Marketing vs. Sales. Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Because sales are from Mars and marketing is from Venus.  Not quite.  But the gap between marketing and sales has existed since the two divisions were created.  Sales thinks they are only one worried about quarterly results.  Marketing thinks they are the only ones who think strategically.  Sales wonder why they have to generate all their own leads.  Marketing complains that sales ignores or criticizes everything they generate.  Sales thinks marketing is where sales people go to retire. Marketing thinks sales people will sell their own mother to make a deal.

As the economic crisis continues and companies continue to struggle to generate a profit, it is more vital than ever for this sibling rivalry to stop.  Alignment between these two departments is no longer just a nice to have but rather is critical to a company’s success.  The first step to building the bridge is defining a clear understanding of goals.  When Sales and Marketing share the same goals (preferably ones that are interdependent on the others success) they have no choice but to work together. Most sales and marketing organizations will argue that they are aligned…marketing generates leads and passes them onto sales.  But ask how they define a lead and that is usually where the breakdown begins.

Yet another point of contention usually exists with the type of campaigns that Marketing generates.  How many times have you heard Sales complain that the initiatives generated aren’t in line with current vertical focus or simply aren’t adding any value?  In these instances the recurring message from Sales is that they are already engaged with everyone in their target corporations and marketing does not bring any new pertinent information. The latter is extremely common with companies that have a long sales cycle or have strategic accounts.  The creation of a unified calendar that encompasses marketing and sales initiatives usually dispels any conflict.  When both organizations are in synch, there is never any doubt or question with regards to the plan of attack.

Use of a marketing automation platform allows for Marketing to generate strategic multi-tiered campaigns as well as fulfill Sales request for new leads. But more importantly, marketing automation allows for lead qualification.  That is, only when a lead has reached a “score” that is agreed upon by both does Marketing pass the information over to Sales.  This enables Sales to focus on warm or hot leads while Marketing continues to educate and nurture those that aren’t ready to buy yet. Several of our clients have questioned this rationale.  They have argued that Sales is constantly asking for new leads and this seeming decrease in the number of leads will only add fuel to the already existing fire.  But consider this one point for a moment.  How many times has Marketing delivered leads to Sales only to hear Sales complain that the leads were no good and a waste of time? Now consider how many times Sales has complained when Marketing delivers a prospect that was ready to buy?  Quality beats out quantity every time.

The ideal scenario is to build a funnel together with both the sale and marketing organizations.  Together they can define the stages of it and the specific hand-off point of a lead.  A unified funnel is only approach to creating a win-win for the business.