Sales and marketing usually have the same salary, but salespeople have more opportunities to earn more. This is because sales positions usually have a greater potential to earn commissions and bonuses than marketing objectives. Marketing can help explain the main differences between the two. The biggest difference is that marketing professionals target customers who may be interested in purchasing a product or service, while sales professionals make the transaction and sell the product or service.
In addition, because the groups were poorly coordinated, announcements of new Marketing products usually came at a time when the sales team wasn't ready to take advantage of them. We interviewed couples of marketing managers and vice presidents of sales to capture their perspectives. Companies rely on sales and marketing professionals to capitalize on increasing levels of customer engagement on a variety of platforms. The following table can help you decide under what circumstances your company should best integrate its sales and marketing functions.
For example, when intermediate marketers join the sales process, as members of critical account teams, it makes sense to measure and reward their performance using sales metrics. The sales group understands and uses marketing terminology such as “value proposition” and “brand image”. We designed an evaluation tool that can help organizations assess the relationship between their sales and marketing departments. It's simple and prevents the marketing department from becoming too involved in individual sales opportunities at the expense of more strategic activities.
Product designers learned years ago that they would save time and money if they consulted with their manufacturing colleagues, rather than simply throwing away new designs. Sales and marketing professionals determine the best ways to attract customers and generate revenue for their companies. The marketing department believes that the sales force is short-sighted, too focused on individual customer experiences, doesn't know enough about the overall market, and doesn't see the future. The intermediate team uses market research and feedback from sales representatives to help sell existing products in new market segments, create new messages, and design better sales tools.
Senior managers should establish different measures for brand managers, market researchers, marketing information systems managers, advertising managers, sales promotion managers, market segment managers, and product managers. There is an idea that “good fences make good neighbors”; sellers and vendors know who should do what and, for the most part, are dedicated to their own tasks.
