If you’re in B2B industrial marketing and you haven’t had a hard conversation with your sales team this year, then you’re already behind. Not because sales always has the answers—they don’t. But because the clock is ticking. Budget season is coming. And your ability to influence next year’s strategy, pipeline, and revenue goals depends entirely on whether sales sees you as a partner or a PowerPoint factory.
It’s easy to fall into the same cycle every year: clean up last quarter’s metrics, spin up a few “buyer personas,” and cross your fingers that sales gives you credit for that deal you helped influence 14 touches ago.
That’s not a strategy. That’s survival.
If you want to stop defending your worth and start leading the conversation, you need to initiate five brutally honest conversations with sales—before budget season. These aren’t the sanitized QBR check-ins or alignment meetings that never get past small talk. These are the real ones. The uncomfortable ones. The ones that change how marketing is perceived inside your company.
Here’s where to start.
1. What do you actually use?
Before you ask for more budget, audit what’s already on the table. And that starts by asking your sales team what content, tools, and assets they actually use in the field.
Not what they like. Not what they think is helpful. What they use.
This one question will trigger every emotion in your B2B marketing DNA. You’ll discover the one-sheet you obsessed over for three weeks has never been opened. You’ll learn your case studies are considered too “fluffy.” And you’ll find out that your brand-new video got buried in a Dropbox folder nobody bookmarked.
It’s humbling. But it’s the truth.
Here’s why this matters: content that’s unused is content that can’t close. If your sales team doesn’t know how to access it, pitch it, or defend it, then it doesn’t matter how “on-brand” it is. It’s dead weight. And it’s dragging down your marketing efficiency.
If you want to protect your budget in Q4, kill the sacred cows. Strip your library down to the proven performers. And ask sales what they actually need for 2026—before you go spend another dollar building more of what they’ll ignore.
2. Where are the dead leads hiding?
Most industrial marketing teams avoid this question because the answer stings. But if you’re serious about revenue, you have to dig into the skeletons.
Ask sales: which leads are wasting your time?
Every company has them. The accounts that keep showing up to webinars but ghost after the follow-up. The B2B buyers who download every guide but never talk to a rep. The ones who say “we’re interested” but disappear into procurement purgatory.
The truth is, not all engagement is good engagement. Some leads look great on paper but never convert. And some segments are just too early, too niche, or too locked into a competitor to be worth the pursuit.
When you identify these patterns with sales, you do two things:
- You stop wasting time and budget chasing ghosts.
- You earn credibility as a marketer who understands real pipeline dynamics.
Then—and only then—can you double down on the campaigns and segments that actually drive revenue.
Bonus: this conversation often reveals just how broken your lead scoring really is. Fix that now and you’ll save yourself a pile of grief in January.
3. Which deals are stuck—and why?
Forget MQLs for a minute. Talk about deals. Real, named, in-the-CRM deals that are stuck, stalled, or going sideways.
This is the conversation where you stop just being a marketer and start being a growth partner.
Ask sales to walk you through 5-10 stuck opportunities. Listen to the objections. The competitive pressure. The internal politics. The budget timing issues. Then ask yourself this:
Where can marketing help?
Could a stronger case study break the stalemate? Could a tailored ROI calculator move things forward? Could a third-party analyst report give your champion more ammunition?
When marketing is removed from the pipeline, content gets generic. Campaigns become disconnected. And sales treats you like an outsourced design team.
But when you get in the weeds of the actual deals, your messaging sharpens. Your support becomes strategic. And your budget suddenly feels a lot more like a revenue enabler than a cost center.
This is where you build real alignment.
4. What’s coming in Q1 that we’re not ready for?
Industrial marketers love retroactive analysis. But if you want to be valuable, look forward.
Sit down with sales leadership and ask: what’s coming that we’re not ready for?
New verticals. Regulatory shifts. Pricing changes. Competitor launches. Partner churn. It’s all fair game.
Because here’s the reality: if you wait until January to react, you’ve already lost. Your next campaign will be late. Your messaging will lag. And you’ll spend the first quarter trying to catch up to a problem that could’ve been neutralized last quarter.
When you talk about Q12026 in Q32025, you buy time. Time to test a new message. Build an asset library. Equip the reps. Train the partners. Rewrite the playbook.
And that time is your competitive advantage.
Think about it this way: sales is on the front lines. If they’re hearing something now, your competitors will act on it by Q4. Will you?
5. What does “qualified” actually mean this year?
The most dangerous assumption in industrial marketing is that everyone still agrees on what a good lead looks like.
And yet, almost nobody redefines “qualified” in light of shifting market conditions, sales cycles, or product positioning.
What counted as “qualified” in 2023 might be irrelevant now. But if your scoring model, targeting criteria, and campaign structure haven’t changed, you’re flying blind.
So ask your sales team: what’s actually working?
Are you seeing faster movement from mid-market instead of enterprise? Is a certain job title now more influential than your historical ideal customer profile? Are previously unqualified verticals suddenly showing signs of life?
This conversation forces clarity. It resets assumptions. It gives you permission to reallocate budget to where traction actually exists.
And, let’s be blunt—it gives you air cover when finance starts questioning why you’re not generating the same MQL volume. You can look them in the eye and say, “We’re not chasing ghosts anymore. We’re chasing revenue.”
The unspoken benefit: you reset the relationship
These five conversations aren’t just about data. They’re about power. Every one of them chips away at the decades-old dynamic where marketing serves and sales critiques.
When you bring these questions to the table, you flip the script.
You show that marketing doesn’t just support the business. It drives it.
You stop reacting to sales complaints and start co-authoring the revenue plan.
You replace the endless debate over attribution with joint ownership of outcomes.
And that? That’s the moment marketing earns its seat at the table—not just during budget season, but all year long.
Final thoughts: your business deserves candor
If you’re tired of running this process alone, this is where the right B2B marketing agency earns its keep.
Not with fluff. Not with “demand gen frameworks.” But with hard conversations, sharp insights, and execution that actually moves the needle. The right agency doesn’t just deliver campaigns—they help you audit what’s working, challenge your assumptions, and arm you with tools that sales actually wants to use. Drop us a line if we can help you prepare for budget season.
