Reasons Between Sales and Marketing Departments Making Them Not Get Along
Why is it in business; sales and marketing departments never get along? Originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
You must be wondering why sales and marketing always share a Cat vs Dog relation, in spite their end result being the same, that is, getting more business. In fact sales and marketing are so deeply interlinked that people often confuse marketing for sales.
In simple words, major difference between sales and marketing is that one’s task is to generate business leads and the other’s to convert them. The problem arises when a marketer tries to evaluate lead conversion, and the salesperson tries dictating the marketing plan. This creates an ego clash between the two.
Below are the major reasons why these two important pillars of an organization never really get along
Them and Us Attitude
In majority of organizations marketing and sales department play the blame game. This attitude hampers the company’s growth. Call it a stereotype, but many times marketers coming from B-schools consider themselves intellectually superior to a salesperson. This creates an envious environment and a self-declared hierarchy between both the departments.
More Pressure On Sales
Talking about visibility of results, marketing results are less visible. Whereas sales results are directly visible. The sales team is always more deeply scrutinized. When it comes to marketing results, a marketer can always blame the lead conversion ability of the sales team. This imbalance creates an unhealthy relationship between both the teams.
Difference in Approach
Marketing and selling approach vary to quite an extent. Sales Team will go to any extent to sell a product. They are so engrossed in selling, that sometimes they miss out on the pain point of customer. Whereas marketing approach is focused on consumer needs. Marketing is responsible for interacting with customers about the product offered and making it look desirable. Marketers hate ideas like cold calling, as it may create a bad customer experience whereas sales do resort to such ideas.
This ‘marketing-sales quarrel’ can be poisonous for a company’s environment. However, a little competition keeps both the teams on their toes and pushes them to the best of their ability.
Contributed by Virangna Babbar, Content Marketer
