Marketing vs. Sales...

"Marketing spreads out the corn, by the lake, to attract the ducks. Then, Sales shoots the ducks."

-- Eli Goldratt (paraphrased)

When sales are down, marketing blames sales and sales blames marketing. There's a natural tension there.

But, all things being equal, it's both their fault.

If marketing isn't priming the pump for sales, there aren't enough leads or inquires to close. If sales isn't doing their job, the leads won't turn into sales.

But it's much more complicated than that. For instance, if marketing isn't using techniques to pre-sell and pre-qualify leads, it's wasting sales time and lowering the lead-to-close ratio. If sales isn't following up on leads fast enough, they're wasting marketing's efforts.

I think the duck hunter analogy is great. If they work together, they get the job done.

A problem I see often is sales expecting marketing to close sales for them so all they have to do is write-up the order. Good advertising can prime the pump by creating demand. A good marketing system can manage leads to qualify the best. But most sales-driven companies need a good salesperson to close the sale and manage the account.

Unfortunately both good duck hunters and people willing stand in the line of fire tossing out corn are hard to find. Getting them to work together is sometimes even harder.

- Phil Sasso