Decoding the Relationship between Sales and Marketing

We often hear the terms Sales and Marketing being used together. The two are distinctly separate functions within an organization that work with each other. Both contribute to driving business growth, however, have different approaches and more than often don’t tread along.

If sales revenue is disappointing, marketing tends to question the sales team for their poor execution of an otherwise brilliantly strategized plan. The sales team, on the contrary, claims that Marketing has benchmarked too high and utilized too much of the budget causing low ROI. This poor alignment of the two teams often ends up damaging corporate performance.

But there remains functional dependency; both can’t exist without one another … almost defining each other!

But as the lines blur, the dilemma remains! Who decides where one draws a line, who takes ownership of what? And who wears the crown for every clinched deal?

So, what sets Sales and Marketing apart?

Marketing encourages leads and establishes relationships with prospective customers through different tactics. These tactics include a gambit of marketing led campaigns & promotions through direct & digital mediums.

Marketing provides potential customers with the right information and hooks through the buyer’s journey. They nurture leads through a programmatic cycle to ensure that customers are likely to take a buying decision sooner than later. The success of a marketing team is judged not on the basis of the first sale but by the number of people who remain interested in the offerings of the company through a lifetime. Marketing establishes an on going relationship with its large customer base for cross sell & upsell opportunities.

While the sales team is to sell, make closures on opportunities derived from the Marketing funnel. They develop a one on one relationship with these already aware customers and work hard to ensure that the customer’s interest generates a purchase. In a typical B2B scenario, the salesperson identifies the specific needs of the customer and provides a tailor-made solution for their requirements.

Like they say ... Marketing owns the message & Sales owns the Relationship.

Then, why can’t Sales & Marketing get along?

There are two differences that cause friction between Sales and Marketing. The first is economic and the second is cultural. The economic friction is due to obvious reasons – the total budget granted by the senior management needs to be divided optimally to support both functions. The sales team gets in the mullah & feels marketing hasn’t optimised. The Marketing team, in turn, has their metrics to achieve and wants the sales team to show conversion on every case generated to justify spends. What is a lead, how is the value defined & who contributed to its closure is often the moot contention.

On the cultural front, the two functions attract different types of individuals. Marketers, generally come from a background of formal education, are more right brained & drive long term strategic objectives. However, the focus of sales is to get every deal in. They have the field pulse, are attuned to understand what product features will fly and what will die. They keep moving even after rejection and often face the brunt of customer feedback. They are the soldiers on the war field.

So how does this Marriage work?

There are different kinds of relationships that can be defined, making the functions move from being unaligned to being fully integrated. It’s almost the same chemistry that a man & woman share in real life. Both make sense to themselves at all times but not always to one another.

The working relationship between Marketing and sales teams must go hand in hand to guide customers through the buying process. But, that collaboration isn’t always seamless.

Even when KPIs are defined, they need to remain integrated for achieving business growth.

Healthy conflict signifies both are at work. And at the end of the day … it’s Happy Selling to both!