When sales blames marketing for bad leads, the owner ends up paying twice: once for the leads, and once in meeting time spent arguing about them. You have seen the scene — the cost-per-lead report says the campaigns are working, the sales team says the leads are “not serious,” and both sides have evidence. If you are funding this argument every month, this article is for you. The uncomfortable question underneath it is the useful one: what problem are you actually trying to solve first — lead volume, lead quality, or the fact that marketing and sales are telling prospects two different stories? Until that is answered, more budget just buys a louder version of the same meeting.
The moment it happens
If you’re paying for leads but sales still blames marketing, what problem are you actually trying to solve first? The question usually surfaces in the Monday sales meeting. Marketing’s slide shows enquiries up. Sales’ commentary says the enquiries “just want the cheapest licence.”
You sit at the head of the table as the referee of a match you are also sponsoring. Whichever side you back, the other quietly concludes you do not understand their job.
And next Monday, the same meeting happens again — with a slightly higher ad spend line under it.
Why this keeps happening
Two structural patterns show up in this market, and we frame both as working hypotheses since nobody publishes internal funnel data for consultancies.
First, channel expectations differ by design. Many owners we speak with believe social channels produce high enquiry volume with lower qualification, while search produces fewer, warmer conversations. If your team is judging social-sourced enquiries by search-lead standards, “bad leads” may partly mean “different leads, worked the same way.”
Second — and this is the harder one — when deals are lost, founders tend to blame price, trust and slow client decisions rather than sales technique. Notice what that means for your meeting: everyone in the room has a reason the loss was someone else’s category. Marketing blames targeting, sales blames quality, the owner blames the market. The one thing nobody examines is the conversation itself — what a prospect is told, in what order, by whom.
What is honestly unknowable from outside is your lead quality. But there is a diagnostic question you can run this week: can your marketing and your salespeople state the same problem, in the same words, that your firm exists to solve? In most firms where the blame loop runs, the answer is no.
The prescription
April Dunford’s positioning work in Obviously Awesome ends with something she insists positioning must produce: a shared sales story, agreed by everyone. The arc is fixed. Start with the problem the client has. Then how people try to solve it today, and where those attempts fall short. Then what a good solution would look like. Only then your firm, placed in its category, with its value spelled out — and a clear next step.
The order is the medicine. Most setup-consultancy funnels start at step four: “We offer mainland and free zone company formation, PRO services, banking assistance.” When marketing opens with the offer, the only question left for the prospect is price — which produces exactly the “cheap enquiries” your sales team resents.
Here is the worked version. Problem: “Choosing a licence looks simple online, but the wrong choice surfaces months later as visa limits, banking friction, or a structure your first big client cannot work with.” Today’s options and their gaps: DIY portals are fast but give no advice; the cheapest agent quotes a licence, not an outcome. Perfect world: someone who asks about your next two years before quoting. Then, and only then: “That is what we do.” When ads, landing page and sales calls all walk this same arc, marketing hands sales a prospect who already agrees on the problem — and the Monday argument loses its fuel.
What to do this week
- Run the two-sentence test: ask your marketing side and each salesperson to write the problem your firm solves. Compare the answers in one meeting — without blame.
- Draft the five-step story together: problem, today’s flawed options, perfect world, your firm in its category, next step. One page, agreed by both sides.
- Rewrite one campaign and its landing page to open with the problem instead of the service list. Leave the rest untouched as a comparison.
- For one month, replace “lead quality” in your meetings with two named numbers: enquiries matching your defined situation, and proposal-to-close rate on those.
Where Kamai Ads fits (only if you want help)
We do not promise leads — nobody honestly can. Our work starts with the positioning and the shared sales story, then proves it with ads, so marketing and sales are finally arguing with the market instead of each other. The 48-hour marketing audit (1,000 AED) is the small first step — message us on WhatsApp if you want a second pair of eyes.
Related reading
- Rising Google Ads costs and your setup consultancy
- Can You Do Better? Ending the price objection loop
- What happens when you stop running ads in Dubai setup
- Obviously Awesome by April Dunford — the positioning framework this article draws on.
