Disputes between departments in the commercial area could create more internal than external competition.

Generally, in big B2C companies, the sales team lives closer to the marketing one, due to the constant sales promotions, promoters, brand ambassadors, marketing collaterals, etc. On the other hand, in B2B companies it is quite common to have a smaller sales team with a high technical profile. The amount of available information about these markets is narrow, and the marketing department depends a lot on the sales team to get to know the client. Even though the relationship between the two departments could be complicated to manage, splitting a company in two only increases the lack of understanding on both sides.

When sales and marketing struggle with each other, they can go in opposite directions and potentially harm the company. On one hand, sales struggles with marketing, wishing for less shallow communication. On the other hand, marketing struggles with sales, wanting them to have a more global vision, to use better advertising techniques and to avoid old fashioned communication. The strategic points of view between them are different.

Most of the time it seems that they are having a crisis in a long-term marriage. They help each other as best as they can, they have a history together, share a lot of commonalities, but indeed, they are only thinking of themselves without understanding the other department’s goals.

Both marketing and sales have the mission of providing a good relationship with the client, so why don’t they use these skills with each other? The marketing professionals could use their knowledge to seduce the internal client. Trying to understand their history, their motivations, desires, and needs. It is not a matter of attending to any single wish of sales, but being a department that could be more humble – admitting that sales has a lot of knowledge. At the same time, marketing can make the sales team think outside the box.

Surely, in this interdepartmental fight, there are no winners, only losers. The only result of an ongoing war between sales and marketing is to turn the market into a blind spot.

Silvia Oshiro
Marketing Communications Manager
& BRains Co-Founder