Many companies invest heavily in marketing but still hear the same complaint from sales: “These leads aren’t ready,” “This content doesn’t help,” “We’re not getting what we need.” The gap usually isn’t effort, though. It’s alignment. In fact, 65% of sales and marketing professionals believe there is a lack of alignment between the sales and marketing leaders in their organizations.
Make even a quick study of how to build a marketing plan that improves sales outcomes and you’ll quickly learn that you must treat the two teams as one unified revenue engine. A true sales-supported marketing plan has common goals and data. It shares buyer definitions. There’s equal accountability between marketing and sales.
Here’s how to create such a plan in a way that actually moves the needle.
How to Build a Marketing Plan to Support Sales in Five Steps
1. Align on Shared Goals, Roles & Success Metrics
The first step in how to build a marketing plan is to eliminate the “two-team” mentality. Marketing and sales should begin with the same priorities and the same definitions of success.
- Define responsibilities clearly. Marketing owns lead generation and nurturing; sales owns qualification and closing. The transition between the two must be jointly designed.
- Set shared objectives. Marketing shouldn’t default to spending time optimizing for clicks if the sales priority is to optimize for booked demos. Agree on outcomes such as pipeline value, conversion rates, client delight metrics, or customer acquisition targets.
- Establish communication rhythms. Weekly syncs, shared dashboards, clear points of contact — these things prevent assumptions and keep teams operating from the same reality.
Clarity at the top prevents friction everywhere else and creates the foundation for true marketing support to sales team execution.
2. Build Personas and Customer Journeys Together
Marketers who use buyer personas enjoy 73% higher conversions than those who don't. A marketing plan only succeeds if both teams agree on who the audience is and what their buying path looks like.
- Create shared buyer personas. Sales brings firsthand conversations and objections; marketing brings behavioral data and insights. Combine both.
- Map the customer journey in detail. Outline every awareness, consideration, and decision-stage touchpoint. Agree on where marketing engages, where sales engages, and how each handoff works.
- Identify content gaps. If prospects repeatedly ask the same questions, that’s a signal for marketing to produce content that removes friction.
This step is also a cornerstone of a slightly more specific effort: how to plan and build a successful content marketing strategy. It ties all content topics directly to sales needs.
3. Build a Strategy That Supports the Funnel
A high-functioning strategy includes messaging, channels, tools, and content all aligned toward what sales actually needs to close deals in the sales and marketing funnel.
- Run a joint SWOT analysis. Use it to align around value, advantages, objections, competitive realities, etc.
- Define a clear value proposition. Both teams must use the same positioning in every meeting, on every page, in every campaign — you get the idea!
- Choose tactics that match how prospects buy. Email, paid ads, social, SEO, webinars, content, SDR outreach…each needs purpose and ownership.
Random traffic won’t cut it. This is where you outline how to build a digital marketing plan that feeds qualified leads into the pipeline
4. Build Sales Enablement Into the Plan From Day One
Gartner research finds that 42% of buyers reported high-quality deals through traditional methods involving a sales representative, compared to only 16% for online self-service purchases. Direct interactions with buyers move the sales cycle forward. The best thing marketing can do to support that process is to clearly outline how to integrate marketing support into sales enablement tools and materials. This includes the creation of high-value sales enablement content assets such as:
- Case studies tailored to each persona
- Objection-handling one-pagers
- Product sheets and comparison guides
- Email templates and outreach cadences
- Demo follow-up content
- Short videos or visuals sales can drop into messages
Sales should be able to open a folder and instantly find what they need to advance a deal.
5. Execute, Measure, Share Data, Continuously Refine
A marketing plan that supports sales must be measurable and adaptable.
- Set a joint budget and timeline. Make sure resources reflect the revenue goals.
- Define shared KPIs. Pipeline contribution, conversion rates, lead quality, sales cycle length, and influenced revenue should all be tracked across both teams.
- Share data frequently. Insights from CRM, web analytics, campaign tools, and sales conversations must flow in both directions.
- Refine the plan monthly or quarterly. A plan is not static. Sales feedback should shape new campaigns, and marketing insights should guide outreach priorities.
It’s one thing to have a document that technically contains a plan. It’s another thing to use it. When both teams treat the plan as a shared system, alignment becomes natural.
Two Departments, a Single Revenue Team
Marketers and salespeople can (and should!) operate from the same goals, with same audiences, using the same definitions of success. When they do, performance improves across the board. You’ll close gaps faster and produce content that actually gets used. Well-aligned sales and marketing teams stop running in parallel and build meaningful momentum.
As soon as you learn how to build a marketing plan that strengthens collaboration, you’ll give your sales team the foundation they need to win more often and more efficiently. Clarity on ROI and more predictable revenue await!
