Sales vs. Marketing: Can't We All Just Get Along?

In the A/E/C industry, we know that marketing and sales play very different roles within the organization. Given the industry restrictions and public work guidelines, sales staff are often times completely separated from marketing in much of what we do. But when these two important departments work together, there is often conflict. Let’s take a look at what is at the root of this disconnect, and how both sales representatives and marketers can work together more effectively to get to the finish line – making the sale and retaining our customers.

To get a better understanding of each department’s role in the A/E/C industry, first we need to more accurately define who is responsible for what. Our sales (or business development) teams will primarily work with private-sector clients, using more traditional business development, relationship-based marketing tactics. Our marketing teams are more focused on proposal and presentation development for our public-sector clients and rarely, if ever, are in a client-facing role; however, we need to have a deep understanding of who our clients are and what they are looking for in order to be successful in our role.

When marketing and sales collaborate together in this industry, it often leads to conflict in that one, or both, lack the understanding of the other’s contribution to the project. Regardless of specific market goals and sales percentage, both departments provide a valuable service and are both essential to the firm as their main objective is to secure work for the firm, providing work for employees across our footprint.

To counteract this disconnect, marketers and sales representatives need to work collaboratively to reachthe firm’s overarching goals – we need to see thebigger picture rather than only what is in front of us. Every client we work with, on either front, is an opportunity to grow our footprint and expand our business into new markets and services. Regardless of the industry any particular client is in, we need to have a strong brand identity that resonates across markets. Marketing needs to gain buy-in from sales on our messaging, and sales needs to get buy-in from marketing on how we are targeting these potential clients.

Given sales’ more consistent face-to-face interaction with our clients, we as marketers should lean on them to gain valuable insight into what our clients upcoming needs are and any shifts in perspective happening within their organization creating a new need we can help them fill. Sales should lean on marketing to help them understand the history of each client and what kind of work we have successfully pursued with them in the past, and also to understand any new target markets we are positioning for to effectively build those relationships.

Marketing and sales are both key to any firm’s success, and if we can learn to effectively work together, the possibilities are endless.