We see many companies still suffering from the traditional struggle between the marketing silo and the sales silo inside their businesses. Is this happening in your firm? It doesnt have to be that way. Frequently, marketing and sales spend too much time and energy competing with each other for resources and a CEOs attention, as opposed to taking a more enlightened approach: focusing on integrating their efforts in order to optimize the companys overall revenue growth.

Why is this traditional rivalry so acute in so many businesses today? Well for one thing, part of the root cause stems from the fact that salespeople and marketing often come up through different tracks of the company and are taught different skill sets. Another reason is because they often vie for the same budget resources. As a result, sales and marketing people are sometimes suspicious of each other and view themselves as competitors. Salespeople believe that sales are the only solution for generating more revenue, and often times complain about sales lead quality or promotional program effectiveness. On the other hand, marketing people feel that they provide a much more efficient means for capturing new customers at a lot lower cost, than salespeople.

What most companies fail to understand is the integration of marketing and sales can be a very powerful tool for transforming your companys business.

If your company is looking to try to integrate its marketing and sales department, you need to start by hiring or recruiting marketing and sales leadership that takes an enlightened, holistic approach to the two disciplines and can integrate the interests of both into a single well-optimized function inside your company. Finding marketing and sales talent at the executive level that understands both disciplines is not an easy task for the reasons that I mentioned before. Its often difficult to find someone who has both marketing and sales backgrounds, but its essential.

One way to find someone who has a strong marketing and sales background is to recruit people who have international sales and marketing experience. Why? People whove worked in international sales and marketing often have been forced to take a much more generalist view of integrating those two functions than their counterparts who work in North American sales/marketing. Finding a talented individual who has a broader, more global view can provide a tremendous boost to your company, in terms of improving its ability to optimize its marketing and sales spending. When integrated properly, the workflows between the two departments and efficiencies that can be gained will drive more sales leads in your door and more revenue to your top line.

So if your company has a problem with silos between marketing and sales, think about finding new enlightened leadership that can take a more holistic approach. Also, consider cross-pollinating and cross-training different people by rotating salespeople into your marketing department and vice versa, so that they can develop a greater appreciation and experience on the other side of the fence from where they traditionally have worked. This will help you to improve integration and team building between those two groups within your company, and make you a lot more effective.