In any company, sales and marketing are the two primary business functions that are focused on creating satisfied customers. Because of their complementary orientations and objectives, these two functions are ideally positioned for a fruitful, synergetic collaboration. Unfortunately, the practical reality in many companies is far removed from this utopia. Sales and marketing personnel fail to communicate effectively, resulting in misunderstandings, lack of communication, frustration, and sometimes even downright anger and sabotage. Instead of supporting each other in creating superior value for customers, sales and marketing fight tiresome internal battles that are a drain on profits, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
In this book we offer the first comprehensive perspective on the functioning of sales-marketing interfaces in business to business (B2B) companies. We explore the complementary roles of sales and marketing in creating superior value for customers, the problems that occur in sales-marketing interfaces, the underlying causes of these problems and potential solutions to effectively deal with these problems. These solutions are accompanied by a series of tools that managers can use to diagnose their sales-marketing interface and develop appropriate approaches to improve this relationship. In addition, the book discusses a number of challenges that companies have to deal with on a day-to-day basis and how they may impact their sales-marketing interfaces.
This book is based on over seven years of research, during which we conducted interviews with hundreds of sales and marketing personnel at various organizational levels, as well as several CEOs and COOs. Our findings have been tested and refined through discussions with practitioners in focus groups and seminars. The companies included in this book cover a wide range of industries, as well as the full spectrum from small companies that just started to discover the benefits of marketing to large, established, Fortune 100 firms that must deal with significant differences between their sales and marketing groups.
As a result, this book takes a hands-on, managerial approach to all aspects of sales-marketing interfaces in B2B companies. The discussions and tools presented in this book provide managers with a deep understanding of this critical interface and allow them to apply these insights to improve their sales-marketing interface, which in turn helps them to create superior value for customers.
Keywords
sales-marketing relationship, sales-marketing alignment, managing sales-marketing interface