If you're tired of marketing and sales pointing fingers over “bad leads” and dropped balls, you're not alone. Most teams talk about alignment, but few actually get it right. This guide is for people who want to stop wasting time in meetings and start seeing better lead conversion—without buying into hype or slogging through endless dashboards.
Setsail promises to bridge the gap. But does it really help? Here's how to use Setsail to get marketing and sales working together (for real), what’s worth your time, and what you can skip.
Why Alignment Actually Matters (and Where It Usually Fails)
Let’s get real: Marketing and sales often operate on different definitions of what a “good lead” looks like. Marketing says, “We delivered 500 leads this month!” Sales says, “Only 10 were worth calling.” The fallout? Missed targets and a lot of eye-rolling.
Alignment isn’t just about feeling good—it’s about:
- Agreeing on what qualifies as a real lead
- Tracking what happens to those leads (not just dumping them into a CRM)
- Figuring out, together, what actually closes deals
Most tools promise this but just add more reporting headaches. Setsail claims to simplify the mess. Let’s see how.
Step 1: Get Clear on What You Want to Track
Before you touch a tool, you need to agree—across marketing and sales—on:
- What actually counts as a qualified lead (not just a form fill)
- Which actions move a deal forward (not just “contacted”)
- What “conversion” means for you (booked meeting, closed deal, or something else)
Pro tip: Don’t let the software dictate your process. Set your definitions first, then map them to the tool.
Step 2: Connect Setsail to Your Data Sources
Setsail’s value is only as good as the data you feed it. You’ll want to:
- Sync it with your CRM (Salesforce is the usual suspect)
- Pull in marketing automation data (like HubSpot or Marketo)
- Connect email/calendar data if you want activity tracking
What works: Setsail is pretty good at pulling in data automatically, especially from Salesforce. You’ll save time compared to patchwork spreadsheets.
What doesn’t: If your CRM data is a mess—missing fields, outdated contacts—Setsail can’t magically fix it. Clean up the basics before you start.
Step 3: Define Shared Metrics and Stages Inside Setsail
Here’s where things usually fall apart—if you just use the default settings, you’ll end up with the same siloed reporting as before. Instead:
- Sit down with both teams and define each stage of your funnel
- Decide what counts as a hand-off from marketing to sales (get specific)
- Build these definitions into Setsail’s pipeline and scoring rules
Ignore: Fancy “AI-driven” lead scoring unless you’ve nailed your basic definitions. Garbage in, garbage out.
Step 4: Build (and Actually Use) Lead Scoring Rules
Setsail lets you create rules to score leads based on real actions—not just demographics. This is where you start to see value:
- Score leads higher when they reply to emails, attend webinars, or take other meaningful actions
- Lower scores for “looky-loo” behaviors like downloading a whitepaper and vanishing
- Set clear thresholds for when a lead gets passed to sales
Honest take: Default scoring models are usually too generic. Spend time tweaking these rules to fit your business. Otherwise, you’ll get random results and more finger-pointing.
Step 5: Set Up Real-Time Alerts and Handoffs
Setsail can notify reps (and marketers) when a lead hits a certain score or stage. But don’t just turn on every alert:
- Pick a handful of critical triggers (e.g., lead replied to an outbound email, attended a key event)
- Route alerts to the right people (don’t spam everyone)
- Make sure marketing sees what happens after hand-off—so they can learn what’s working
What works: Real-time alerts keep leads from falling through the cracks, especially with big teams.
What doesn’t: Too many alerts = alert blindness. Be selective.
Step 6: Review What’s Actually Converting—Together
Here’s where Setsail can make a dent, if you use it right:
- Run regular (short!) meetings where marketing and sales look at the same conversion data
- Review which lead sources and behaviors actually result in deals, not just meetings booked
- Adjust campaigns and scoring rules based on hard results, not gut feelings
Ignore: Endless debates about attribution models. Focus on what’s closing, not just who gets credit.
Step 7: Use Insights to Improve, Not Just Report
Nobody needs another dashboard just to prove they did their job. Setsail’s reporting is useful if you:
- Look for patterns (e.g., which campaigns drive real sales activity)
- Stop campaigns that drive junk leads, even if the numbers look good on paper
- Share honest feedback between teams—what’s working, what’s not
Pro tip: Start small. Pick one or two things to fix each month, rather than overhauling everything at once.
What to Watch Out For (and What to Ignore)
- Don’t expect instant results. Setsail can surface problems, but you’ll still need to fix broken processes and bad habits.
- Don’t let automation replace real conversations. The best alignment still happens face-to-face (or at least on Zoom), not in dashboards.
- Ignore vanity metrics. Big numbers look nice, but if they don’t turn into revenue, they’re just noise.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Getting marketing and sales aligned isn’t about buying another tool—it’s about having hard conversations and making small, steady improvements. Setsail can help make this easier (if you use it thoughtfully), but it won’t fix everything overnight.
Start with clear definitions, set up smart scoring, and review your results together. Don’t get lost in features you don’t need. Keep it simple, see what works, and don’t be afraid to tweak as you go. That’s how you actually move the needle—no hype required.