Sales and Marketing are two sides to the same coin, but often find themselves at odds with one another. This post discussed some reasons why the marketing team hates the sales team. Now, we’ll look at why the sales team hates the marketing team right back!
Sales hates Marketing because they feel like Sales does all the work and Marketing doesn’t help
The job of the sales team is to generate leads for the business and close deals. Sales reaches out, makes contact, follows up, and stays in constant communication with customers & potential customers. The sales team is constantly bombarded with calls, texts, and emails at all hours of the day. Meanwhile, the marketing team seldom has direct contact with people outside of the company, but get mad at Sales when they can’t close deals. Sales specialists often feel like marketing professionals have no idea what really goes on when it comes to selling a product or service, and don’t appreciate their efforts.
Sales hates Marketing because they feel like Marketing is pretentious
Nearly every professional marketer has at least one degree in business to get their foot in the door, while a successful sales professional needs nothing more than the right personality and a drive for success. This can be a source of contention between the teams. Sales feels like Marketing looks down their noses at them for possibly not having a similar level of education instead of noticing the dedication they put into their careers. Marketers get disgruntled that they spent so much time and money to get a degree just to get paid less than Sales, without understanding how hard Sales works to secure their commission. Sales also notices many of the things Marketing learned in school are unworkable in the real world, but are patronized when they try to bring this up in meetings. Instead of listening to the people who are out there everyday talking to leads, Marketing leans on outdated practices they learned in 1993. This leaves Sales feeling like Marketing is a pretentious “club” where they’ll never be taken seriously, despite their track record of success.
Sales hates Marketing because they think marketers don’t understand how hard they work
Marketing involves a lot of time sitting at desks, looking at data, and doing research. All that time spent behind the scenes can make marketers suspicious of sales reps. They tend to think that the sales team has a cushy job where they get to enjoy dinner, drinks, and travel around talking to people, caring about nothing but their commission. Little do they know the immense stress Sales is under to make good impressions, sell products & services, hook leads, meet quotas, communicate with clients, and learn the latest marketing campaign. It’s often left to Sales to network and build the reputation of the business. Sales feels like Marketing doesn’t understand how hard they really work and how many hours they put in to make the company successful.
Sales hates Marketing because they feel that they market things they cannot sell or implement
The sales team can get incredibly frustrated with the marketing team when they feel like the marketers don’t understand the customers. Since Marketing has little contact with potential customers & clients, they don’t really understand what exactly they need. Someone may contact a sales rep because they saw an ad online, then realize after talking to Sales that it would be impractical to their business or out of their budget. Sales also could be working with a lead that wants just one or two things, but Marketing has it wrapped up into a bundle, and the lead doesn’t want all of the extras. The time spent with these dead ends could have been spent pursuing better leads, costing both the company and the sales rep. In a way, it’s kind of like fishing with a net instead of with specific bait. Sometimes the sales team feels like Marketing casts out a net to grab whatever they can instead of using certain bait to catch quality leads.
Sales hates Marketing because they don’t understand what Marketing does
The feud between sales and marketing departments has been raging for many years across many industries, and a lot of that can be attributed to not understanding what the other department does. Just like how Marketing tends to assume Sales is all about commission instead of providing a service to the customer, Sales thinks Marketing is all about how everything looks and not about growing the business. They get frustrated with the fancy ad campaigns and flashy websites that Marketing designs without understanding that the marketing team is using data and research to create them. Marketing is more than just support to a sales team; they’re in charge of the public image of the company. It falls on the shoulders of the marketing department to study historical financial data, keep up with current events, track trends, and stay up to date on the industry. When Sales fails to meet their quota, it falls back on the shoulders of Marketing for making a failed campaign. Even though it may seem like Marketing just hangs out in offices all day, they’re actually working diligently with a strategy in mind.
Even though the war between Sales and Marketing will probably continue until the end of time, both sides need to realize they’re at fault. A business can’t be successful without both, and they need to work together for that success to come to fruition. While friendly rivalry is always a fun motivator for teams, full-on hostility is detrimental not only to the teams, but to the entire business. It’s easy to become defensive when one feels their livelihood is being attacked, but it’s imperative to look beyond that and see the bigger picture. Ask questions. Learn from one another. Instead of jumping to conclusions and leaning on assumptions, take the time to actually listen.
