Sales vs. Marketing [1 of 3]

Abstract


This document serves as a meditation on the established illusion between marketing and sales.



Introduction

In the great scheme of business considerations, and against a need to order and organize, expressions of business necessarily become compartmentalized. For modules such as finance, that may include accounting, economics and securities, with the core of their expressions being abstract numbers, delineation of everything from resources to responsibilities seems easier to make concrete, and with that, interact (while staying compartmentalized). When adding to the moving pieces of the larger business organic those aspects that interface with human behavior and psychology, especially the interactions beyond the confines of the organization proper, best practices may appear to be all over the place.

In large measure, a proper definition of the business itself, exactly what it provides and to whom, becomes the starting point for marketing and sales. Business considerations that would work for a multinational will not necessarily work for small mom-and-pop. What applies in a legacy institution will likely not be a business template for a startup. Services and products are different, that which is temporal versus long lasting and any number of other considerations along these lines have a direct effect on how to design a particular posture as regards marketing and sales.

The 20 hundreds have ushered in, at least regarding academic writings (and presumably the more enlightened businesses), a movement in sales toward an approach with more authenticity and integrity (Ingram, LaForge, Avila, Schwepker Jr, & Williams, 2006). The writings gush with insights that should have been obvious all along, on topics such as trust, communication skills, the value of relationships, etc.

This development in sales "technologies" is more than simply welcome in the larger evolution for business and marketing, it is foundationally necessary. We are moving closer to a holistic approach where modules such as finance may serve as skeletal, while considerations such as marketing and sales finally have a chance to be the muscle, tissue and blood of the business organism; thoroughly woven together and throughout.



Negative Relationship Reasons

In the old (and in many/most) established business paradigms, marketing and sales stand on (somewhat) equal and separate footings, much as would process management, human resources or supply chain. As long as everyone knows their place and continues to be a “good cog” in the machine the assumption is that "the machine" can move forward indefinitely. Naturally, this is ridiculous.

As alluded to a moment ago, business is not so much a machine but an organic being, however abstractly, in its own right .

Until marketing and sales have a functional and integrated relationship, (for they do have distinct characteristics; we are not presuming them to be the same), the likelihood is for continued turf wars (along with shifted expressions of responsibility toward burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame, and/or guilt). The implications of this have sunk careers, families, business units and entire enterprises, as arguments over funding and process has justified the antithesis of the big picture.