Ending the war between

SALES & MARKETING

In many companies, sales forces and marketers feud like
Capulets and Montagues – with disastrous results.
How to get them to lay down their swords.

“ Marketing and sales are in constant

Tussle with each other “
Blames
Though they’re two separate functions within an organization,
When they do work together, they don’t always get along.

To Marketing
- Out of touch with customers.
- Setting prices too high and overuse of the budget.

To Sales
- poor execution
- No strategy
- Myopic - too focused on individual customer experience
- Insufficiently aware of the larger market
- blind to the future
 Different roles for Marketing
1. Sales
In small business equate marketing with selling.
2. Adjunct to salesforce
> Help relieve the saleforce of some chores.
> Choosing the best markets & channels
> Working with outside agencies on advertising & promotion
> Developing collateral materials to help the sales force attract
customers and close sale
> Using direct mail, telemarketing and trade shows to find and
qualify leads for sales force.
 Different roles for Marketing
3. An Independent player ( More than 4 P’s)
 Marketing functions inside sales and sales function inside marketing
 The sales people wish that the marketers would worry about future
opportunities (Long term strategy)
 Segmentation, targeting and positioning
 Develop brands rather than products
 “ Marketing Led “ company
 Other question whether the marketers have the competencies
Experiences and understanding to lead the organization.
 During economic downturns, marketing is more closely questioned-and
more susceptible to be cut than sales
Why can’t they just get along?
Two sources of friction:-
 Economic
 Cultural

Economic friction comes from:-

• Budget division
• Promotion costs:- Marketing group spend for promotion but the sales
force often views it as a waste of money.
• Sales complain - launched product lacks features, style or quality
• Short run impact vs. long run impact
 Cultural friction comes from:-
• Conflicts between thought process and spend time in different ways.

Marketers are:-
 Highly analytical, data oriented and project focused
 Build competitive advantage for the future
 Think about higher profit margin and promising future
 Devoted to programs,not people, and it takes much longer time to know
whether a program helped to create long term competitive advantage for the
organization.
Sales people are:-
 Spending time talking to existing and potential customers
 Skilled relationship builder
 Used to rejection and it doesn’t depress them
 Push products with lower margins that satisfy quota goal
Four types of relationships
The sales and marketing team exhibit four types of relationships;but the
relationships change as the companies’ marketing & sales functions
mature.
1. UNDEFINED:-
 Sales and marketing have grown independently
 Devoted to conflict resolution rather than proactive cooperation.
2. DEFINED:-
 Two groups set processes and rules – to prevent disputes
 “ Good fences make good neighbors “ orientation
 Task defined to each group and they stick to their own tasks for the
most part.
Four types of relationships
3. ALIGNED:-
 Clear boundary defined and flexible
 Joint planning and training

4. INTREGRATED:-
 Both the group redesign the relationship to share structures, systems
and rewards
 “ Rise or fall together “ culture
 Deeply embedded in the management of key accounts
 Moving Up – When?
1. Moving from undefined to defined:-

 If the members of sales and marketing enjoy good,informal relationships that

needn’t to be disturbed
 If conflicts arises regularly, this generally happens because the groups are
competing for scarce resources and their respective roles are not defined.

2. Moving from defined to aligned:-

IF….
 Industry is changing in significant ways
 Marketing is moving towards commoditization and customization.
 Heads of sales and marketing may want to build a more aligned relationship
and jointly add new skills.

HOW they can be more aligned:-

 Encourage disciplined communication

 Create joint assignment, rotate jobs
 Appoint a liaison from marketing to work with the sales force
 Co-locate marketers and salespeople
 Improve sales force feedback
Do we need to be more Aligned?
Moving up – when?
3. Moving from aligned to integrated:-
 Appoint a chief revenue (or customer) officer
1. Common goal of sales & marketing – generate profit & increase
revenue
2. CRO responsible for planning and delivering revenue

 Define the steps in the marketing and sales funnel

1. Integrating marketing into the sales
2. Buying funnel

 Split marketing into two groups

1. Upstream ( Strategic ) – Shares its insights with senior managers and
product developers.
2. Down-stream (Tactical) – Help salespeople develop & qualify leads
 Set shared revenue targets and reward systems
 Integrate sales and marketing metrics
The Buying Funnel
Refers to a multi-step
process of a consumer's
path to purchase a
product
THANK YOU