Industrial marketing and sales should work hand in hand—but too often, they operate in silos.
This disconnect is a common challenge for small to mid-sized manufacturers. Even companies that consistently publish blog posts, invest in SEO, run digital ads, and build their marketing tech stack find that results fall short of expectations.
You generate Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). Website traffic is steady. KPIs trend upward. Yet, your sales team keeps asking: “Where are the real opportunities?”
Let’s be honest—industrial sales is complex and rarely linear, especially if you are selling custom-engineered solutions.
Your buyers are:
Bridging the gap between industrial marketing and sales is not about working harder. It’s about working smarter—with the right strategy to connect activities with outcomes.
According to Forrester, less than 1% of B2B marketing inquiries actually convert into closed deals—a sobering reminder of how difficult it is to drive measurable revenue from marketing alone. (Source: Forrester)
Even when you generate solid MQLs, only 10–20% ever become Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), according to industry benchmarks. (Source: GrowthDriverShow)
That means the vast majority of your leads won’t move forward unless there’s a clearly defined process for collaboration between industrial marketing and sales.
What exactly is a qualified lead?
Marketing teams often celebrate MQLs—visitors who download a white paper, fill out a contact form, or subscribe to your newsletter. These actions signal interest, but they don’t necessarily mean the prospect is ready for a sales conversation.
Sales, on the other hand, is looking for SQLs—leads that meet specific criteria like budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT). Without this alignment, it’s no surprise that sales often ignores leads passed from marketing.
Here’s why this matters:
When the criteria for MQLs and SQLs aren’t agreed upon in advance, both teams lose faith in the process.
This disconnect slows down your pipeline, frustrates your team, and weakens your ROI.
Read my earlier blog: Lead Quality: Why It’s More Important Than Quantity for Manufacturing Marketing Success. It goes deeper into how to define and measure lead quality in industrial marketing.
We’ll revisit this in the section on strategy. For now, just know this: Industrial marketing and sales alignment starts with a shared definition of what a lead actually means.
In theory, marketing attribution should be simple. A visitor clicks an ad, downloads a brochure, receives nurturing emails, and then makes a purchase.
But industrial sales don’t follow a neat, linear path.
You’re selling complex solutions with long buying cycles and multiple stakeholders. That makes it incredibly hard to connect the dots between a marketing action and a signed contract.
Here’s why attribution breaks down in manufacturing:
To improve attribution in industrial marketing and sales:
Attribution in industrial marketing isn’t perfect. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Even directional insight is better than flying blind.
If your marketing and sales teams are out of sync, the root problem may not be execution—it’s likely the lack of a documented, shared strategy.
I’ve seen it too often: A manufacturer hires a freelancer to write blog posts, launches a new PPC campaign, or updates their website. Each of these is a good step—but without a larger strategy, they operate in isolation.
Tactics without strategy often lead to frustration for marketing and sales, resulting in wasted efforts and money.
You can’t align marketing and sales if you haven’t aligned the why, who, and how behind your efforts.
A strategy-first approach also helps you adapt to changes in the digital landscape—including the next big challenge: AI-driven search.
If you don’t have this foundation in place, it’s time to step back and build one. Start here: Manufacturing Marketing Strategy.
Even when your industrial marketing and sales teams are aligned, there’s a new challenge you can’t ignore—AI is disrupting search behavior in a big way.
Google’s AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience or SGE) and platforms like ChatGPT are changing how buyers find and consume information. Instead of clicking through to your website, users now get summarized answers right in the search results.
According to a recent study, AI Overviews now appear in 47% of Search Results. (Source)
AI isn’t killing SEO—but it’s raising the bar. That’s why quick fixes and disconnected tactics won’t cut it anymore.
You need a system that continually adapts to both your buyers and the changing digital landscape.
For more on this, read Industrial Content Marketing for Manufacturers: Adapting to AI Overviews and Zero-Click Search.
Industrial sales don’t happen in a single click—or even a single conversation.
If you’re relying on a one-time campaign to fill your pipeline, you’ll likely be disappointed. Generating high-quality industrial leads requires consistency, iteration, refinements and long-term commitment.
Quick wins are rare. Sustainable results come from strategic planning, strong execution, and ongoing refinement.
That’s why more manufacturers are turning to outsourced expertise—especially when in-house resources are limited or stretched thin.
As a Fractional CMO for manufacturers, I bring strategy, execution oversight, and continuous optimization—without the full-time cost.
Whether you have a small in-house team or no marketing staff at all, a Fractional CMO can help you stay focused on what matters: Driving sales—not just clicks and impressions.
Print ads, cold calls and other conventional marketing methods—these tactics still exist in manufacturing marketing. But they’re no longer the primary way buyers engage.
Today’s industrial buyers don’t want to be sold to. They want to research on their own, at their own pace—often long before they talk to a salesperson.
That’s why traditional industrial marketing alone isn’t enough. It needs to be integrated with digital strategies that reflect how your buyers behave in the real world.
When you align traditional efforts with digital strategies, you meet buyers where they are—not where they used to be.
If your sales team is frustrated by lead quality…
If your marketing feels like it’s working in a vacuum…
And if you’re tired of disconnected tactics that don’t deliver…
Then it’s time to connect the dots.
I’ve worked exclusively with manufacturers and industrial companies for more than 35 years. I don’t learn industrial marketing at your expense.
Whether you need a documented strategy, ongoing oversight, or execution support—I can help you close the gap between marketing efforts and results.
Let’s start a conversation about how to turn your industrial marketing into a revenue-driving asset.
Let’s chat to determine if this will be a good fit for both of us. It will be a friendly conversation to get to know each other better, not a high-pressure sales pitch.