Sales and marketing strategies and practices

Sales and Marketing

To the Heads of the Sales and Marketing Departments of Widgets, Inc.:

It has been observed that an unfortunate tension exists between the sales and marketing teams of our organization. On the surface, this seems difficult to understand. After all, theoretically, members of these teams should be the 'best' at communicating, of all of the organization's employees. Our jobs involve working with the public and conveying why our products are of such high quality, and are so desirable. However, there is a fundamental difference of approach between the two departments, even though we all have the same goal. By merging our strengths and overcoming our differences, the sales and marketing departments can both enrich their reputations within the company as well as corporate revenue.

Marketing people tend to be numbers-driven in terms of determining what appeals to consumers. If they notice that consumers within a certain demographic have proved to be highly responsive to an appeal to their pocketbooks in their studies of consumer psychology, then that is the approach they will focus on when designing an advertising campaign. If the target demographic for a new product is that of the coveted 18- to 34-year-old market segment, they will be determined to use the Internet as a vehicle for reaching the public, given the data they have compiled about patterns of web-surfing behavior amongst younger people. Salespeople, in contrast, tend to focus more on people on a one-on-one basis. Perhaps this is because so many individuals in the department began in the retail sales department. When appealing to people, salesmen and women tend to trust their 'gut' instinct about what worked to sell to individuals, when they were involved in selling the product on the front lines to consumers. Salespeople are inclined to trust personalized, hard-selling persuasive techniques, and rely on their emotions as to what feels right.

Marketing people are more apt focus on metrics about buying behavior, such as business school studies about how consumers move through the store and how lighting may influence buyer's purchases -- these concerns are seldom the main focus of the sales department. Sales staff members, when they do look at quantitative data or consumer studies are more likely to be concerned about recent consumer's buying patterns -- the sales department focuses on what seasons were slow or strong, for example, rather than strive to predict evolving market trends, based upon long-term data about consumer psychology. Marketing is more future-focused, then focused on the present.

This difference of approach is likely rooted in the different cultures of the sales and marketing departments. The sales department tends to be more of a fast-based, cutthroat 'baseball team' culture, where every individual is for him or herself, and wants to distinguish his or her reputation at making the highest numbers of sales. Marketing tends to take a slower pace, to be more methodical, and, as it has more MBAs than former salespeople, is less individualized and more focused on improving the company, its brand, and its overall market standing. Members of the marketing department have mostly risen through the company hierarchy, while sales department team members have been recruited from top-performing sales departments elsewhere.