A subtle, unspoken lie has taken over the B2B marketing world. It’s a lie that has shaped the relationship between marketers vs sales. Marketers agreed to this lie, and now they pay the price. Marketers build brands, set positioning, and capture buyer interest. They tell stories. But when sales teams struggled to get a response, founders turned to them.
Founders asked for help. As a result, marketers took the bait.
A marketer’s role was never just to generate leads. Instead, they represent the brand well. They set the right positioning. They capture the interest of potential buyers and prioritize the most responsive ones for sales to hunt. Marketers were a strategic force, not a lead machine.
But the demand for help never stopped.
In fact, it became a permanent request. Ultimately, marketers ended up serving lead generation as their primary outcome. They measured themselves on volume, not on the quality of a well-defined pipeline. The few who fought back saw their coworkers label them “not a team player.” Consequently, the rest took responsibility for the entire revenue cycle.
And now, they struggle.
The Unspoken Consequence
This misalignment trickles all the way up to the top. Indeed, the CMO is in an impossible position. They are hired to be a Chief Marketing Officer, but they often become a Chief Misalignment Officer, stuck between the demands for top-of-funnel leads and the strategic work of brand building. They are responsible for both, but the metrics for each often clash.
This is a key reason why CMOs, on average, leave their roles within two years. They are tasked with fixing a structural problem that is too deeply ingrained to solve in such a short period. Therefore, the mismanagement of sales and marketing roles is not just a tactical issue for the team; it is a career-ending problem for the person at the helm.
As a result, getting attention is harder than ever before. The market is saturated. The channels are noisy. The demand for more, more, more leads has become a relentless, thankless cycle. Ultimately, this job, which was never truly theirs, now exhausts marketers.
Marketers vs Sales Core Responsibilities
| Role | Marketer’s True Purpose | Sales’ True Purpose |
| Primary Goal | Brand representation, positioning, and capturing market interest. | Closing deals and generating revenue. |
| Key Activities | – Storytelling – Market analysis – Building brand authority | – Direct outreach – Negotiation – Relationship management |
| Desired Outcome | A well-defined brand identity and a pool of interested, qualified buyers. | A signed contract and a new customer. |
| Contribution to Revenue | Creates demand, educates the market, and provides a prioritized list of in-market buyers. | Converts demand into revenue and manages the bottom of the funnel. |
The AI Plot Twist
Now, another challenge appears: AI.
Everybody thinks AI is automating the marketer’s role. They believe AI will be the next thing to take their job. But that’s a lie. In reality, AI actually automates entry-level sales. It builds pipelines and qualifies leads—the grunt work of outreach and response management.
While AI automates repetitive tasks better than humans, it struggles to be uniquely creative. In fact, that was a marketer’s primary role. They were creative. They were unique. They were different.
A marketer’s true value—the ability to understand a market, craft a compelling narrative, and build a brand that resonates—is what AI cannot do. Consequently, the strategic mind that sets a brand’s position is not something AI can automate.
Reclaiming a Purpose
The lie was that their role was lead gen. The truth is, it was never their primary job. Marketers must now reclaim their true purpose. After all, the only way to survive the AI revolution is to get back to what truly matters.
About Author
