Sales and Marketing Alignment Assessment

What This Tool Is and Who It's For

The Sales and Marketing Alignment Assessment by The Starr Conspiracy scores B2B revenue teams across five dimensions, shared goals, demand state alignment, data and tech stack, process and SLAs, and feedback loops, then assigns a maturity level from Ad Hoc to Revenue-Unified. It's built for revenue leaders, CMOs, VPs of Sales, and RevOps heads at B2B tech companies who need to know where alignment actually breaks down. Misaligned teams lose roughly 10% of annual revenue, per Forrester research cited across the LinkedIn B2B Institute and Marketo benchmarks, and the typical assessment takes under 10 minutes.

How the Scoring Works

Fifteen questions, three per dimension, each scored 1 to 4. Your raw score (15 to 60) maps to one of four maturity levels. Dimension subscores expose where the work is, not just whether work exists.

The five dimensions and their weights are equal, because misalignment in any one of them caps the rest. A team with great data and broken SLAs leaks pipeline just as fast as a team with great SLAs and no shared definition of an MQL. The maturity bands draw on benchmark data from Forrester (revenue loss from misalignment), LinkedIn B2B Institute (long-term brand and demand balance), and HubSpot's 2024 State of Marketing report on sales and marketing service-level agreements. The instrument has been used with mid-market and enterprise B2B tech companies, primarily in HR tech, fintech, and martech, with a working sample of more than 80 revenue orgs from 2022 onward.

Limitations worth naming. This is a self-reported diagnostic, not an audit. Two people in the same company will sometimes score 8 points apart, and that gap is itself a finding. Run it with at least one sales leader and one marketing leader, then compare.

The Five Alignment Dimensions

Shared Revenue Goals and Compensation

This dimension measures whether sales and marketing share the same number, the same definition of pipeline, and the same skin in the game. Aligned teams compensate marketing on sourced and influenced pipeline, not MQL volume. Forrester's 2024 B2B research shows companies with shared revenue goals between sales and marketing grow 19% faster than peers without them.

Demand State Alignment

This dimension measures whether your teams map content, plays, and outreach to where the buyer actually is, not to internal funnel stages. We use the Ten Demand States model because the old MQL-to-SQL handoff assumes a linear journey that 77% of B2B buyers say they don't take, per Gartner's 2024 buyer survey. If sales is calling on a buyer in a problem-unaware state and marketing thinks they're solution-comparing, the meeting goes nowhere.

Data, Tech Stack, and Attribution

This dimension measures whether sales and marketing operate on the same data, in compatible systems, with a defensible attribution model. The average B2B revenue org runs 12 to 18 tools across the sales and marketing stack, per Salesforce's State of Sales 2024, and roughly half don't integrate cleanly. When marketing reports first-touch and sales reports last-touch, every QBR becomes an argument.

Process, SLAs, and Handoffs

This dimension measures whether you have written service-level agreements for lead follow-up, lead return, and pipeline reviews, and whether anyone enforces them. The benchmark from Highspot's 2024 alignment research and HubSpot's State of Marketing 2024 puts the gold standard at five minutes for inbound lead response. Most mid-market teams sit between 24 and 48 hours.

Feedback Loops and Joint Operating Rhythm

This dimension measures whether sales and marketing meet on a fixed cadence, share win/loss data, and act on it. Aligned teams run joint pipeline councils weekly, win/loss reviews monthly, and ICP recalibration quarterly. Without these loops, marketing keeps building content for the deals sales already lost.

The Four Maturity Levels

Ad Hoc (score 15 to 27). Sales and marketing operate as separate functions with separate goals. Leads get thrown over the wall. There is no shared definition of pipeline, no SLA, and no joint cadence. Most companies under 50 employees live here, and many over 500 do too.

Coordinated (score 28 to 39). Teams talk regularly and share some definitions, but the systems and incentives still pull them apart. Marketing is measured on MQLs, sales on closed-won, and the middle of the funnel is a black box. This is the most common state for mid-market B2B tech.

Integrated (score 40 to 51). Shared pipeline goals, working SLAs, a common attribution model, and a fixed joint operating rhythm. Marketing influences deal velocity and sales gives marketing usable feedback. Roughly 18% of B2B revenue orgs reach this level, per The Starr Conspiracy's working sample.

Revenue-Unified (score 52 to 60). A single revenue org with shared P&L, shared data, shared comp structure, and demand state alignment baked into how plays are designed. Marketing isn't a service function to sales, it's a revenue-generating peer. Fewer than 6% of companies score here. Most are AI-native or have rebuilt their GTM from scratch in the last 24 months.

Benchmark Scores by Company Size

Sample, 80-plus B2B tech revenue orgs assessed by The Starr Conspiracy from 2022 to 2024, primarily HR tech, fintech, and martech.

What To Do With Your Score

If you scored Ad Hoc, fix one thing first, the shared definition of pipeline. Everything else compounds off it.

If you scored Coordinated, your problem is almost always the handoff. Write the SLA, instrument it, and review it weekly for a quarter. Most teams move 6 to 10 points just on that.

If you scored Integrated, your next move is demand state alignment. The funnel got you here, it won't get you further. Read our breakdown of how the Ten Demand States replace the funnel and rebuild your play designs around it.

If you scored Revenue-Unified, you're not done. The teams scoring 52 plus are usually the ones rebuilding fastest, because AI-native demand generation is changing the math on what alignment even means. The bar moves every quarter.

Related Questions

What is sales and marketing alignment, exactly?

It's the structural condition where sales and marketing share revenue goals, operate on the same data, use the same definitions for pipeline and buyer stages, and run a fixed joint operating rhythm. Alignment isn't a vibe between the two VPs. It's a system you can score.

How long does the assessment take?

Under 10 minutes for one person. We recommend running it twice, once with a sales leader, once with a marketing leader, then comparing dimension subscores. The gap between the two scores is often more informative than either score alone.

What's the difference between MQL alignment and revenue alignment?

MQL alignment is a 2015 problem, agreeing on what counts as a marketing qualified lead. Revenue alignment is the 2025 problem, agreeing on what pipeline marketing influences, how to measure that influence, and how to compensate against it. The first is a definitional fix. The second is a structural rebuild.

Can we run this assessment without RevOps?

Yes, but you'll get more value if a RevOps lead validates the data and tech stack dimension. Self-reporting on attribution is where teams most often overestimate their maturity.

The Bottom Line

Generic alignment tips don't fix misaligned revenue orgs. Scored diagnosis does. Take the assessment, share it with your counterpart in the other function, and compare notes. If the gap between your scores is more than 6 points, that gap is your starting point. If you want help operationalizing the fix, talk to The Starr Conspiracy about how we rebuild B2B revenue orgs around AI-native demand and the Ten Demand States.