SAID DIFFERENTLY Ep.3: Do We Trust The Message? Aligning Sales and Marketing
What causes Sales and Marketing to get out-of-step on the message that is delivered to the market? And what problems does that cause for the business? In this episode of Said Differently, Scott Heimgartner -- who is a long-time, in-house B2B tech product marketing leader and later a principal consultant for Liberis Consulting -- joins us to talk about why trust is one of the major root causes of this misalignment, how Product Marketing can bring these GTM teams to a more unified storytelling place.
Trust Before Tactics: How Sales and Marketing Share in Story Success
How product marketing becomes the bridge, why trust is the currency, and how to measure the story you put into market.
When sales and marketing pull in the same direction, the company’s story hits the market with force. When they don’t, even great products can feel confusing, fragmented, or stuck in “ivory tower” messaging. In this episode of Said Differently, host Jennifer Sikora welcomes Scott Heimgartner of Liberis Consulting to unpack how trust, shared North Stars, and real buyer voice turn alignment from an aspiration into a repeatable practice.
Scott has lived the function end-to-end—first as an IC in product marketing, then as product marketing team leader building and scaling the function, and now as an advisor helping organizations get the story right and the collaboration working well.
“I think a lot of it does come down to, trust, right? I think trust in the partnership and trust in the value that product marketing can deliver.” — Scott Heimgartner
Building Cross-Functional Trust
Alignment usually breaks where trust is thin. Sales hears buyers daily; marketing risks sounding distant if it isn’t in touch with those conversations. Jennifer puts it plainly: “It is essential that product marketing puts themselves out there right in front of that.” She cites several easy-to-reach opportunity examples, including prospect calls, customer calls, and industry events.
Scott agrees—and recommends that product marketers “embed themselves in sales workflow” including sitting in on discovery calls and “bringing a lot of that voice back into the messaging.”
Why it matters: hearing the raw buyer voice—questions, objections, language—builds empathy and credibility. It also mitigates the echo chamber risk of marketing perceived as creating messaging and content in isolation. Says Scott: “I think sometimes there’s a little bit of an echo chamber… because sales views that as you are just completely out of touch with what our buyers are saying… and product marketing should really be that bridge, so that messaging really represents the voice of the buyer.”
That bridge role also makes PMM a pragmatic mediator when handoffs get tense. “You can almost act a little bit as like that negotiator,” he says.
Align on a North Star (and Cascade It)
Alignment isn’t agreement on every tactic. It’s a shared direction measured by outcomes both teams care about, specifically finding a metric or metrics that you are both jointly accountable for. Scott, speaking from his leadership experience, describes the unlock: “The North Star still holds true, right? It keeps everyone on the same page of what you’re trying to achieve.”
His go-to move: start top-down with the outcomes the head of Sales and head of Marketing truly prioritize — pipeline creation, bookings to target, opportunity quality — and then cascade that to team and individual plans. When everyone can see themselves in the North Star, debates about tactics don’t derail progress.
A practical mechanism Scott loves: a cross-functional launch team whenever something new hits the market. “I always talk about, having a launch team, right? And that launch team is going to consist of people from marketing, sales, success, and product.”
New launches are the perfect moment to set message pillars together and earn buy-in before habits harden.
Focus on Patterns, not Squeaky Wheels
Every company has a loud anecdote of a recent sales call gone great – or gone bad. The discipline is distinguishing trends and patterns from noise. Scott recommends in those anecdotal cases, see what the overall anatomy is of that opportunity. Were we even talking to the right ICP or persona?
Jennifer references Troupe as being able to see what’s happening at scale, while also isolating ‘rogue’ messaging cases. She calls out the measurement angle, including how Troupe looks at more than just the final outcome (win/loss) to the stages in between. “We’re looking at conversion metrics from stage to stage, is there a stage where we’re seeing drop-off trends, and what messages were more present in stage conversions vs. those that didn’t? What was being said during the call or what content was being shared? Did it help or hurt?”
It’s also useful to look at what the high performers are doing vs. those struggling – is the issue messaging or is it some other sales enablement challenge? That’s where data and insights help significantly to help both teams collaborate to understand the drivers.
The takeaway: align PMM, Marketing, and Sales on shared outcomes (pipeline, conversion, bookings), then watch the leading indicators (sales confidence, content usage, adherence to messaging) to adjust early.
Measuring Messaging at Scale
Jennifer notes a hard truth: no one can listen to every sales call, see every outreach email, and review every piece of content. That’s where technology helps quantify what’s really said (and what sticks). Scott appreciates that shift: “With Troupe, you guys help by tracking messaging alignment at scale, using real numbers… It really just helps you to understand, is your messaging sticking? Is it not sticking?”
Whether you use Troupe or a similar analytics layer, the point stands—turn the story into measurable execution, so alignment is provable, not just aspirational.
So… Who Owns the Story?
Jennifer tosses this closing. Scott’s stance is clear: “Product marketing should be in the best position to own that... that messaging that you’ve developed, rooted in buyer insights, that’s tested, that’s validated, and that’s enabled out to the organization.”
Jennifer adds a top-down layer: “My opinion is that it should be the CEO” who ultimately owns the story being told to the market, but with the caveat that “the product marketer is responsible for activating and making sure that that story is executed.” She also adds that the PMM team should also be recommending the story and messaging iterations, but that the C-level buy in is key.
In short: The CEO sets conviction and stakes the company to the story; Product Marketing owns crafting, validating, and enabling that story; Sales and Success prove it in the field and feed reality back in.
View the full episode on our YouTube channel.
FAQs
How can product marketing build trust with sales quickly?
Embed in the workflow and bring back the buyer’s voice. Sit in on discovery calls, review call recordings, and co-create message pillars with Sales, Success, Product, and Marketing via a launch team. Attend industry events. Trust grows when PMM reflects field reality in messaging and content—and when they can produce data and usage analytics that show the outcomes of using messaging and content assets.
What shared metrics best align Sales and Marketing?
Anchor on outcomes closest to revenue—pipeline, opportunity conversion, stage-to-stage progress, and bookings. Then monitor early indicators such as seller confidence in messaging and asset usage.
Who should own company messaging?
The CEO sets the conviction and commitment. Product Marketing owns the craft and enablement. PMM should make sure messaging is rooted in buyer insights, tested, validated, and enabled out to the organization. PMM should also ensure the story is executed consistently—and updated as win-loss patterns and field feedback evolve.