Your Sales and Marketing Teams Are Fighting a War Nobody Wants to Name. Let's Fix It.
By Greg Rosner
Founder of PitchKitchen · Author of StoryCraft for Disruptors
· 5 min read
TL;DR
Most B2B sales and marketing teams are fighting a quiet war nobody wants to name. Marketing says the leads are good. Sales says they're garbage. The CEO doesn't know who to believe. The fix isn't better process or more alignment meetings. It's a shared rebellion... one story that both teams carry into every conversation. On May 19, Richard Harris and I are hosting a roundtable for 10 B2B founders who are ready to end this war. Not a webinar. Not a pitch. A working conversation. 10 seats. One hour.
May 19, 2026 · Live on Zoom · Founders and CEOs only
The war nobody names
If you're a B2B founder or CEO, I have a question for you. When was the last time your sales and marketing teams were in the same room, telling the same story?
Not the same slides. Not the same dashboard. The same story.
Most can't answer that. Because most sales and marketing teams are fighting a quiet war nobody wants to name. Marketing says the leads are good. Sales says they're garbage. The CEO sits at the head of the table and doesn't know who to believe.
I've been in that room at least fifty times. Different companies. Different industries. Same war. Both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. Because neither is naming the actual problem.
What's actually broken
The problem isn't lead quality. It isn't the handoff process. It isn't the lead scoring model.
It's story.
Marketing is telling one story. Sales is telling a different one. The buyer hears both and gets confused. And then everyone blames the leads.
Marketing's story sounds like this: 'Our AI-powered platform streamlines clinical workflows and reduces documentation time by 40%.'
Sales' story sounds like this: 'You're spending 90 minutes a night on charting after your kids go to bed. That's not a workflow problem. That's your life being stolen.'
One is a brochure. The other is a rebellion.
The war ends when both teams carry the same rebellion.
A real example
Take Glytec. They sell intelligent glycemic management to hospital systems. Here's what it looks like when marketing and sales are telling the same rebellion but playing their distinct roles.
Marketing plants the flag: intelligent glycemic management is the only way forward for hospital systems that no longer want to tolerate patient risk. That's the rebellion. Old world: manual glycemic control, patient-by-patient, hoping nobody gets hurt. New world: automated, safety-first, system-wide glycemic intelligence.
Sales dives into the messy middle with one specific buyer. A CNO. A CMO. A VP of Quality. The conversation isn't 'here's our platform.' It's: are you OK with the risks you're tolerating today? What happens when CMS changes the rules? What does it cost every time a glycemic event creates harm that didn't have to happen?
Marketing ignited the fire. Sales walked the buyer through the smoke. Same rebellion. Different application. One team.
Notice what's not in that conversation. No feature list. No platform demo. The solution matters, but it matters at the right stage. And when you do get to the demo, you show the three things that move the needle for that specific buyer, not 101 features that may or may not apply. Most marketing leads with the solution. The companies that win lead with the need to change. The solution is the answer. But the question has to come first.
Let's have this conversation
On May 19, Richard Harris and I are hosting a roundtable for 10 B2B founders who are done with this war.
Not a webinar. Not a pitch. A working conversation about how to get your sales and marketing teams on the same side by giving them the same rebellion to carry.
10 seats. Founders and CEOs only. One hour.
If you're tired of watching your two most important teams operate like they're at different companies, this is for you.
May 19, 2026 · Live on Zoom · 10 seats · Founders and CEOs only
Questions People Ask
FAQ
Why do sales and marketing always fight in B2B companies?
Because both teams think they own "the story." Marketing because they own the brand. Sales because they own the customer relationship. Neither owns it. The customer does. Marketing's job is to tell the customer's transformation story at scale. Sales' job is to involve themselves in each buyer's specific chapter of that story. When that division isn't decided, both teams produce their own version of "what we do" and the customer hears two stories.
What's the difference between sales-marketing alignment and story ownership?
Alignment is process (shared dashboards, SLAs, MQL definitions). Story ownership is doctrine (whose job it is to tell what part of the customer's transformation). Most companies try to fix alignment problems with process. The actual problem is doctrine. Until you decide whose story it is and how the labor divides, the alignment meetings just paper over the gap.
Who is Richard Harris and what is N.E.A.T. Selling?
Richard Harris is the founder of The Harris Consulting Group and the creator of N.E.A.T. Selling, a B2B sales methodology focused on earning the right to ask questions before pitching. He's trained Zoom, Salesforce, Google Cloud, PagerDuty, DoorDash, Salesloft, and Gainsight. He also co-hosts the Surf and Sales podcast with Scott Leese.
How do I attend the May 19 PitchKitchen Roundtable with Richard Harris?
Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/7dW5dig0SzCke1YY7lFKww. The roundtable is a working session, not a webinar. Bring your homepage, your top sales deck, and one recent customer call transcript. Greg Rosner and Richard Harris will diagnose the story-ownership problem live with you and other founders.