Aligning Sales and Marketing in Cybersecurity Without the Finger-Pointing
Season: 2 | Episode: 32
Published: September 1, 2025
By: Byer Co
This excerpt from "Sales & Marketing Alignment Issues in Cybersecurity Marketing" outlines crucial strategies for integrating sales and marketing efforts within the cybersecurity industry. It emphasizes that alignment is essential due to long sales cycles and large buyer committees, advocating for shared definitions of qualified leads to prevent wasted resources. The text suggests that marketing should equip sales with relevant, usable materials and that both teams should sync weekly to exchange feedback and context. Ultimately, the article promotes a unified approach to the buying journey, emphasizing enablement, listening, and iteration for improved pipeline performance.
Link: Aligning Sales and Marketing in Cybersecurity Without the Finger-Pointing
Keywords: marketing,seo,cybersecurity,digital marketing,web design
Episode Transcript
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Welcome back to Digital Rage. I'm Jeff the producer here at Byer Company.
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Today is part seven of our Cybersecurity Marketing series. Today we talk about
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aligning sales and marketing and cyber security without the finger pointing.
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This happens a lot even outside of cyber security but cyber security specifically
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has a sales cycle that is like no other. So having everybody on the same page is
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crucial. Check it out. So you know the drill right? You're in a company,
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something goes sideways and suddenly it's well it's just a full-on blame game. Oh
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yeah. Marketing says sales isn't closing, sales says the leads are bad. Exactly.
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That dreaded finger pointing. It can feel almost you know inescapable sometimes.
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Well today we're taking a deep dive into how to maybe actually mend those
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rifts especially in an industry that's known for being pretty complex. We're
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digging into some really interesting insights on aligning sales and
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marketing and cyber security without the finger pointing. Okay. Our source
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here is a great blog post by Jeff Byer, part of Byer Co's Cybersecurity Marketing
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series. Got it. And our mission today is pretty clear. We want to understand not
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just why this misalignment is so uncommon but why it's actually like mission
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critical to solve and cyber security. Yeah the stakes are higher there. Definitely.
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And crucially we'll explore some practical strategies to get to that that one
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team one pipeline approach which often feels pretty lucid. Well what's really
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striking about cyber security is how it doesn't just have these you know
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classic alignment problems. It seemed to amplify them a lot. Amplifies them how
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so. The source really nails it points out that in this industry sales cycles are
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long and Byer committees are large. Okay yeah that makes sense. Thank about that.
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A sales process. It can stretch for months maybe even years. And you're dealing
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with like a dozen or more stakeholders. Wow. From technical folks to legal to the
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sea suite I bet. Exactly. So any little disconnect between sales and
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marketing it just becomes this massive chasm. Right. This kind of environment
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just magnifies the negative impact of working in silos leads directly to what
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the source calls misaligned messaging wasted leads and dropped handoffs.
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Drop-tangles are the worst. Totally. And when the stakes are this high you know
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security of a whole organization potentially on the line and the journey is that
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long. You just can't afford that internal friction. These teams have to be in
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lockstep. Okay so that really sets the stage. If we're gonna fix this let's unpack
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the the first foundational fix the source talks about you've got to define
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NQL and SQL together. Marketing qualified lead and sales qualified lead.
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Right. Now this might sound super basic almost like you know sales and marketing
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one on one. It does sound basic. But how often do teams actually sit down and
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really do this collaboratively and consistently. Good question. Probably not
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often enough. What really stood out to me here is that it's about more than just
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definitions. It's about forging a shared sense of accountability and maybe even
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more importantly building trust. Trust. That's key. Yeah. The blog post emphasizes
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agreeing on scoring criteria for leads setting clear handoff rules documenting
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at all. And then crucially revisiting it regularly revisiting is important.
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Things change. Exactly. And this clarity they argue directly prevents that
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awful these lead suck feedback loop that we all dread. Because suddenly everyone
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kind of owns the quality. That's precisely it. And it raises a really important
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question doesn't it? If your sales and marketing teams aren't even operating
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from the same playbook on what a qualified lead looks like. Yeah. How can you
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possibly expect a smooth handoff? Right. Defining MQL and SQL together ensures
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both teams are working towards the same goal. They understand like explicitly
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when marketing's jobs sort of ends and sales job begins. Okay. And what's often
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overlooked I think is that this isn't just about process is about building a
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genuine partnership. Partnership right not just process. When sales feels
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marketing actually understands their needs and marketing sees their hard work
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getting converted. It fundamentally shifts that internal dynamic. It moves from us
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versus them to you know real collaboration. That trust dividend you mentioned
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earlier. Exactly. It's rarely quantified. Yeah. But it's so impactful. It's really
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the foundational set. You know to get rid of ambiguity and build that shared
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trust. That makes complete sense. And the clarity that brings especially when
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you're dealing with these complex B2B sales cycles like in cyber security. It
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must be game changing. Absolutely. So okay. Once those definitions are scored away
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the next logical challenges often. Well what does sales actually do with those
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qualified leads? Right. What's the next step? And that brings us to the next
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critical strategy from the source. Equipped sales with what they'll actually use.
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The actually use part is key. Totally. It's not about just churning out tons of
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generic collateral. It's about making it count. The source is very specific here.
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Like what? We're talking about providing case studies that genuinely match a
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specific vertical or deal size. Creating competitive battle cards that actually
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arm sales with real-time advantages. Okay. Yeah. Useful stuff. Building those
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critical ROI calculators. Yeah. Having slide decks ready for both the technical
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folks and the executive audiences. Different decks for different people.
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Makes sense. But what really struck me and it's often overlooked I think is
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their emphasis on not just providing tools but actively training sales on when
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and how to use each of these tools. The training piece. Yes. Without that
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practical scenario-based training even the best materials might just... Well they
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just sit there unused in a shared drive somewhere. Precisely. And if we connect
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this back to the bigger picture this isn't just here's some tools. It's about true
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sales enablement. The sales team is out there on the front lines. They need
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materials that address the real world objections. The unique scenarios they face
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every day especially in cybersecurity. Right because it's so specialized. Exactly.
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Generic content just won't cut it. The technical details the compliance needs
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the threat landscapes. They vary so wildly by vertical. So a case study about a
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bank is useless for a hospital. Pretty much. That specificity is incredibly vital.
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And training is the key to making sure that investment in collateral actually
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translates into better sales conversations. Better conversions. So it's about
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empowering them. Yeah. Empowering them to close deals by giving them not just the
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ammo but the strategy for using it effectively. Which leads us perfectly into
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the third and maybe the most vital practical strategy. Okay with number three.
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Sync weekly to swap real feedback. Communication. Constant communication.
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Think about it. Marketing absolutely needs that real-time data from the field.
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What are prospects actually saying? What new objections are popping up that
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maybe weren't anticipated? The ground truth. And sales on the other hand they
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need context behind the campaigns. Why did marketing target these specific leads?
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What was the thinking? Right so they understand the why. The fix it sounds simple
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but it's powerful. Talk more and talk effectively. Okay. The article suggests
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weekly stand-ups. Involving sales development reps. You know your frontline team
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qualifying initial leads and account executives the ones who nurture and close.
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SDRs and AEEs together. Yeah they should be sharing notes on objections how
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content is actually performing out there holding regular retro meetings on the
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whole campaign to close flow. Retrospect is nice. This essentially transforms your
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sales team from what could be a potential black hole of information. Yeah where
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info goes to die. Into a dynamic two-way feedback loop. It's fascinating because
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that kind of structured regular communication. It truly becomes the like the
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circulatory system for your whole revenue engine. Circulatory system I like that.
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Marketing can quickly adapt campaigns based on real-world feedback.
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Literally what they heard yesterday. And sales gets a deeper understanding of
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the marketing efforts that brought those leads in the first place. It makes
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everything smarter. It fosters a culture of continuous improvement. Both teams are
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constantly learning, constantly adjusting. It's about proactive problem-solving.
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Not reactive blame shifting after something goes wrong. Yeah getting ahead of it.
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It's almost like you know that old game of telephone where the message gets
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all garbled by the end and everyone's pointing fingers. Yeah yeah. Well with this
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kind of feedback loop you make sure everyone is on the same line hearing the same
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conversation loud and clear. Okay so bringing this all together. What does this
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really mean for you the listener? Well at its core the philosophy from our source
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is really powerful. One team, one pipeline. One team, one pipeline. It's a crucial
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reminder that in cybersecurity and honestly in any complex sales environment.
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Sales marketing. They aren't separate entities fighting their own battles. They
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are as the article puts it so well to have of the same buying journey. To have
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the same journey that's good. Their success is just completely linked and when
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they fail they usually fail together. You've hit the nail on the head there. When
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you strip it all down the three actionable takeaways we talked about are
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crystal clear. First define your terms together like mql and sequel for that
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shared understanding and accountability. Second, equip your sales team with
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truly useful tools and crucially train them on how and when to actually use
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them effectively. Equip and train. And third, sync up weekly for that real-time
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feedback. Turning your sales team into an invaluable feedback loop. Not a black
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hole. The communication piece. Right. It all circles back to that powerful mantra
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from the source. Enable. Listen. Itterate. Listen. Itterate. I like that. When you
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truly work like one team your collective pipeline your results will
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undeniably reflect that unified effort. It has to. So here's something to think
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about. Considering these principles of one team, one pipeline and the actions
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we've discussed today. You know defining clear terms providing essential tools
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establishing those robust feedback loops. How can you apply these exact
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strategies? How can you use them to bridge gaps and foster true collaboration
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within any team or project you're involved with. It doesn't have to be
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cybersecurity. Right. It's broader than that. How can you ensure your collective
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pipeline or whatever that means in your context truly reflects your unified
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effort? Ultimately, I think navigating these complex professional environments
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it really just boils down to the enduring value of structured communication and
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shared goal. Yeah. Simple but hard to do consistently. It is. But when everyone
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understands their role in the collective journey and everyone contributes to a
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common objective. That's when true collaboration emerges. And it feels better
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too I bet. Oh absolutely. And when it's done right, this isn't just about
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better numbers on a spreadsheet. It's about that palpable relief. That energy
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that comes when teams finally feel like they're rowing in sync, you know, pushing
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the same boat forward together. That shared success is truly transformative.
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Reach out to us at jbuyer.com for comments and questions. Follow us at buyer
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