Bridging the gap between Sales and Marketing

Since my B-school days I always wondered is there a gap or thin line of difference b/w sales and marketing? The answer is obviously YES. Is there a difference in the objectives of these two functions in an organization? The answer is NO. Though organizational goal of these two teams might seem different but end goal is: Revenue generation.

Today I finished reading “The end of Marketing as we know it” – it is an amazing masterpiece. He’s not bringing any rocket science to marketing but speaks about the effective ways to focus on DO’s and DONT’s of an effective marketing. The take away from the book is:

"The sole purpose of Marketing is to sell more to more people, more often and for more money."


It is very important for any organization to have a healthy relationship b/w Sales and Marketing teams. As a marketer if you do not enjoy good business relationship with your sales counterpart, start asking yourself what is to be changed in your deliverable. Marketing success is about increasing revenue and lowering cost of sales. Whether in Marketing 1.0 or Marketing 2.0 or traditional marketing or social media marketing it makes no difference.

I wanted to share with you this striking data from this survey from 1,300 companies across all industries:

• Only 60% of sales reps are making or exceeding quotas.
• Only 37% of firms report they have implemented a formal sales process.
• 63% of revenue comes from existing business, while 37% comes from new business
• Only 38% of companies have what they would call "forecasting accuracy."
• Most have close rates of under 50% of proposals written (average=48%).

This Lewis Green post says it all:

"For at the end of the day, our bottom lines and the value of what we do are measured in sales, not direct mail campaigns, sell sheets or packaging....I also believe that sales and marketing staffs should be in one department and should work closely together on every step of the process, from understanding the customers, to strategic marketing and sales planning, to closing sales"