Many large corporations structure their marketing departments so they are directly integrated with all lines of business.[8] They create multiple teams with a singular focus and the managers of these teams must coordinate efforts in order to drive profits and business success. For example, an "inbound" focused campaign seeks to drive more customers "through the door", giving the sales department a better chance of selling their product to the consumer. A good marketing program would address any potential downsides as well.
The sales department would aim to improve the interaction between the customer and the sales facility or mechanism (example, website) or salesperson. As Sales is the forefront of any organization, this would always need to take place before any other business process may begin. Sales management would break down the selling process and then increase the effectiveness of the discrete processes as well as the interaction between processes. For example, in many out-bound sales environments, the typical process includes outbound calling, the sales pitch, handling objections, opportunity identification, and the close. Each step of the process has sales-related issues, skills, and training needs, as well as marketing solutions to improve each discrete step, as well as the whole process. In many cases becoming a salesperson is a default career as not many people aspire to be a salesman but rather fall into the job due to circumstances. It can be highly rewarding as you receive remuneration in the form of a salary and also commission.
One further common complication of marketing involves the inability to measure results for a lot of marketing initiatives. In essence, many marketing and advertising executives often lose sight of the objective of sales/revenue/profit, as they focus on establishing a creative/innovative program, without concern for the top or bottom lines – a fundamental pitfall of marketing for marketing's sake.
Many companies find it challenging to get marketing and sales on the same page.
The two departments, although different in nature, handle very similar concepts and have to work together for sales to be successful. Building a good relationship between the two that encourages communication can be the key to success – even in a down economy.