How To Use Marketing During The Sales Cycle To Win More Deals
Marketing during the sales cycle means supporting buyers from first contact through to signed contract, not just generating leads at the top of the funnel. When you keep relevant, consistent marketing running throughout the 7 sales cycle stages, you reduce friction in long B2B deals, protect against competitors, and give your champions the proof they need to get a decision over the line. Done well, this is a core part of your go to market strategy, not a side project, and it should sit alongside your broader strategy services and planning rather than operate in isolation.
Most teams know how to create demand. Far fewer know how to stay present and useful once an opportunity is in the CRM. That is where a stage based approach to marketing during the sales cycle pays off.
What “marketing during the sales cycle” means (and why it extends past lead gen)
The sales cycle is the journey from initial contact to deal closure, with a series of interactions in between. Salesforce and Zendesk both describe it as a repeatable set of stages that starts with research and prospecting and runs through to closing the deal and nurturing the relationship after the sale (Salesforce, Zendesk). In B2B, that journey often stretches over months, with multiple stakeholders joining and leaving along the way.
It helps to separate the sales cycle from the buying cycle. The sales cycle is your internal view of activities and stages. The buying cycle is the customer’s view of their problem, options, evaluation, and decision. They rarely line up neatly, which is why marketing has to map to both.
In practice, that means you cannot treat marketing as a one time event at the top of the funnel. A stage based approach means you plan specific content, messages, and touches for each phase of the sales cycle and each phase of the buying cycle. You are not just filling a pipeline; you are guiding a group of people through a complex decision.
Think of it as a simple framework. For every stage, you define the buyer questions, the risks they feel, and the stakeholders involved. Then you match content and channels to those needs, from early education to late stage risk reduction. That is marketing during the sales cycle.
The 7 sales cycle stages: where marketing influences decisions most
Most sales teams work with some version of the classic 7 stage sales cycle. Salesforce, Zendesk, and others describe it as research, prospecting, qualification or discovery, presentation or demo, proposal, negotiation, and close (Salesforce, Zendesk). The labels vary, but the flow is similar.
In the research and prospecting stages, marketing usually leads. You are building awareness, generating leads, and helping prospects name and frame their problems. During qualification and discovery, marketing can still support with diagnostic content, industry benchmarks, and tools that help the buyer quantify impact.
Things get more interesting from presentation through to close. The presentation or demo stage is where your story has to land with a broader group, often including non technical or non specialist stakeholders. Proposal and negotiation are where risk sensitivity spikes. Procurement, security, legal, and finance all step in, and each has their own concerns and language.
Those late stages are also where deals are most fragile. Proposal review, procurement checks, security assessments, and executive sign off are all points where a deal can stall or quietly die. In complex B2B, decisions are relationship driven and committee based, as Andrei Zinkevich often points out in his writing on long cycle B2B marketing (LinkedIn). That means repeated, consistent exposure across stakeholders matters more than a single perfect pitch.
Marketing’s influence is strongest where information, reassurance, and internal storytelling are needed. That is not just at the top. It is during demos, proposals, and negotiations, when your champion is trying to persuade colleagues who have never met your sales rep.
Why turning off marketing once a deal is live is a mistake
Many teams unconsciously flip a switch once an opportunity is created. Marketing steps back, sales takes over, and the account is treated as off limits for campaigns. In a 6 to 12 month sales cycle, that is a serious mistake.
Long decision windows create space for drift. If you stop providing useful, relevant content, you lose top of mind presence. Buyers need ongoing value and visibility throughout those months, not a burst of attention at the start. Silence from your side does not mean silence overall. It just means someone else is filling the gap.
Competitors rarely stop their marketing when you start your sales process. They keep running targeted content, retargeting, and thought leadership that reframes the problem and shifts perceived risk and value. If your proposal sits in an inbox while your competitor’s content keeps showing up in feeds and inboxes, the internal narrative can tilt away from you.
There is also the internal champion to consider. They need fresh proof points to keep colleagues engaged. New case studies, updated testimonials, and third party validation give them material to share in internal meetings. Without that, they are stuck forwarding the same deck and proposal, which quickly loses power.
Finally, when sales is the only voice in the account, messaging inconsistency grows. Different reps may emphasize different points. Stakeholders who never join calls only see fragments. Marketing during the sales cycle provides a steady, consistent layer of messaging that supports the rep rather than competes with them.
What to run during an active opportunity: a stage based “deal air cover” playbook
So what does good marketing during the sales cycle actually look like when a deal is live? Think of it as deal air cover. You are not spamming the account. You are surrounding the opportunity with helpful, stage matched content and signals.
At the proposal stage, the goal is to make the decision feel safe and specific. That is where role specific proof comes in. For example, you might send the economic buyer a concise ROI narrative and a case study from their industry, while the technical evaluator receives a deeper implementation story and architecture overview. The content is aligned to the deal, not generic.
During negotiation, the questions shift. Stakeholders want to know why you, not the other vendor, and what happens if things go wrong. This is where competitive differentiation content, objection handling assets, and clear explanations of support and success models matter. Security and legal teams need straightforward responses to their concerns, ideally in formats they recognize, such as standard security summaries or policy overviews.
Multi threading is another critical part of the playbook. Your primary contact is not the only person involved in the decision. Use targeted email sequences, social retargeting, and account based ads to reach adjacent stakeholders with content tailored to their role. The key is control. You coordinate with sales so that these touches feel additive, not overwhelming.
Sales enablement is the glue. Reps need quick access to stage matched assets and talk tracks so that what they say on calls matches what buyers see in content. A simple asset matrix that maps each sales cycle stage to specific pieces, with clear guidance on when and how to use them, can transform consistency overnight.
Channel and content mix for long sales cycles (what works at each funnel layer)
Long B2B sales cycles need a channel mix that can sustain attention without burning out the audience. For long cycles, you need a blend of SEO, advertising, social media, blogs, and testimonials to stay present across the journey. The trick is to align each layer of the funnel to the right channels and content types.
At the top of the funnel, you are focused on awareness and initial interest. SEO content that answers early research questions, targeted advertising that introduces your category or point of view, and social content that surfaces problems and outcomes all play a role. These touches often precede any formal sales cycle stage.
In the mid funnel, credibility and depth matter more. Blogs that show expertise, detailed guides, and webinars or events that let prospects see your people in action help buyers feel confident that you understand their world. For active opportunities, these assets can be referenced by reps or sent as follow ups to discovery and demo calls.
Late funnel content is about reducing perceived risk. Testimonials, detailed case studies, reference calls, and targeted follow ups that address specific objections all help buyers feel safe choosing you. This is also where you can bring in third party validation, such as analyst reports or partner endorsements, if you have them.
To keep this sustainable, repurpose core assets into multiple formats. A flagship case study can become a short video, a webinar segment, a social thread, and a one page proof point. That way, you maintain consistent messages across channels without needing a new asset for every touch.
How sales and marketing should coordinate during live deals (to avoid mixed signals)
None of this works if sales and marketing are out of sync. Misalignment between the two functions leads to unprepared leads and muddled messaging, which slows deals and confuses buyers. During live deals, that risk is even higher.
Start with shared messaging pillars for the account. For each strategic opportunity, agree on the core value propositions, differentiators, and proof points that will anchor all communication. This does not mean scripts. It means a clear, shared story that both teams commit to.
Next, set simple rules for outbound communication. Decide who sends what, when, and to which stakeholders. For example, sales owns direct one to one emails and meeting follow ups, while marketing runs role based nurture and account level campaigns. You can document this in a lightweight RACI so everyone knows their lane.
A feedback loop is essential. Sales should regularly share the objections they hear, the content that lands, and the gaps they feel. Marketing then updates assets, sequences, and campaigns based on that input. A weekly or biweekly review of top deals, focused on content and messaging needs, can keep this loop tight.
Finally, use a single source of truth for assets and stage definitions. If your sales cycle stages are defined differently in CRM, enablement, and campaign tools, confusion is guaranteed. Align your sales cycle management framework, your content library, and your reporting so that everyone is working from the same map.
How to measure marketing influence during the sales cycle (beyond leads)
If you only measure marketing on leads, you will underinvest in marketing during the sales cycle. You need metrics that connect activity to pipeline quality, speed, and outcomes.
Pipeline velocity metrics are a good starting point. Track time in stage, stage to stage conversion rates, and overall sales cycle length. When you introduce stage based marketing support, you should see certain stages shorten or convert more reliably, especially proposal and negotiation.
Deal health indicators give you a more granular view. Look at stakeholder engagement, such as how many contacts from the account are interacting with your content, returning to your site, or engaging with emails. Track which assets are consumed during late stages and whether those correlate with deals that progress.
Outcome metrics still matter. Win rate, average deal size, and competitive win or loss notes all help you understand whether your marketing is influencing decisions. Encourage reps to note which content pieces were used in successful deals, and look for patterns over time.
Operational reporting ties it together. Build a simple dashboard that shows marketing touches during proposal and negotiation for each opportunity, alongside stage progression and outcome. You are not trying to attribute every dollar. You are looking for evidence that consistent, stage matched marketing is associated with healthier, faster moving deals.
Common pitfalls and how to fix them (when marketing supports active deals)
Supporting active deals with marketing is powerful, but it is easy to get wrong. The most common mistake is over communication. If every stakeholder is hit with every campaign, you create fatigue and frustration.
The fix is to implement frequency caps and role based targeting. Decide how many touches per week are acceptable for each role, and tailor content so that executives, technical evaluators, and users each see what is relevant to them. This keeps your presence felt without becoming noise.
Another pitfall is generic content. If your assets are not tailored to the industry, use case, or problem context, they feel like marketing wallpaper. Build modular proof points that can be assembled into tailored narratives, such as industry specific stats, role specific outcomes, and use case specific stories.
Siloed execution is also common. Marketing runs campaigns without visibility into deal context, while sales runs conversations without using available content. A simple practice of weekly deal reviews for top accounts, focused on what content is needed and what is working, can align efforts quickly.
Finally, many teams stop after close. That is short sighted. Extending marketing into onboarding, adoption, and early value moments reduces churn and sets up expansion. Treat close as a stage in a longer relationship, not the finish line, and keep your stage based mindset running into customer marketing.
Conclusion
Marketing during the sales cycle is about more than nurturing leads until they talk to sales. It is about providing consistent, stage matched support from first contact through to close and beyond, especially in long, complex B2B deals. When you keep marketing active during proposals, negotiations, and approvals, you protect against drift, support your champions, and give every stakeholder the clarity they need to say yes.
To make this work, you need a shared sales cycle framework, clear coordination between sales and marketing, and measurement that looks beyond leads to pipeline health and outcomes. Treated as part of your broader go to market strategy and planning, marketing during the sales cycle becomes one of the most reliable ways to improve win rates and shorten long sales cycles without adding more noise to the market.
Author: Steven Manifold, CMO. Steven has worked in B2B marketing for over 25 years, mostly with companies that sell complex products to specialist buyers. His experience includes senior roles at IBM and Pegasystems, and as CMO he built and ran a global marketing function at Ubisense, a global IIoT provider.
References
https://www.salesforce.com/sales/what-is-a-sales-cycle/
https://www.zendesk.com/blog/sales-cycle/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/azinkevich_my-favorite-way-to-explain-b2b-marketing-activity-7380956451063791616-oZrp
