Marketing and Sales. The eternal problem

It is obvious by now that the commercial success of any company is based on the balance and integration of the sales and marketing departments. However, I was struck by what a friend and Sales Manager of a multinational company linked to the world of fashion told me. My good friend told me how the sales department was becoming less and less responsible for the turnover, that is, for the sale of the company’s products. A bit distressed and hurt, he told me that if the company’s marketing strategy was unsuccessful, even if the salesperson was of great professional quality, he could only “place” products that he would pay dearly for, since they would have no outlet, with the consequent problem of stocks without rotation in the market.

The eternal problem was served, Who is to blame for the ills of the company, the marketing or the sales? This, which at first glance may seem only a problem of business organization, is what happens to hundreds of subsidiaries of transnationals, which apply global marketing to different countries that have absolutely nothing to do with each other, for example, a button; the dull and sad colors in accessories and fashion in the Nordic countries, as opposed to the joy and the joy of the Mediterranean area.

I have to conclude, therefore, that the sales manager who succeeds in merging marketing and sales will have achieved 90% of success. However, it is clear that marketing must evolve in all companies to be a local marketing, where you can really meet the needs of consumers in a particular area, without reaching the big mistake of wanting to “put” in the same bag to people totally different in their tastes and their way of understanding the world. Otherwise, the sales team will be less and less responsible for the company’s commercial trajectory.

On the other hand, the opposite must be taken into account, i.e. when there is a good marketing plan and the sales network is not up to the task, this is just as negative. When a sales team, due to lack of training or other problems, does not know how to convey what it wants to sell, it is usually a brake on the structural development of the company in question.

What happens in traditional companies can also be transferred to the Internet world and its latest generation marketing. We have to make strategies based on what the Internet user wants to satisfy his needs and sell him this menu with professionalism and good arts.

I think that little by little we all have to feel like a company and that coordination and harmony is something natural in the departments of the companies; yes, I say coordination and harmony because sales and commerce, electronic or not, is also an art.

As for my friend’s problem, I don’t know whose fault it is in his specific case, but in any case, if I were him I would try to make pastel tones and light beiges prevail over grays and hunting greens for next spring.