The document discusses the relationship between sales and marketing departments in businesses. While the two functions have the shared goal of generating revenue, they often see each other as competitors rather than partners. This leads to divisions and lack of cooperation between sales and marketing. However, the document notes that sales and marketing actually need each other to be successful - marketing provides awareness and demand while sales generates revenue. To improve alignment, the document recommends that leadership in both departments commit to communication, cooperation, and setting an example of working together towards shared business goals.

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It’s Sales AND Marketing, NOT Sales OR Marketing
OVERVIEW
Sales and Marketing departments are critical, integral functions to businesses. As such,
they need to work together to ensure that the desired outcome for both functions – sales
– occurs. Unfortunately, that often does not happen.
SALES AND MARKETING – TOGETHER AGAIN (OR ARE THEY?)
Sales and Marketing functions have been around as long as there have been
businesses, so you would think these organizations would have learned long ago how
to co-exist and cooperate. After all, they both want the same thing, for the business to
succeed and grow, right?
While it would appear to be so, the reality is often somewhat different.
Although both functions are tasked with engaging prospective customers in the hopes of
converting them into actual paying customers and generating new revenue as an
outcome, that’s where the similarities end.
That’s also where the competition begins.
COMPETITION IN THE TRENCHES
Competition?
Yes. Sadly, many Sales and Marketing departments see themselves as competitors,
instead of viewing themselves as business partners. Instead of organizations that are
aligned in pursuit of a common goal, they prefer to create more barriers between them.

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Due to this, competition between Sales and Marketing departments often takes
pettiness to new levels of idiocy. Questions such as “Can a Marketing person contact a
customer without a Sales person on the phone?” or “Should Sales develop their own
customer-facing materials without Marketing’s assistance?” take on the characteristics
of a turf war, with both departments not willing to back down, compromise or give an
inch. Things that should not be an issue are suddenly blown out of proportion and end
up impacting the effectiveness of both organizations. Petty jealousies may also rear
their ugly heads, such as when the Sales Department received new laptops or cell
phones, while the Marketing Department does not.
Other issues, such as which department gets additional headcount, resources or budget
also tend to divide the two organizations, as each believes the other to be the recipient
of something they are not. While there may be a justifiable business reason for these
actions, the end result is often a larger chasm developing between Sales and
Marketing, which in turn continues to negatively affect the performance of both
organizations.
Instead of these two business-critical functions working together to create better, more
efficient ways for them to accomplish their goals and objectives, and oh yeah, by
extension, growing the business, they devote their energies to becoming less in sync,
less aligned and less productive.
THE IRONIC TRUTH
But the truth is that both Sales and Marketing actually cannot really exist without the
other.
What!?!
It’s true. Without the Marketing department, Sales faces an uphill battle to sell, as their
product or service may not be well known, the value it provides to a customer is unclear,
customers don’t know where to find information, or the company selling it may not even
be known. And without the Sales department, Marketing is effectively creating and
developing messaging, value props, campaigns, content, and lots of other types of
information for no reason (unless they’re going to go out and sell the product
themselves, which is highly unlikely).
Ironic, isn’t it?
Both functions may think that they’re indispensable to the business, and they are to
some degree. However, the reality is that Sales and Marketing are complementary skills
that really only work well when they are used together.
In other words, when they’re aligned with each other.

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BRIDGING THE GAP
So what can be done to bridge the gap? How do we close the divide between Sales and
Marketing? How can we make it easier for the two departments to work together?
It’s simple, really.
All it takes is a commitment by both the Sales and the Marketing leadership that instead
of fighting, their organizations will communicate and cooperate. Agree that they’ll work
together instead of competing. Decide that they’ll set aside petty politics and focus on
achieving the business goals together. Determine that they’ll help their teams
understand that Sales and Marketing really are two sides of the same coin.
In other words, top down leadership.
That’s it.
Top down leadership in this instance means having leaders in both the Sales and the
Marketing organizations set the standards of cooperation and communication for their
teams. But in order for these to be effective, they must not only model these behaviors,
they must practice what they preach.
This can be accomplished by such actions as having the Sales and Marketing leaders
issuing a weekly email update to both teams with news and updates on customer wins,
how current revenue is tracking to the quarterly goal, how the Marketing tools
contributed to Sales success, or other relevant information. Or schedule a regular
weekly call or meeting where a representative from each organization can provide
updates on activities, problems, cares and concerns. Or have a representative from
Sales participate in the weekly Marketing staff meeting, and vice-versa.
The possibilities for improving engagement and alignment between Sales and
Marketing are endless, the investment is small, yet the payoff can be significant. And by
doing so, the two functions will begin to see and understand that they’re not so different
after all and that they really do work better together than apart.
And then it really does become Sales AND Marketing…
© 2019 – Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing
All rights reserved.