Is it Possible to Improve the Relationship between Marketing and Sales?

摘要

Functional cooperation between marketing and sales should be the basic element in all market-oriented companies. This paper investigates the fundamental instruments and tools how to foster the relationship between marketing and sales departments. The authors begin with a review of existing literature in order to gain an overall picture of the respective field. Subsequent qualitative research is based on in-depth expert interviews with midlevel managers. Middle management representatives and their subordinates must interact with the opposite department on a daily basis. Sixty expert interviews reveal that respondents evaluate their relationship with the other department mostly as functional in the way that the common goals are always reached. Research results have shown that the most functional interconnecting elements are the organizational culture that promotes cross-functional communication and information exchange between the representatives of both departments. Very beneficial are common goals, cross functional teams and an open data sharing culture. Effective cooperation should be always endorsed by the top management. At the end, several managerial implications are developed.