Sales has one clean tell for whether it trusts marketing. Timing.

Bring marketing in late, and partnership turns into a very polite scramble. The field has moved, the campaign needs context, and sales is working leads without the story that made them worth chasing in the first place. Trust grows when marketing stays close enough to hear the objections, spot the stalls, and change the work while there’s still time to help. 

In this episode, Drew is joined by Ellina Shinnick (HUB), Joan Jenkins (Fastly), and Sara Braun (FORTA) to look at where marketing belongs inside the sales rhythm. Their examples ground partnership in the weekly decisions, shared numbers, and field-ready enablement that turn marketing from a separate function into a stronger growth partner. 

In this episode: 

• Ellina shows how HUB embedded marketing in weekly sales leadership meetings, creating faster pivots, clearer lead ownership, and a 3x lift in conversion 

• Joan explains why Fastly keeps marketing accountable through pipeline creation, progression, and revenue instead of stopping at the lead handoff 

• Sara shares how field visits, customer input, and rep feedback helped FORTA build sales playbooks around the accounts and moments that mattered most 

Plus: 

• How CMO-CRO behavior sets the tone for sales-marketing alignment 

• How AEO, AI content, and recorded calls surface new customer signals 

• What marketing needs from sales, from honest feedback to field activation 

• Why speed and flexibility matter more than rigid annual plans 

Listen in for how B2B CMOs can build stronger sales partnerships, improve pipeline accountability, and make marketing more useful from first signal to final outcome.