Key Takeaways
- Aligned teams share one revenue number, one set of metrics and a formal SLA on lead handoff, while feuding teams defend separate scorecards and treat handoffs as a suggestion sales can ignore.
- The 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey turns the collective experience of hundreds of demand gen leaders into a clear picture of how B2B teams structure shared goals, define handoffs and enforce accountability.
Sales says the leads are junk. Marketing says sales never follows up. You’ve heard this argument in every quarterly review, every pipeline meeting, every Slack thread that starts polite and ends passive-aggressive. The friction is old. The stakes are new.
Because in 2026, alignment isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the line separating teams that hit number from teams that miss it. When sales and marketing share goals, share metrics and share a single definition of “ready,” pipeline moves faster and deals close cleaner. When they don’t, everyone points fingers while revenue leaks.
That’s exactly why your voice matters right now. The 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey captures how B2B marketing teams like yours are closing the gap with sales, and turns the collective experience of hundreds of demand gen leaders into a clear picture of what real alignment looks like this year.
What the Survey Reveals About Sales and Marketing Alignment
This year’s benchmark digs into the practices separating aligned teams from feuding ones:
- Shared goals. Are sales and marketing working toward one revenue number, or defending separate scorecards that never quite reconcile?
- Shared metrics. How many teams measure success the same way across both functions, and which metrics finally ended the volume-versus-quality standoff?
- Go-to-market coordination. Who’s synchronizing campaigns, outreach and account plans, and what does that coordination actually produce in pipeline?
- Lead handoff agreements. Have your peers locked down a formal SLA on what gets passed, when and by whom, or is handoff still a handshake and a hope?
Here’s what makes this benchmark different. It doesn’t just tell you alignment matters. It shows you how your peers structure shared goals, define handoffs and enforce accountability, so you can pressure-test your own go-to-market motion against the market.
Why Your Input Sharpens the Picture
Think about the questions you’re wrestling with right now. Do you and sales agree on what “qualified” means, or argue about it weekly? Are you measured on the same outcomes, or working from different dashboards? Does your handoff have teeth, or is it a suggestion sales ignores?
The insights from this survey help you make sharper calls. What to align on. What to formalize. How to turn an old rivalry into a revenue engine. The more marketers who participate, the more useful the findings become for everyone.
So take a few minutes. Share how your team is coordinating with sales, measuring impact and adapting to a market that won’t sit still. Add your perspective.
Take the 2026 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey and help shape the insights that define the year ahead.
