Do Sales and Marketing need to sleep in the same bed?

Are the sales and marketing functions really so different that they need to sleep together in order to understand each others' perspectives?

Perhaps there needs to be better communication and better understanding of each others' metrics, but I'm not so sure that the sales-marketing alignment gap is so broad that these two functions don't at least understand the importance of the other's objectives--even if they are slightly different. Sure, marketing and sales each have their own charters, planning time horizons and compensation models but does that mean they have no empathy or care for the other? Does that mean that one will pursue its own agenda without consideration of the other reaching its objectives?

If the larger goals of the organization are not understood and adopted by every functional department then I suggest there is a much deeper management failure rather than a simple sales-marketing gap.

Does this sound like any organizations you know?

According to research,

70 to 80% of the leads generated by marketing are never followed up

Only 29% of a salesperson's time is actually spent selling

80% of sales support experts are regularly used inappropriately

80 to 90% of marketing collateral is considered useless by sales

Salespeople typically spend 30 to 50 hours per month searching for information and re-creating customer-facing content

80 to 90% of customer-facing content created by salespeople is inaccurate and dilutes the brand

More than 80% of marketing and salespeople cannot consistently and effectively articulate their value propositions

If this is true, how are companies addressing these issues to correct this problems? More importantly, do companies even recognize that these issues exist? Obviously these facts represent a huge waste of resources and greatly reduce marketing and selling effectiveness.

Source: Escaping the Black Hole: Minimizing the Damage from the Marketing-Sales Disconnect by Robert J. Schmonsees

Great quotes on building powerful brands

"Funding tactics without maximum return almost ensures failure. Achieving alignment from vision to tactics across all stakeholder groups results in a strategic advantage for brands. This alignment affects everything that touches customers in a way that helps them understand the value of the brand."
- Blueprint for the Brand, Rowe, Franck and Lang, Medical Marketing and Media, New York: Feb. 2006, Vol. 41, Iss. 2.

"A good brand planning process relies on four internal objectives:

1) Building transparency and visibility into assumptions and the decision-making process

2) Developing a comprehensive understanding of market dynamics

3) Grounding assumptions in the product life cycle and

4) Using ROI to drive tactics selection and to monitor performance."
Copyright Haymarket Media, Inc. Feb 2006