Ending War Between Sales and Matketing
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In many companies, sales forces and marketers feud like Capulets and Montagues— with disastrous results. Here’s how to get them to lay down their swords.
Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing by Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham, and Suj Krishnaswamy
Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 3 Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing 14 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Reprint R0607E
Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing
The Idea in Brief
In too many companies, Sales and Marketing feud like Capulets and Montagues. Salespeople accuse marketers of being out of touch with what customers really want or setting prices too high. Marketers insist that salespeople focus too myopically on individual customers and short-term sales at the expense of longer-term profits. Result? Poor coordination between the two teams—which only raises market-entry costs, lengthens sales cycles, and increases cost of sales. How to get your sales and marketing teams to start working together? Kotler, Rackham, and Krishnaswamy recommend crafting a new relationship between them, one with the right degree of interconnection to tackle your most pressing business challenges. For example, is your market becoming more commoditized or customized? If so, align Sales and Marketing through frequent, disciplined cross-functional communication and joint projects. Is competition becoming more complex than ever? Then fully integrate the teams, by having them share performance metrics and rewards and embedding marketers deeply in management of key accounts. Create the right relationship between Sales and Marketing, and you reduce internecine squabbling, enabling these former combatants to boost top- and bottomline growth, together.
The Idea in Practice
How
In many companies, sales forces and marketers feud like Capulets and Montagues— with disastrous results. Here’s how to get them to lay down their swords.
Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing by Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham, and Suj Krishnaswamy
Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 3 Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing 14 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Reprint R0607E
Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing
The Idea in Brief
In too many companies, Sales and Marketing feud like Capulets and Montagues. Salespeople accuse marketers of being out of touch with what customers really want or setting prices too high. Marketers insist that salespeople focus too myopically on individual customers and short-term sales at the expense of longer-term profits. Result? Poor coordination between the two teams—which only raises market-entry costs, lengthens sales cycles, and increases cost of sales. How to get your sales and marketing teams to start working together? Kotler, Rackham, and Krishnaswamy recommend crafting a new relationship between them, one with the right degree of interconnection to tackle your most pressing business challenges. For example, is your market becoming more commoditized or customized? If so, align Sales and Marketing through frequent, disciplined cross-functional communication and joint projects. Is competition becoming more complex than ever? Then fully integrate the teams, by having them share performance metrics and rewards and embedding marketers deeply in management of key accounts. Create the right relationship between Sales and Marketing, and you reduce internecine squabbling, enabling these former combatants to boost top- and bottomline growth, together.
The Idea in Practice
How