a tug‑of‑war.
The Shortcut: A Fractional Revenue Team That Already Trusts Each Other
There is a faster way to build this trust.
Bringing in a fractional revenue team, led by a Fractional CRO, with a Fractional CMO and Fractional Chief Customer Officer, creates an immediate advantage. These leaders often come in as a unit with an established history of working together.
That matters because:
- They already know how to collaborate under pressure.
- They have proven systems for integrating marketing, sales, and customer success.
- They can model trust in real time, showing internal teams what alignment looks like.
Instead of spending months (or years) trying to build trust between newly hired marketing and sales leaders, you tap into a team where trust is already built in.
This shortcut accelerates alignment and sets the tone for the in‑house culture you want to create.
A fractional approach isn’t just about outsourcing expertise. It’s about importing relationships that work, and letting those relationships reshape your own revenue operation.
Practical Ways to Build Trust In-House
Even if you aren’t bringing in a fractional team, you can take steps to strengthen the marketing–sales relationship:
- Set shared goals: Align incentives so marketing and sales win together. For example, tie bonuses to revenue growth rather than isolated metrics like lead volume or closed deals.
- Hold joint pipeline reviews: Make conversations about lead quality, messaging, and conversion data a regular part of the rhythm.
- Create cross‑functional campaigns: Design initiatives that require input and accountability from both sides.
- Invest in informal trust‑building: Offsites, workshops, and collaborative planning sessions can break down stereotypes and build empathy.
These steps take intentional effort, but they transform day‑to‑day friction into long‑term momentum.
Growth is Rooted in Relationships
Growth isn’t simply a matter of effort. It’s the outcome of relationships strong enough to turn effort into aligned action.
When marketing and sales trust each other, they stop operating in silos and start building a system that learns, adapts, and scales. Whether you build those relationships internally or jump‑start them by bringing in a fractional revenue team with a Fractional CRO, Fractional CMO, and Fractional Chief Customer Officer who already work in sync, the principle holds:
Growth is rooted in relationships.
And relationships, built on trust, are the hidden engine behind every thriving revenue operation.
