Comments on: Sales Is Still from Mars and Marketing Is Still from Venus

By: Scott Mersy

Scott Mersy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:57:18 +0000

Fun stuff! You’re definitely right that there will always be a gap (maybe not quite Venus/Mars sized) between the personalities drawn to sales and those to marketing. However, there’s more hope than ever for a “meet me on Earth” (halfway?) understanding between the two.

How? Sales 2.0. The new edition of Sales 2.0 for Dummies is coming out soon and has lots of great information about how Marketing helps Sales drive better results. Genius.com CEO David Thompson also gives a webinar about marketing that truly works for sales. See http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/search/Marketing%20Automation%20Summit/status/upcoming?page=1 for the Marketing Automation Summit on BrightTalk.

By: Stevie D

Stevie D — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:44:31 +0000

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works but when I saw this, my first thoughts were:-

Yawn…

Another stereotypical, NA centric piece of “quality” that whilst proclaiming to be funny, is written from such an obvious point of view, I wonder just what the purpose is. ?

Just what value is there in perpetuating the myth that just because it goes on in your sphere of knowledge, (hint) that must be what happens elsewhere.

As a point of fact, outside the USA, many many thousands of companies “get this” already… and have moved on.

There - I’ve said it. The piece is not funny, or even true.

(rotten fruit ready to throw)

By: Mike Pilcher

Mike Pilcher — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:57:38 +0000

This is amusing, though I believe Sales and Marketing are actually coming together, perhaps not voluntairily, however all the kicking and screaming in the world is not going to stop it. We are seeing Marketing taking over tasks in the sales process that used to be handled by Sales, for example the first meeting has been completely replaced by the web site. SEO and SEM is replacing endless cold-calling. We see Sales performing tasks that should be handled by Marketing, creating content and positioning during the sales process. As we see Marketing move further down the funnel and Sales being forced to follow process due to the implementation of SalesForce Automation systems I believe you will see Sales and Marketing working very closely together. The leading indicator, which I am already seeing is Sales becoming part of the Marketing department, and vice versa. When you start to see that as a regular situation, you will see the canary in the coal mine that will indicate the change.

By: Leigh Anne Wallace

Leigh Anne Wallace — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:32:29 +0000

I absolutely love the form of communication. I have to say sometimes sales encourages other members of the company to join in the yelling ;).