Are your Sales and Marketing people ‘butting heads’? 

If so, the office conversations in the Marketing and Sales Departments (silos?) will sound like this:

• Sales person: “We are working ourselves to death to make our numbers and all we get from Marketing is pressure for customer reference stories even though what we have sold the customers still doesn’t’ work!”
• Marketing Officer: “We create leads and hand them over to Sales and they usually don’t get followed up.  In the rare event that they do, we never hear what happened with them!”
• Sales Person: “The services we are selling used to be relevant but the customers aren’t interested any more, especially at the price that we are expected to sell them!”
• Marketing Manager: “The new solution we have pulled together is the most technically competitive offering compared to that of our competitors and still Sales are not promoting it with their customers!”

These are typical statements that are made on a daily basis in organisations that have Sales and Marketing departments.  All too often, Sales and Marketing are seen as distinctly different functions in the business with the members of each department believing that the other department should be doing more to generate revenue.  In this situation, the relationship between Sales and Marketing varies from mildly collaborative through to adversarial.  The situation is: ‘Sales vs. Marketing’.

Rowing in the same direction.

It should not be this way if the company is to succeed. Everyone in the organisation should be like rowers in a racing skull, all rowing in the same direction.  Certainly there are distinct disciplines that should be applied in Marketing and Sales but these should be aligned in a cohesive approach.  A ‘Sales vs. Marketing’ culture enables the company’s competitors to win business because the company’s respective teams are distracted playing the internal ‘blame game’.

What is the difference between Marketing and Sales?

To solve this ‘Sales vs. Marketing’ dilemma, it is essential to understand what marketing is and how the sales process is a key part of it.  Marketing is a direct outcome of the company’s Strategy to compete in its chosen arena.  This will be a topic of a separate article but suffice to say the strategy must be clearly defined and shared appropriately across the organisation so that everyone is aligned with the company mission.  It is the responsibility of the leader, usually the CEO, to ensure the mission and its associated strategy are defined and appropriately shared across the organisation.

It is important that everyone, especially the leadership team, knows what ‘marketing’ is. The American Marketing Association defined it as: “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational objectives.” (McColl-Kennedy, 1992).  Depending on the complexity of the offering, there will be a varying need for sales assistance to ensure the targeted customers are able to make a purchasing decision in favour of the company’s offering.

The Aim of Marketing

Peter Drucker claimed that “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.  The aim is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself” (Drucker, 1973).  As an example, due to highly effective marketing, there is no sales assistance required to make the decision to buy a container of Coca Cola.  Based on extensive advertising, the buyer is informed about the product and buys the Coke based on their preference for the product/brand.  This is distinct from the need for intensive sales support for a buyer to acquire machinery that they need to create a highly efficient major manufacturing plant or the information technology required for a modern bank.  The internet has reduced the need for deep sales assistance for many products and services however there is still a critical need for Sales involvement for a wide range of products and services.

What is ‘Sales’?

Given the definition of marketing then what is ‘Sales’?  Professor Jerome McCarthy defined a model of the elements of marketing as the ‘4 P’s’: Product, Place, Price, Promotion (McColl-Kennedy, 1992).  Sales is a component of ‘Promotion’ which is a means of communication between the seller and the buyer.  For fast moving consumer goods, the sales requirement may be as simple as advising the customer on rudimentary aspects of a product such as the size of a garment or the features of a low cost television.  For complex services and solutions, the sales requirement is more consultative with a deep level of expertise necessary to assist the purchaser, not only with the initial purchase, but for ongoing requirements that will ensure the purchase is effective for them in an ongoing basis.

The H R  Chally Group defined The Quadrant Solution for Sales (Chally Group, Stevens, & Cox, 1995) that includes four categories of sales expertise.  Each is required depending on the complexity of the offering, the customers’ experience with the offering and their need to have a ‘trusted relationship’ with an advisor.  This model suggests that Consultative Selling is required for sales that are ‘high complexity-high touch’; Relationship Selling for ‘low tech – high touch’ sales, Super-closer Selling for ‘high tech – low touch’ sales and Display Selling for ‘low tech-low touch’ sales.  Irrespective of the category of selling applied, Sales are a vital part of the profitable Promotion of a company’s offerings.

Winning by Marketing and Sales synchronised.

To beat the competition, it is essential that Marketing and Sales are ‘rowing hard together’.  For Sales to be effective, Marketing must address the other ‘3 P’s’ of Product, Pricing and Place.  For Marketing to be able to address these other 3Ps, continual feedback is required from the Sales team so that any necessary adjustments can be made to them.  The Marketing and Sales ‘departments’ are components of the Marketing System. For the company to successfully execute its strategy to achieve its mission, it is essential that Marketing and Sales are highly synchronised so that they can focus on profitably creating and satisfying customers.

Fix the culture and win.

If your organisation has a culture of ‘Sales vs. Marketing’ it is time to reassess the Marketing orientation of the business before your competitors overtake you in the market.

• Is the company Mission clearly established and communicated?
• Is the Strategy to achieve the mission continually reviewed and appropriately communicated?
• Does top management ensure that the overall marketing system that includes the Marketing and Sales departments is operating most effectively?
• Are the Marketing and Sales Departments executing a clearly defined and agreed plan that is owned by Top Management and the respective departments?
• Do well defined feedback, review and adjustment processes exist to ensure that the marketing system is highly effective?

To succeed in the rapidly increasing competitive business environment every CEO and Board must ensure that they have an effective Marketing System that embraces ‘lock step’ collaboration of Marketing and Sales, not a culture of ‘Sales vs. Marketing’.

Philip Belcher, LSE Consulting ©

If you would like to learn more, please contact us to find out how LSE Consulting can assist you and your organisation to address the Sales vs. Marketing syndrome or any other strategic business issues.

References

Chally Group, H., Stevens, H., & Cox, J. (1995). The Quadrant Solution. Melbourne: Brolga Publishing.

Drucker, P. F. (1973). Managment: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. New York: Harper and Row.

McColl-Kennedy, K. L. (1992). Marketing, Concepts and Strategies. Melbourne, Australia: Thomas Nelson Australia.