As I became more and more exposed to the way different organisations are setting up their sales and marketing teams, it provoked some interesting discussions with quite a few people about what’s working and what doesn’t, and more importantly why that is the case.
One of the biggest discussion points was - shall marketing report into sales or sales into marketing? A quick disclaimer, of course, we’re not talking about big corporations with a high number of S&M team members. Here we go...
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Set up 1 - Marketing reporting into sales
Great stuff, those £££ numbers are flying in, cause, let’s face it, the focus of the whole team will be on the £ sign. And there’s no one to blame as naturally that’s what the main focus of the sales team is. So in the case, where the team leader has a pure sales background, that’s naturally will shift the focus towards the revenue. Now, many might think “well that’s the main focus of each driven pro-profit company”. And you’re right, but how about other things that are indirectly linked to the revenue? How about things like brand awareness or customer delight? They might not have a direct association to the revenue generation activities but they are essential contributors to company’s success, and as the result, profit.
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Set up 2 - Sales reporting into marketing
Happy days many marketers might think! Finally all the leads we put so much effort in creating will be followed up... But here’s another caveat here - how can a marketing specialist truly understand the nature of a sales approach? How can pro-inbound rule over pro-outbound by nature?
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Set up 3 - Sales and marketing teams are reporting to the same leader who understands/interested in both areas
Now we’re talking! The truth is, we need specialists, that’s the route to success in a particular area. In this set up we have teams concentrating on what they’re truly good at with a leader orchestrating that relationship between the teams.
Although the aims of both teams are very similar (therefore they should be very aligned), marketing functions are going outside of the revenue generation (although at the end of the day that’s still the final goal). When we’re talking about marketing aims, they include company image making and branding, customer experience and delight, user experience, and even employee branding, that’s all alongside lead generation. As you can see, there is a big part of marketing efforts that wouldn’t directly link to the revenue generation but play an essential part in a long-term business strategy. And as we’re talking about the business strategy, it will naturally be driven by the business leader.
Conclusion
Each team has a specific purpose and, when nurtured by the business leader and each other, they can thrive. The alignment is key but reporting into each other will bring control rather than alignment and therefore restrict potential. Long live aligned sales and marketing teams.