Situation: A company is considering combining its marketing and sales teams. The company’s overall objective is to expand their marketing presence and to bring on new customers. Some team members believe that these two functions are distinct, while others believe that they should work in tandem or even be combined. What do others think about these options? Should you combine sales and marketing?

Advice from the CEOs:

• The skill sets required to create and operate an effective marketing effort are different from those required to create and operate an effective sales organization.
• Sales and Marketing are two different sides of the same coin – they complement each other but are distinct.
• Direction begins with the CEO; however it is imperative to make certain that everyone in the organization buys into both this direction and the organization to achieve it.
• Some feel that it is not a good idea to have one person covering the role of Sales and Marketing. Sales is tactical while Marketing is strategic. It is Sales’ job to implement the Marketing Strategy and report back what is working and what is not. Marketing’s job is to take the feedback from Sales into account and revise the strategy accordingly.
• Challenges which can create a constant battle between marketing and sales are due to:
  • Lack of common direction, and
  • Poor or inconsistent communication between Sales and customer on one side and Sales and Marketing on the other.
  • These challenges need to be resolved to have an effective Sales + Marketing organization.

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