05/29/2026
The majority of private equity-backed companies say their sales and marketing departments collaborate. However, many of the sales representatives at those same companies have a very different perception of the relationship between sales and marketing.
I can think of several times when I've been inside a portfolio company after an acquisition closed, seeing firsthand what misalignment looks like. Misalignment isn't necessarily a fight. Instead, it's just a quiet breakdown.
Marketing is launching campaigns; however, when customers interact with sales, none of those conversations are about the same ideal ICP that marketing has been spending money on for the past few quarters trying to build. On their own dashboards, both the sales and marketing departments see data indicating that each is doing what it is supposed to do.
However, the actual revenue metric that the entire deal thesis (sales and marketing strategy) was developed around continues to fall short, and there isn't an owner of this misalignment.
At this point, the operating partner typically wants to hire additional staff or replace leadership. While this may be necessary occasionally, the underlying problem is that no one has forced the two departments to meet together using the same data set to create a common understanding of what represents a good opportunity.
As soon as that occurs, true ICP alignment occurs; shared pipeline definitions are established; sales begin providing feedback on what they are actually hearing on calls; and the entire go-to-market becomes more efficient than most people anticipate. This is not a six-month solution. Typically, we find that alignment begins within a few weeks once everyone involved agrees to participate in some very uncomfortable discussions.
If you are a private equity operator seeing missed revenue targets, or a Chief Marketing Officer who recently inherited a broken sales/marketing relationship, I have personally experienced this exact same scenario across multiple portfolio companies.
