Not My Lead, Not My Problem: The Dangerous Myth Inside Industrial Sales!

Sometimes sales and marketing go head-to-head with no resolution, costing brands significant revenue leakage. Most of the time this locking of horns is due to system and process misalignment.

Let’s be real: sales and marketing in most industrial manufacturing companies don’t value each other.

Not completely. Not when it counts.

And it’s not because one side is lazy or clueless. It’s because the systems they’ve been working within—how leads are qualified, how content is created, how success is measured—were never built for alignment. They were built to operate independently. 

But here’s the thing no one’s saying loud enough: neither sales nor marketing can hit their numbers alone anymore. The buyer has changed. The process has changed. And unless you fix the lead handoff between these two functions, growth is going to stall.

So let’s unpack what’s actually going wrong—and how smart, bold industrial marketers and sales leaders are fixing it.

The truth behind the tension

There’s a common storyline in B2B manufacturing: marketing blames sales for not following up on leads, and sales blames marketing for sending over junk.

Both sides are frustrated. Both are partly right. The underlying issue? Different definitions of a “good” lead.

Marketing is often focused on behaviors—someone downloaded a whitepaper, attended a webinar, or visited five pages of your website. Sales is looking for buying intent—someone who’s ready to talk specs, timelines, and pricing.

That gap creates friction. And if your teams aren’t using a shared qualification framework, you’re going to keep fighting the same fight quarter after quarter.

Redefining a “qualified” lead: bring in BANT

Let’s bring some structure to the chaos. Because the truth is, a great marketing lead can and should be a great sales lead—if you use the right criteria.

Enter BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing.

It’s not new, but it’s still one of the most effective ways to qualify leads in complex industrial B2B sales.

• Budget: Do they have the money to buy your solution?
• Authority: Are you speaking to someone who can make or influence the purchase?
• Need: Is there a real pain point your solution solves?
• Timing: Is this something they’re ready to act on in the near term?

A webinar attendee is not a lead. A download is not a lead. But a prospect who’s shown interest, confirmed they’re evaluating options, and fits your ICP? That’s gold.

The smartest industrial marketing teams are building BANT into their qualification workflows—using progressive profiling, lead scoring, and SDR outreach to bridge the gap before it gets handed to sales.

Marketing isn’t the problem—it’s the engine

Here’s where we shift the tone. Marketing isn’t broken. In fact, it’s more powerful and important than ever—especially in industrial manufacturing, where buying cycles are long, technical, and filled with hidden stakeholders.

Marketing is responsible for:

• Building awareness among engineers and decision-makers long before a rep gets involved.
• Creating content that answers technical questions and validates capabilities.
• Nurturing leads who aren’t ready yet but will be.

If you’re in marketing and feel like your work isn’t respected, here’s your reminder: without your efforts, there is no pipeline. But visibility doesn’t equal conversion. That’s where the handoff has to improve.

The handoff moment: where momentum dies or multiplies

Let’s zoom in on the exact moment where leads move from marketing to sales. This is where most companies lose focus.

A handoff should feel like a relay race, where the next runner hits top speed before they receive the baton. But what it often looks like is this:

1. Marketing generates a list of leads.
2. That list gets dumped into a CRM.
3. Sales gets “assigned” the names.
4. No context. No prioritization. No collaboration.

At best, it creates confusion. At worst, it breeds resentment and wastes months of effort. Smart companies are fixing this by turning the handoff into a collaborative transfer, not a one-way toss. That means:

• Joint lead scoring: Sales and marketing align on what qualifies a lead using real BANT data.
• Lead previews: Marketing walks sales through top leads with insights, not just names.
• Sales SLAs: Defined timelines and standards for follow-up so leads don’t rot.

This isn’t “alignment” in theory—it’s operationalized alignment in action.

What bold companies are doing differently

If you want to fix your lead handoff, look at what bold industrial brands are already doing:

1. They build campaigns with sales from the start
   The most effective marketing campaigns are co-created with sales, so the messaging, assets, and cadence actually support conversations reps are already having.
2. They focus on revenue, not just leads
   The goal is not MQLs. The goal is closed-won deals. These companies hold joint pipeline reviews, share attribution dashboards, and care deeply about conversion.
3. They map content to the buyer’s real journey
   Content isn’t built in a vacuum. It’s mapped to objections, aligned to deal stages, and delivered at the right time with context. Marketing isn’t just producing—it’s enabling.
4. They incentivize collaboration
   They don’t just hope teams get along. They structure compensation, recognition, and performance metrics to reward teamwork, not turf wars.

Sales isn’t the finisher—it’s the closer

Just like marketing isn’t just lead generation, sales isn’t just deal closing. The best sales reps are active earlier, injecting real-world buyer intel into campaigns, content, and qualification flows.

In modern industrial B2B, sales should be:

• In the room when personas are developed.
• Reviewing content for relevance and accuracy.
• Sharing real-time objections and competitor moves.
• Following up on leads with the same intensity they chase RFPs.

If your sales team is only showing up after a discovery call is scheduled, you’re leaving deals on the table. The best-performing salespeople partner with marketing not as a handoff—but as a tag team.

Your next move

If you’re a senior marketer inside a B2B industrial manufacturing company and you’re tired of hearing “marketing leads are junk,” here’s what to do:

• Start by defining a shared BANT-based qualification framework
• Build campaigns that solve real sales problems, not just generate activity
• Set up joint lead reviews that focus on conversion, not finger-pointing
• Create feedback loops so your content evolves with the market—not behind it

You don’t have to fix everything overnight. But you do need to start. Because the longer your handoff stays broken, the harder it is to hit your number—and the easier it is for your competitor to dominate. 

Final thoughts

Marketing isn’t the problem—it’s the untapped advantage. But without a strategic, BANT-based approach to lead qualification and a seamless sales handoff, most of that advantage gets lost. Bold industrial brands are bridging the gap with shared definitions, real collaboration, and a relentless focus on pipeline—not just performance metrics.

Want to build the kind of marketing-sales alignment that actually drives revenue? A B2B marketing agency like RIVET knows how to engineer it. We’ve helped industrial manufacturing companies stop wasting leads and start accelerating deals—by building systems both sales and marketing believe in. Drop us a line if we can help.