Marketing Should Be Contributing Up To 30% of Your Deals

You’re a growth-focused CEO. You’ve hired high-caliber salespeople, built a promising pipeline, and made substantial investments in your go-to-market strategy.

Yet each quarter brings the same question:

“Why are we falling short of our revenue targets?”

The default answer?
“We need more sales reps.”

At The CMO Syndicate, we’ve worked with hundreds of companies around the world. And we’re here to tell you: your problem isn’t sales. It’s your outdated growth model.

“We believe marketing should be closing up to 30% of your deals. That’s not just a point of view—it’s a model we’ve implemented and seen succeed time and again.”
— Jean Foster, Chief Marketing Officer - The CMO Syndicate

Marketing Has a Revenue Problem—And So Do Most CEOs

Modern B2B buyers make up to 70% of their decision before speaking to sales. They consult peers, review websites, and compare vendors long before ever talking to your reps.

Yet most companies still treat marketing as a lead-gen engine and sales as the closer. The result?

• Sales wastes 50% of their time chasing low-quality leads.
• Marketing produces “MQLs” that never convert.
• CEOs see bloated CAC and minimal ROI.

“If your sales team is spending time chasing leads that will never close, that’s not a sales issue—that’s a marketing and alignment issue.”
— Shayne De la Force, CMO & Co-Founder - The CMO Syndicate

What Winning Looks Like: A Smarter Growth Model

We call it the Demand Engine Model—a framework that turns marketing into a pipeline powerhouse.

“When companies assign 30% or more of pipeline ownership to marketing, they see 2X higher close rates and 25% faster deal velocity.”
— Shayne De la Force

Real Results: BT and Beyond

Jean Foster shared a case from her time as CMO at BT (British Telecom):

“My team was responsible not for leads, but for 30% of closed revenue. We built the infrastructure, aligned with sales, and delivered results.”

At The CMO Syndicate, we’ve taken companies from:

• 4% to 23% marketing-contributed pipeline in 13 months
• To 30%+ contribution in 6 months (when the tech and team foundation exists)

The CEO Blueprint: How to Shift Marketing into a Closing Function

1. Assign Closed Revenue Targets to Marketing
   “It’s not about lead volume. It’s about what % of revenue is coming from marketing.” — Jean Foster
2. Align KPIs Across Sales and Marketing
3. Invest in the Demand Engine Tech Stack
   “AI tells you who’s ready, when, and how to convert them.” — Shayne De la Force
4. Create Content That Closes
5. Treat Marketing as a Growth Investment
   “Marketing should be a P&L generator—not a cost center.” — Shayne De la Force

Why Most Companies Fail to Make the Shift

This is not plug-and-play. It requires transformation—team structures, tools, metrics, mindsets.

“This means retraining teams, rethinking org charts, and rebuilding performance metrics. But once marketing starts thinking like sales, the results follow fast.”
— Jean Foster

If You Don’t Shift:

• Sales stays inefficient
• Marketing lacks measurable ROI
• Your growth model plateaus

But If You Do:

• Sales closes faster with better leads
• Marketing drives real revenue
• Your business scales predictably

Your Sales Team Isn’t the Problem. Your Model Is.