No, I’m not talking about the endless waves of illness running through schools right now (though I feel that pain deeply).

I’m talking about the all-too-common B2B sales tactic where reps jump on a call and immediately start feature-dumping.

The thinking seems to be:
💭 “I’ve got a live one! I need to tell them how great we are before they slip away!”

🚨 But here’s the thing: This isn’t just a Sales failure. It’s also a Marketing failure.

If Marketing isn’t setting the foundation for value-driven conversations from the first touchpoint, Sales is left scrambling to make sense of it all. Marketing has to take ownership of guiding a buyer to value throughout the entire customer experience—from Prospect all the way through Closed Won and Renewal.

So what does that actually look like? And how does it drive different results?

1️⃣ Break down positioning silos and build company-wide positioning alignment

🔹 Align on who your ideal buyers and customers are—Marketing, Sales, and CS should all be working from the same playbook.
🔹 Define core value props that resonate across different personas and buying stages.
🔹 Ensure messaging is consistent—from marketing campaigns to sales decks to renewal conversations.

2️⃣ Make your branding field-executable

🔹 Give Marketing, Sales, and Account teams shared discovery, messaging, and storytelling strategies—not just separate, disconnected materials.
🔹 Move beyond fluffy branding—make positioning usable in real-world sales conversations.
🔹 Equip teams with practical enablement tools that help them reinforce value at every stage.

3️⃣ Bring your buying committee together with value messaging

🔹 Connect technical product value to business value and outcomes—CFOs and CTOs don’t care about the same things.
🔹 Speak the language of each persona—understand their pain points, not just your product’s features.
🔹 Create alignment across different stakeholders so deals don’t stall in procurement purgatory.

4️⃣ Replace ad hoc content with personalized content streams

🔹 Map content to the entire buyer and customer journey—pre-sales, post-sales, and renewal.
🔹 Create content that reinforces messaging at every stage instead of dumping one-pagers and hoping for the best.
🔹 Focus on personalization—right message, right person, right time.

When Marketing does this, Sales isn’t left to fend for itself. Instead of “show up and throw up,” reps can show up and connect.

What’s been your experience? How well do your Sales and Marketing teams align?