EP22 | Mark Walker
Fix Your Sales and Marketing Alignment
Mark Walker knows both sides of the revenue house. He’s been a CMO, a three-time CRO, and now the founder and CEO of Revved Up. He’s seen first-hand how misaligned sales and marketing goals, poorly attributed wins, and half-hearted account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns turn promising teams into finger-pointing factions.
In this episode of the I Used to Be Crap at Sales podcast, Walker unpacks the tension between sales and marketing alignment, shares why most SDR coaching setups are broken, and explains how founder-led selling sharpens your go-to-market strategy. His take? We don’t need more tools—we need to align around how customers actually buy.
Let’s get into the five biggest takeaways.
Watch The Episode:
Or listen on Spotify or Apple here.
Our 5 Biggest Takeaways
1. MQLs Alone Are Killing Sales Performance
The Challenge: Marketing teams celebrate hitting their MQL numbers. Meanwhile, sales teams are stuck with low-converting leads and no pipeline.
Walker has lived this dysfunction from both seats. Early in his marketing career, he was incentivised by MQL volume—regardless of what happened after handoff.
“My default thinking was MQLs… that’s how I was measured,” he admitted.
“How often have you seen sales teams tearing their hair out, that marketing’s celebrating hitting their MQL goal—and there’s no pipeline that they can close?” - Mark Walker
The Insight: Pipeline accountability can’t be lopsided. Hitting volume goals without tracking what closes creates mistrust.
“There’s a fundamental issue with attribution and modelling,” Walker said, where marketing clings to what can be tracked—even if it’s irrelevant.
The Fix: Mark suggests rebuilding goals to focus on revenue across both teams. At Revved Up, marketers are comped on pipeline, not MQLs. “We are all winning or losing together as a team.”
2. Sales Content That Works Starts With Listening
The Challenge: Sales is handed decks, one-pagers, and case studies that don’t reflect how prospects actually talk.
Walker called out the trap:
“One of my bugbears is onboarding that spends an hour on ICP and weeks on the product.
That same mismatch shows up in enablement content. When marketing doesn’t listen to sales calls, they create for personas—not people."
The Insight: The best content ideas live inside real conversations. Language, objections, and tone come from listening to calls—not guessing.
“You get the best ideas from listening to real calls,” Walker said, “that can be put back into marketing.”
The Fix: At previous orgs, Walker required marketers to listen to 1–2 sales calls per week. That rule improved both content and empathy. It also helped marketing preempt objections and arm reps with assets that actually mattered.
3. Should SDRs Report to Marketing? Only If You Do This…
The Challenge: In some orgs, SDRs report to marketing managers who’ve never sold a thing—and it shows.
This is a hot-button topic. Walker believes the modern SDR role leans more toward marketing skillsets than traditional cold calling. “Writing, research, campaign execution—that’s demand gen,” he argued.
But here’s the twist:
“It’s unfair for leadership to expect a marketing manager who hasn’t done that role to be able to coach and develop an SDR across all those things.”
The Insight: You can’t assign SDRs to marketing without installing real sales coaching. Walker said the critical skills—handling rejection, objection management, cold call anxiety—don’t live in marketing.
The Fix: If SDRs report to marketing, they must be paired with experienced coaches from sales.
“Just because someone manages you doesn’t mean they’re the only one developing you,” Walker noted.
Cross-functional leadership works—but only if coaching is intentional and experience-backed.
4. Cold Outreach Isn’t Broken—Your Brand Is
The Challenge: Open rates are down. Cold emails go ignored. Calls get screened. But the problem isn’t your subject line.
Walker points to a core truth: recognition wins.
“If you get an email from someone you recognise, you’re going to open it… Who that email is from trumps personalisation.”
Before you even hit send, your LinkedIn presence, reputation, and industry visibility set the tone.
The Insight: A weak personal brand and company brand kills pipeline before a rep even picks up the phone.
“There’s a reason it’s easier to sell Salesforce or Gong,” Walker said. “People trust the name.”
The Fix: Reps must build personal brands. Marketing must support company brand. Sales leaders need to stop treating brand as optional. It’s not about viral hits—it’s about becoming known, so your calls and emails stop being ignored.
5. ABM Without Sales Buy-In Is Just Fancy Email
The Challenge: Companies attempt account-based marketing (ABM), but sales isn’t looped in—or worse, they sabotage it.
Walker’s verdict is blunt:
“ABM is a team sport. If you don’t have sales bought into it, the whole thing will fall flat.”
He’s seen campaigns derail when marketing pushes messaging, while sales goes rogue. Or when both teams argue over attribution.
The Insight: ABM strategy only works when sales and marketing alignment is real. They must agree on:
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Target accounts
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Custom messaging
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Campaign cadence
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Shared success metrics
“It’s just a noisy campaign in a fancy wrapper,” Walker said.
The Fix: At Revved Up, Walker’s team uses their own platform to:
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Research and profile target accounts
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Customise content and messaging based on real intel
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Launch campaigns that sales can plug into seamlessly
The bonus? Revved Up measures impact across both teams without triggering attribution wars.
Founder-Led Selling Changes Everything
As a founder, Walker’s back on the front lines. He’s the one selling—and it’s sharpened his perspective.
“Founder-led selling is the most fun I’ve had in years,” he said.
It gives him a cheat code: credibility. Prospects lean in because he’s lived their challenges. But it also brings discipline: no overpromising, no selling what doesn’t exist, and no hiding when deals churn.
“If you fudge the fit to get a logo, you’re the one who reports the churn later.”
Bonus: Want Better Sales Performance? Fix Your Onboarding
The Challenge: Most sales onboarding ramps reps on the product—not the customer.
Mark Ackers brought this into focus: “When I listen to onboarding demos, everyone sounds like a product manager—not a problem solver.” Walker agreed.
The Fix: Walker flipped the balance. He focused onboarding on:
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Market research
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Voice of customer
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Objection handling
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Real call listening
“If you don’t understand the customer’s world,” he said, “you can’t sell them anything useful.” - Mark Walker
Bonus: Founders Make Great Sellers—Until They Don’t
The Challenge: Founder-led selling has a credibility edge—but it can create a trap.
Mark Ackers pushed on this: “There are deals I know I can do that I wouldn’t expect my team to close. That’s a dangerous precedent.”
Mark Walker agreed.
“You get a ‘founder boost,’ but it’s hard to hand off. If you’re not careful, you build a sales org around yourself—and stall your growth.”
The Fix: Walker’s building Revved Up to scale beyond himself. He documents what works, builds playbooks from real conversations, and resists overpromising features just to close a deal.
Bonus: Coaching > Commission
The Challenge: Compensation without coaching creates performance gaps—and turnover.
One line from Walker stood out:
“If you want marketing to carry a quota, give them a bonus. But if you want SDRs to survive, give them a coach.”
Mark Ackers echoed the sentiment:
“Being crap at sales doesn’t just mean you miss targets. It means you get fired.”
The Fix: Compensation isn’t the lever. Coaching is. Whether SDRs report to sales or marketing, they need regular call reviews, tactical feedback, and someone who’s lived their pain.
Listen To The Full Podcast Here:
🚨 Your SDRs Don’t Need More Tech—They Need a Coach
“If you want your SDRs to survive, give them a coach.
Coaching needs to go beyond org charts. It must be tactical and grounded in real experience."
Mark Walker
Sales coaching isn’t a luxury in todays sales landscape—it’s critical.
SDRs are navigating rejection, cold call anxiety, objection handling, and quota pressure. And they need someone dedicated to them in their time of need who’s been there before.
Let’s fix that.
MySalesCoach pairs your team with specialist sales coaches who’ve walked in their shoes — to drive performance, improve confidence and refine sales skills and behaviours.
👉 Book a call to find out how we can help.